How long should a water heater last?

[DIYourselfer]

I have a John Wood gas 50 gallon 40,000 BTU water heater that was manufactured in 1988 and installed in March of 1992 in my house. I bought the house 5 years ago and the sticker on the water heater lists the install date and no service calls since.
Am I pushing my luck? Should I just go ahead and replace it before it starts leaking or does it have a few more years. What is the normal life of one of these things?

[canoebuilder]

The standard saying is if its got a 5 year warrentee on it it will last 5 years and one day.
But seriously, the life of a water heater depends on many factors, quality of water being the major one, and maintainance, such as draining them out, once in a while.
I would have imagined that yours has been serviced or even repaired at some point, with no sticker put on it, but if it were me and I saw one on sale NOW, I would pick it up, but, continue to use the one you got until it has major problem.
Gerry

[596]

I have not seen anyone publish statistics on the average life of a gas WH. If I had to guess, I would say 12 to 15 years. Naturally, so go less, and some go longer. You are right in the average area at about 16 years. If you are not experiencing a lot of noise when running ( indicates mineral buildup) or any problems with water temp issues, and the heater is not located where if it did leak, it would cause major damage, then I would not necessarily run out and replace it.

I let mine go about 18 years, and recently replaced it "just because". Othere folks in my condo complex had to replace leaking tanks years eariler, and I know of at least 2 which are still original, and now at about 20 years old.

[LazyPup]

About a year ago Consumer Reports magazine published the results of an extensive survey and they said the across the board average was 12yrs.

On the other hand, the longest lasting water heater that I am personally familiar with was a Rheem AUI-40 gas fired glass lined 40gal tank in my mothers house. Last year we elected to replace it because the draft hood was almost completely rusted away although there still was no sign of a leak and it was producing plenty of hot water. While removing that tank I found the note that my dad had written on it saying that Dad and I had installed it in 1964.

[JackRafter]

44 years sounds like a good run to me!

[596]

Sometime aroun 1999 I was working in a cottage that had a solid copper WH which I believed dated from pre-WWII.