My electric water heater is 9 years old and keeps needing repairs — replace it, and with what?
Our electric storage water heater (the tank in the bathroom ceiling void) is around 9 years old, and it's becoming a money pit — new element last year, thermostat the year before, and now the breaker trips when it heats. Each fix is cheap-ish on its own, but they're adding up and I've lost trust in it.
So two questions:
- Where's the line between "keep repairing" and "replace"? Is there an age or a symptom where you just stop throwing money at it?
- If I replace it, storage tank again or a smaller instant/tankless one? And what size for a 2-bathroom apartment? I don't want to over- or under-buy.
Trying to make one sensible decision rather than pay for a fourth repair in six months. What would you do?
4 answers
Quick answer: at 9 years, with the breaker now tripping, replace it — don't repair again. A repeated earth-leakage trip on a water heater usually means the element is breaking down inside and leaking current into the water, which in a wet area is a genuine shock risk, not just an inconvenience.
The decision rule I give people: a storage water heater in the UAE typically lasts 8–10 years, and once the tank itself is that age and you're on your third repair, you're maintaining a unit that's near the end regardless. Elements and thermostats are worth fixing on a 3–4-year-old heater; on a 9-year-old one they're just postponing the tank failing (and a failed tank means a ceiling-void flood, exactly the hidden leak nightmare).
Storage vs instant: for a 2-bathroom apartment where two showers can run close together, a storage tank (a right-sized one) is usually the safer choice — instant/tankless units need a lot of instantaneous power and can struggle to supply two hot outlets at once on a typical apartment supply. Instant shines for a single point of use (a guest WC, a kitchen). Size: roughly a 50-litre tank per bathroom in regular use is a sane starting point; a family that showers back-to-back wants more.
When to call a pro: a tripping heater is a stop-using-it-now job — switch it off at the isolator and get a licensed plumber to size and fit the replacement with a fresh isolator and safety valve, rather than nursing the old one through another summer.
From the electrical side — the tripping is the part I'd act on today. A heater that trips its RCD when it heats is almost always a failed element leaking to earth. On a newer heater I'd just swap the element; on a 9-year-old one, Yusuf's right, replace the unit. Whatever you do, don't "solve" a tripping heater by moving it onto a circuit without earth-leakage protection — I see that bodge and it removes the one thing protecting you from a shock in the shower. New heater, new isolator, proper protection.
Replaced two of these in my villa last year. One practical tip: while the plumber has it down, get them to check the safety/pressure-relief valve and the isolator and fit a drip tray with a drain if there's a room below. The heaters themselves aren't expensive; the ceiling and the flat below are what cost you if an old tank lets go. Nine years and three repairs — I wouldn't gamble another summer on it.
Slightly the opposite problem, but if you're already up in the tank room for the hot-water side: a lot of people don't realise the COLD tap runs scalding in summer because the rooftop tank and cold lines bake in the sun. Insulating the tank fixes both the daily annoyance and the scalding risk, and it's worth doing at the same time as any water-heater work while someone's already up there.
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