Bradford White MI40T6FBN-394 40 Gallon Natural Gas Water Heater

Purchased this exact model from the local reputable plumber and had them install it. 6 year warranty, just found the dreaded puddle under the tank 4 months after the warranty expired. I did call the plumber about 2 years ago to change the anode, and he refused the job because he said he gets too many complaints about water smelling bad afterward due to a chemical reaction. I was going to change it myself but they soldered the pipes and I wasn't about to cut my water lines. I had been draining sediment periodically. So this might partially be my fault for not changing the anode. But c'mon, 4 months after the warranty? And you read a lot of other people have the same timing. Too many other brands to try, going to try something else. I have relatives with rental properties and they bought cheap menards and fleet farm tanks, those have not failed yet in 15 years.

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This water heater was already installed when I closed on my house. Less than two weeks later I had a plumber replacing the computer control unit (about $300 part) as the pilot light would not stay lit. Based on the serial number the water heater was approximately 18 months old. Less than 3 months later and I'm having to call a plumber again for the same issue. Since the replacement I've had to reset the pilot once every couple of weeks or so; in the last week it's been daily, and now I'm lucky if it stays lit long enough to generate enough hot water for a shower. Great capacity and it works well when it actually DOES work, but there's no reason for a water heater to have a computer control unit. This part seems designed to fail, and as I don't have the original paperwork (not provided by the previous owner) Bradford White refused to honor the warranty. Thankfully the home warranty company is covering most of the cost, and hopefully they'll replace this garbage with something of quality.

We're on our second Bradford White water heater in 6 years. (They replaced the first one for us for free.) The second one has now started leaking after only about 4 years. These things don't last more than a few years. NOT worth your money.

The Bradford White 40-gallon Natural Gas water heater was a giant leap forward in efficiency since our previous model gave out. Our last water heater was of the same brand but more than 10 years old. Let me quickly explain the house and my family. We, my Mom, little sister, visiting older sister and myself live in a town house on Staten Island, NY which was built economically. There are 5 floors, including the entry hallway and basement, to compensate for the house being slim and is located at the end of the the line of connected houses. At the moment we do not have a dishwasher installed but will in time. There is one shower/bath, three faucets, two of those faucets being in two separate bathrooms. Temperature control comes from in-wall air conditioners located in three rooms. Heating, however, comes from baseboard heaters which are located throughout the whole house. Which the only time we would use it is during the late Fall, Winter and early Spring seasons. Unfortunately I cannot give my opinion on how it operates when the colder seasons roll around but will at a later date. This water heater was purchases within a few days of the last one breaking down. Now when I found this out I did research to figure out the best possible brand and model to go with. What I learned in the my experience of all of this I will share with you. First off if you are going to buy a tankless water heater make sure it is natural gas and consult with your distributor because it's efficiency will depend on the number of water-run utilities in your house. Second is that a higher price water heater does not always mean you will get more bang for your buck. The Bradford White water heater we bought is an updated version of our old model. Same water capacity and operating in the same space the old one was in with no insulating wrap. It is located within a large pantry sized room next to the washer/drier so it does not lose too much heat due to convection if you compare it to a unit located in a lower level such as the basement which can collect cold air. The most noticeable improvement was the temperature of the water and the return rate of hot water once its been used. Recently I tested it by doing a load of laundry with the water temp. on hot while the shower was running. There was no lack of hot water with either. Now this could be different had the faucets been running and if there was a dishwasher installed but within exceptionally high limits the Bradford White water heater outperforms my own expectations being listed as a much lower priced compared to the high costing units I researched. The last feature is the Honeywell ICON system which is a highly efficient turn dial temperature control system which runs on Millivolts that is generated from the heat of the pilot light and requires no outside electrical source. Many of the older water heaters had pilot lights which would would die out for one reason or another and required you to manually relight it with a match or lighter. This device has a way to restart it with the touch of a button, somewhat. You need to set the turn dial on Pilot, press it down, while pressing down the square button beneath until you hear the flame rekindle and you see the LED light on the front of the ICON system blink. While the pilot light is on the light will continue to flicker every few seconds which will indicate its activity and can be used to troubleshoot other problems that might arise. NOTE: There are about 7 settings to the new and improved temperature control ICON system (by Honeywell) that is installed with this unit. You can manually change the red turn dial between Low, Low-Hot, Hot, Hot A, Hot B, Hot C, and Very Hot to find the right temperature for you. I RECOMMEND NOTHING PAST HOT B AS IT WILL SCALD YOU AND EITHER GIVE YOU SERIOUS BURNS AND/OR KILL YOU. Seriously this water heater can create some hot water and the only time you should be going towards Hot B is for the cooler times of the year when the water will lose heat through the walls and uninsulated pipes. You can learn more about the Honeywell ICON system here: [...] What you might be looking for is how this unit performs under heavy demands such as all the faucets running, shower/bath going, dishwasher in use etc. but the truth is the times this would be happening is few and far between. For the house we live in and the times we have water-run utilities operating at the same time this works very well for our uses and is expected to last well beyond the 6-year warranty it comes with. There is an optional 10 year but we decided to go with 6 in case we move or convert to a tankless water heater. This was installed two weeks ago and has since done wonders for our household. I will between 6 to 12 months from now give an updated evaluation on its performance at that time. My hope is that this review has helped you in some way and that again you understand that more money doesn't always equal more performance and less sometimes does just as well.

Tank started leaking after 6 years and now the entire heater will nead to be replaced. Why do companies design cheap products with designed obsolescense?