Best Residential Water Heater - Bradford vs Rheem and AO Smith - Twin Plumbing

We moved in our 1960s house in 1990. We called a young plumber who was just starting out in his own company. This was one of his first water heater installs. He put in an A O Smith. Flash forward 32 years and I try to replace a corroded anode bar that was clanging inside the tank but it broke off. So I dig out my paperwork from 1990 and call the same plumber, and now he is an old man and getting ready to retire this year but he will go ahead and install another A O Smith as one of his last projects. Lol.

This is so obviously a commercial for Ferguson and Bradford White. I’ve had a Rheem for 15 years, never had a problem with it.

This wasn't a review. It was a Bradford white commercial

I have a AO Smith 40 gallon electric water heater installed July of 1992! This July 15th it will be 29 years old. I already bought it’s replacement. At 28 I am not waiting for it to leak to replace it. Hello from north east Montana. 10 miles from the Canadian border.

I have lived in my house for almost 35 years. House already had a soft water system installed. I was only getting about 7 years out of each water heater. I think the small amount of sodium in the water from the water conditioner led to lower tank life. My last water is a AO Smith from Ferguson plumbing supply. But I also installed a powered anode which is a permanent replacement for the sacrificial anode. Water heater is now 11 years old and looks brand new. Absolutely no corrosion on any fittings. Powered anode is highly recommended.

One of the main keys to having a water heater last is to have a regular routine of replacing the anode rod, we replace ours every 3 years and our water heater is 25 years old and runs like new, we also flush it once a year. Those warranties on the water heaters are all based on the life of the anode rod(s) because once they go then your water heater is not to far behind

Crazy. Had a Rheem for 12 years. Never had an issue. Never been serviced. Never been flushed. Has worked beautifully. Upgrading this week. Going with a Rheem.

Thanks, guys my heater is old, thinking of replacing it. You helped me make up my mind, got an estimate and the Bradford White was by far the most expensive, but you get what you pay for. So we now have four thumbs up.

2 years back I had to replace my water heater, which ran for 16 years never had any issues, until one day it blew up and water leaked all over the place. This was replaced by Rheem from Home Depot, what a mistake! I had such a bad experience with the Rheem water heater, the unit stopped working after 2 weeks and their warranty repair was so poor! For over 2.5 months I had no hot water, after multiple plumbing companies attempting to repair it! They fix it and it will fail within a day or two. Finally Rheem agreed to replace it, which took lot of effort from my side to make it happen. I returned the unit to Home Depot and worked with their professional services to install Brandford White unit. So far this unit has been working fine without any issues.

Bought a Rheem Platinum water heater 13 years ago and had a ticketed plumber install it for $400.00 and still runs awesome, bought it from home depot with a 12 year warranty for $800.00, this to me is still worth it as it was $1,200.00 in total and still performing exellent with no problems. The previous one I had was a rental that was old and not efficient at all as we had for 25 years, we added the receipts up $90.00 every 3 months x 4 = 1 year = $360.00 x 25 years = $9000.00 in rental charges and you dont even own it. I will never rent again, what a scam and not to mention a hassle just trying to return the rental one. So if this one blows up I have no problem just buying another one as this would probably be the last one I would need to buy.

Years ago I installed a Bradford-White for a lady in the desert, thermostat/gas valve assembly was defective, B/W sent a whole new thermostat/gas valve assembly overnight to customers home, after calling their toll free customer service number! Had the water heater up and running in less than an hour! Lady had hot water 20 minutes later! Bradford-White is the only one I will ever use, great company! Thanks guys for all you do!

I bought a Bradford White natural gas 40 gallon shorty online and installed it myself not expecting any warranty and followed all the installation recommendations. Water pressure 60 psi check. Expansion tank installed check. Water quality check. Properly vented 4 inch to 6 inch vent pipe and passed vent hood flame test check. Incoming gas pressure manometer pressure check. Had one of those unreliable Honeywell gas valves with the blinking light from Hell. It quit after 2 years. Bought the updated gas valve with thermostat probe NOT in a plastic shell but naked metal on Amazon about 115 bucks. Still working OK after another 3 years. I don’t see any great improvement of BW over the other heaters in this “comparison”. They are all more the same than different.

It should be noted that the AO Smith in the big box store is different than the AO Smith from a reputable supply house. The parts are different and the weight of the tank is heavier at the supply house. Warrantee repair parts are obtained through an 800 number with the big box rendition where the parts are readily available at a reputable supply house for the actual contractor-grade AO Smith.

My AO Smith is 20 years old still running strong no issues. 20 yrs for 379.00 is not bad .

had some psychic vibes coming outta the HWH I installed about 10 years ago by yours truly. told wifey it needed replacing , went with Bradford due to this video, well noticed a small leak when retrieving crap the fell behind the dryer last week, new unit installed yesterday. great install. very clean, yeah ! not cheap but well done.

Love the video and hearing the different experience/reviews of each brand from all three of them.

I personally have a Rheem and never had issues with it but working for a plumbing company I’ve noticed most of our customers do have more issues with Rheem. Usually they stop working within the first couple of years while they are under warranty and they do take a while to send in parts or resolve an issue. By the way thank you guys for very useful information.

I have a Rheem 40 galllon tank and a water softener. I've had it for 39 months. I called a plumber to replace the anode, he pulled the cap on the anode, and felt moisture, he said it the tank is probably already corroding and refused to replace the anode. He wanted to sell me a new water heater. What I've saw in "this old house" is that you should replace the anode after two or three years because it can somehow corrode and be too hard to take out. My plan now is to replace the anode myself, and if I can't get the old one out, or if the new one won't seat without leaks, replace it. I don't think this will be covered by warranty. Update. I replaced the anode myself. It was easy, the old anode was corroded but still had a lot left. I bought the new anode with a socket that fit for $25 on Amazon. The old anode came out easy. In hindsight I think the plumber either was 1) trying to sell me a new set up or was 2) was afraid of taking responsibility for my old one if he worked on it.

I have a good old GE 40 gallon gas water heater bought 22 years back. It was installed by a licensed plumber - he probably ordered from a plumbing supply store. No leaks the past 22 years just a couple of occasions drips near the tank bottom and stopped quickly. Never figured out what it was. Replaced thermocouple once a few years back. Water comes out nice and hot now. Probably tons of sediments and rust inside tank as I haven't flushed tank since 6 years ago and now toilet bowl turns brown every 2 months and I need to bleach the bowl area regularly. With current high prices and all the failures w Honeywell part in new water heaters etc. there doesn't seem to be a guaranteed success getting a new gas water heater unit. So just keep the old faithful GE gas water heater - flush the tank and replace with new anode, and it can keep going for another 10 years - So I'll have spare time to wait til' water heater price comes down perhaps? Or, anyone knows a place to buy these old style gas water heater from 20 years back with no fancy electronics and non-essential controls - just simple turn knob control to adjust temperature and thermocouple? Fewer parts mean fewer troubles.

Have had a Bradford and White 50gal tank for 11 years and love it. Never any issues and will soon replace it with a new one. This video gave a great explanation of the differences. THANKS