When do you change water heater?

[Al Pat]

I have been contemplating this myself for a while. Every time when I have a midnight emergency, its about leaky water heater that is about 6+ years old. Do you wait to replace water heater till it fail or you have a system of replacing it when it is about 6-7 years old to avert an emergency and treat it more like a planned maintenance? On the other hand, some of my units are still going strong after 11 years with the old water heaters. The ones that are failing were put in service by me about 5-6 years ago. Some must have changed in how they make them these days, but I don't like getting these calls, I rather do it on my own schedule before it fails. How do you all with multiple properties deal with this for peace of mind? I have multiple properties so, will have to plan carefully.

[Charles Carillo]

@Al Pat

In my experiences, most hot water heater will last 2-3 years longer than the warranty. I had some hot water heaters with 6 year warranties that went to 10+ years. You will also have some that will have shorter lifespans. Make sure you always put the date of installation on the heaters and you can keep track on your own if you want in a spreadsheet as well. If you have a bunch of water heaters that are older, maybe speak to a plumber and get a deal on doing several at once. Years back when I was self-managing, we would recognize the older units and we would buy a dozen hot water heaters wholesale at once and install them.