I too have a gas GE water heater where water is leaking from the cold water input. No dielctric unions, and copper flex pipe going in. Mine's under warranty too, but it's a Home Depot special and the warranty is prorated. So basically I get $300 off the price of a new one. Think I got seven years out of this one, and it's been leaking for a little over one year (thank goodness for floor drains).

Thanks BR, if there is build up, would the water not be rusty if I drained it from the spigot at the bottom of the tank?
We are going to get a new one regardless, just curious as we do have alot of air in our water lines all over the house.

"Thanks BR, if there is build up, would the water not be rusty if I drained it from the spigot at the bottom of the tank? "

Not necessarily. The "sediment/etc" cooks into a crust, coating the bottom of the tank. This insulates the bottom (heated) surface of the tank from the water, wasting gas.

The clunking you hear is moisture boiling between the crust and the bottom of the tank underneath it. This boiling under the crust causes the noise.

And then the cold water enters the tank via the dip tube to the bottom of the tank and the cold water hits that extremely hot water/ lime and it grumbles.

The lime/ scale build up gets extremely hot, as it can't transfer the heat to the water very well. So you can run into 2 issues with lime build up. One being slow recovery/decreased efficiency, and two being over-shooting the t-stat setting. I have seen some water heaters where the lime content is above the gas control valve. So then it takes forever to get a call for heat because the lime stays hot longer. Then, once it gets a call for heat, it takes forever to satify the call, and by then the lime is extremely hot. The heat eventually makes its way to the water and becomes way to hot.

If your heater is ten years old Capn, it's time for it to go. I have however seen water heaters less than 1 yr old start making the "basement monster" noises.

Thanks for the great info guys. I now have a much better understanding of what is going on. Better get it replaced before it causes some damage in the basement.

What phil and 2suns said!
CM, If you need help with installing it let me know.

other than lime build-up and what not, I wouldn't discount the likelihood of the anode rod deteriorating and dropping pieces of itself off into the tank - when the heater fires up and the water starts moving around from the heat, many times these pieces will stir and bang around accelerating the anode's deterioration and possibly damaging the glass liner - IMO and I think dielectric unions are important/cheap insurance

Hey Capn and anyone else, I found out yesterday one manufacturer has 2 price increases planned for july 1 and sept 1 totaling around 25%. I'm not sure when you'll start to see those increases on the street. I'm also not sure about other manufacturers, but they are all kind of monkey see, monkey do.

So if your thinking about replacing a water heater, now might be the time.

Hey thanks 2Suns
I was wondering is it a safe bet that electric is possibly the way to go? With the cost of propane and natural gas going up tremendously?

Good Question. I'm not sure I'm qualified to give a concrete answer, as rates vary across the country.

http://www.erpud.com/comparison.htm

Plug in your current rates in the above chart for some guidance.

One thing to remember regardless of energy cost is rate of recovery. Strictly speaking residential- your average gas water heater is 40k BTU. Your average electric water heater is 4.5 Kw which equals roughly 15,400 BTU. Slightly less than half usable BTU's (80% of 40k on the gas). Recovery rates on electric water heaters are way slow.

As the youngest of three children, with the older two being girls, I can vouch that an electric water heater (even a 52 gallon one) can't recover like a gas heater!
But 2Suns is right, in our area, electric rates came up a bunch to kinda match gas.

Those cold showers may have done you some good...

At the lake we taught our kids to take "Navy" showers.
Get wet, turn off, soap up and shampoo, rinse. All four of us can take a shower in about an hours time.

But back on topic. I have a gas one and it recovers quickly.
The brand is General Electric as I recall, but the tank is actually made by Rheem. I have heard that Rheem makes the longest lasting tanks.

PH, I have done a Navy shower when in an unfamiliar or suspect hot water place (backwater marina or two come to mind).
Real funny thing, my BIL who is in the Navy, doesn't and didn't take "Navy showers" aboard the Nimitz!

I once bought the fancy stainless steel (or was it some other fancy metal?) heating elements for my hot water heater due to a lot of deposits in the water being really hard on the "standard" ones. It was supposed to help recovery time, but it didn't in my case.

Billyb,

There is a brand of elements called "Sand Hog" that are used for water with lots of minerals. They don't heat the water any faster but will last much longer.

I have used Muratic acid on water heater to clean them up and allow them to heat water quicker. Calcium is a great insulator ant that is what a lot of the deposits consist of around here.