Rheem hot water heater

[Jeff Sexton]

I have a Rheem 40-gallon gas hot water heater there are two combustion vent openings on each side of the hot water heater should they be totally clear or should you see insulation in the vents? I'm not sure if the foil backed insulation has dropped down from the top and is blocking the vents inside the hot water heater because the thermal device mechanism in the bottom of the hot water heater broke it's made of glass that tells me there's a venting problem the flow and chimney is clear everything is good with that please help

 

[Dj2]

Take a couple of photos and post them up here.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

if the glass Vial is broke in the unit ,, you have had a hot fire and the unit is toast....

 

[TownMan10]

Whack a couple of photos up and i'll see if i can offer any advice

 

[Jadnashua]

As I understand it, that glass vial is sort of like a fuse in an electrical circuit...things don't work after it is 'blown'.

 

[MACPLUMB]

How old is your heater if it is more than 4 or 5 years old you have to replace, on the older models Rheem did not have replacement parts

 

[Dj2]

A new Rheem WH should run without troubles for more than 4-5 years...unless it is defective from the factory.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

A new Rheem WH should run without troubles for more than 4-5 years...unless it is defective from the factory.

The average life we are getting out of Rheem heaters varies but usually they go 10 years
trouble free... We get calls from folks wondering if their leaking Rheem heaters
are still under warranty that we installed back in 2001... nope that is 16 years old. sorry