briankeal
New Member
I own a house in NC that I rent out. Resident was complaining of warm but not hot water and an odor coming from the water. The plumber that went out said the following:
Received call for bad odor emanating from hot water only. We flushed the water heater located in crawl space and removed large amounts of buildup from tank. Diminished 'anode rod' is likely the cause of bad odor, but we also found that even when thermostats set at 125 degrees water is only coming out luke warm. We would have to remove the water heater in order to install a new anode rod...then replace thermostats as well. It would be much more cost efficient to install a new 50 gallon electric water heater. Also remember, new regulations on water heaters will discontinue 50 gallon lowboys after next month. (You will not even be able to buy this heater in about two more weeks) If it goes out the homeowner would likely be forced to change over to a tankless water heater costing over double.
The diagnosis isn't my issue here, I haven't been able to find anything that says lowboys will be discontinued and I honestly dont think replacing would be a better choice, financially speaking. Could you all shed some light on the new regulations for me and let me know if this guy is being legit? I haven't found anything that says lowboys won't be available, only noticed energy regulations and efficiency. He wants to charge $400 for the tank, $550 for labor and then tax. The tank is in a crawl but there is plenty of room to work on the tank so I do t see that being an issue.
Received call for bad odor emanating from hot water only. We flushed the water heater located in crawl space and removed large amounts of buildup from tank. Diminished 'anode rod' is likely the cause of bad odor, but we also found that even when thermostats set at 125 degrees water is only coming out luke warm. We would have to remove the water heater in order to install a new anode rod...then replace thermostats as well. It would be much more cost efficient to install a new 50 gallon electric water heater. Also remember, new regulations on water heaters will discontinue 50 gallon lowboys after next month. (You will not even be able to buy this heater in about two more weeks) If it goes out the homeowner would likely be forced to change over to a tankless water heater costing over double.
The diagnosis isn't my issue here, I haven't been able to find anything that says lowboys will be discontinued and I honestly dont think replacing would be a better choice, financially speaking. Could you all shed some light on the new regulations for me and let me know if this guy is being legit? I haven't found anything that says lowboys won't be available, only noticed energy regulations and efficiency. He wants to charge $400 for the tank, $550 for labor and then tax. The tank is in a crawl but there is plenty of room to work on the tank so I do t see that being an issue.