Hot Water Heater Recommendation?

[winenotwhine]

I need to replace a worn out  40 gallon nat gas household water heater. The dip tube disintegrated on this one (State Industries) and it's not worth repairing. Any water heaters out there with more solid parts, easier to service etc. that might offer a little longer life?

I'm sticking with the nat. gas tank approach for now.

Tks.

[hvacdrd]

A.O.Smith, Bradford-White, and Rheem/Ruud have worked out well in our area. State Industries makes a ton of waterheaters under several names, usually sold at the local hardwares, Home Depot's and the like.

The dip tube problem you have was a reported problem 5-7 years ago, something to do with the plastic breaking down and falling into small pieces. I only ran into it twice, flushing the plastic out of the water lines was fun