The water heater brands we will and will not install

We get asked which brand is best more than almost anything else. The honest answer is that the brand matters less than the install and the maintenance, and anyone who tells you otherwise is usually selling a particular badge.

That said, we do have preferences, and here they are.

What we install and why

Bradford White

Our default recommendation for a tank replacement. Trade only, so you will not find it at a big box store, and generally better built than the retail brands. Fewer failures, and when they do fail it is usually the gas valve or the thermostat rather than the tank.

Rheem and A.O. Smith

The two largest names in American water heating, and both perfectly good. Parts availability is excellent, which genuinely matters: a repair held up three days waiting on a part is a real cost to you. Ruud and Richmond are Rheem under different badges, and State and Reliance are A.O. Smith, so the parts supply is wider than the brand count suggests.

Navien, Rinnai and Takagi, on tankless

All three are good machines. Rinnai and Takagi share engineering. Navien is strong on condensing and combi units. Whichever goes in, it needs isolation valves so it can be descaled, and in this water it needs descaling annually or the warranty is worth very little.

What we are cautious about

Retail badge units

Kenmore and similar are built under contract by other manufacturers, and which one varies. We read the data plate to find out who actually made it before ordering parts. Not bad units, just unpredictable ones.

Electric tankless, in most homes here

EcoSmart and Stiebel Eltron make genuinely good electric tankless units, and Stiebel Eltron in particular is well engineered. The problem is rarely the unit. It is that electric tankless has hard limits on simultaneous demand, and cold winter inlet water at Utah elevations makes those limits tighter. Excellent for a point of use application. Frequently disappointing as a whole house heater.

Whatever was cheapest, fitted by whoever was cheapest

This is the real answer to the brand question. We are called out to correct more bad installs than bad heaters. A premium tank fitted without an expansion tank, with poor venting and no pan, will fail before a mid range one fitted properly.

The brands we service regardless

Rheem, A.O. Smith, Bradford White, State, Ruud, Richmond, Lochinvar, Reliance and Kenmore on tanks. Navien, Rinnai, Takagi, EcoSmart and Stiebel Eltron on tankless. If yours is not on that list we almost certainly still work on it.

What actually decides how long yours lasts

In order: whether it was installed properly, whether the anode rod was ever replaced, whether it was flushed, and then the badge. The badge is fourth.

That ordering is why we would rather spend your money on doing the install correctly than on upgrading the unit. A gas replacement runs $2,100 to $3,250 fitted with us, and the venting, expansion tank and pan inside that number are what buy you the extra years.

If you are being quoted for a replacement and want a second opinion on whether you need one at all, that is what water heater repair in Ogden is for. Sometimes the answer is a $225 part.