Residential Water Heaters – A Comparison Between Brands

Residential Water Heaters - Comparing Different Brands of Water Heaters
Water heaters can be a confusing topic, and there is quite a bit of competition between the various water heater manufactures to get you to purchase their brand.

I thought I might take a look at the websites for the various manufacturers to see if there are significant differences between the various brands of residential hot water heaters. Water heaters are a commodity product. Basically they are a tank of water with either a gas burner under them or electric heating elements inside of them. There isn’t really much to differentiate the water heaters from one manufacturer to another, with a few exceptions.


Comparing Brands

In the coming weeks I’ll examine the features of the basic residential models like 40 gallon gas water heaters, 50 gallon heaters, 40 and 50 gallon electric water heaters and I’ll take a look at the energy efficient models as well. I’ll go through the list of manufactures in Alphabetical order, and I’ll also include tankless models if they are produced by that manufacturer.

The manufacturers I will compare are American, A.O. Smith, Bosch, Bradford White, G.E., Marathon, Noritz, Rheem, Rinnai, State Industries, Takagi, and others.

Previous article comparing some brands of tankless water heaters.


Gas water heaters

All gas water heaters (storage type) have a gas burner, tank, flue, thermostat, drain valve, insulation, pressure relief valve, anode rod, dip tube, gas valve, pilot light, thermocouple, and tank insulation. That’s pretty much it for any storage tank type water heater.

There may be some gas water heaters that do not use a standing pilot light, but ignite when the thermostat calls for heat. I know there are commercial units with that technology available, but I am not sure about residential units. I shall find out and report back.

More about gas water heaters.

Electric water heaters

All electric tank type water heaters have a tank, electric heating elements, high limit switch, one or two thermostats, drain valve, anode rod, pressure temperature relief valve, and dip tube.

Electric water heaters are all pretty efficient as far as converting electricity to heat energy, the main difference in electrics being the amount of standby loss.

More information about electric water heaters.


Heat pump water heaters

I'll also be examining heat pump water heaters as I run accross them. They are very efficient at heating water but are pricy. More about heat pump water heaters... Heat Pump Water Heaters


Miss-leading statements

When I see glaring errors or miss-leading statements on the web sites I may very well make note of them as well. I find it very irritating when web sites miss-lead the visitors.


Stay tuned, American water heaters is the first water heater product review I will do, and I should have it up by tomorrow…

Bill the Hot Water Guy