Whats rustling your jimmies?

Haus said:

This also has me wondering, since a gas heater has a heating element (burner) outside the tank in that case there wouldn't be heating elements to replace would there? And no anode? So it would just be a flush to clear sediment?

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You should also test the TP valve on a water heater annually.

A basic gas model has an anode to help protect the tank and other metal parts. The tank is usually glass/enamel lined steel but the lining is the thickness of paper. Look on the top for a recessed nut that is 1-1/16". You may also see build up and rust around it as well as the fittings coming out of the tank. The water quality running through the tank is going to be a huge factor in determining how long the unit lasts, but 18 years without maintenance is basically a teenage dog, would not do surgery on it.

A basic gas unit has the flue running through the center and burner down below with a heat transfer surface sitting above the combustion chamber. There are high quality, high efficiency units that would have a stainless steel coil to do the heat transfer and a stainless steel tank which could eliminate an anode rod. It would look very different than a basic gas model with the flue coming out the top. The high efficiency would use PVC pipes for intake air and exhaust gas.

Rheem Marathon is an electric water heater with a plastic tank that is warrantied forever (tank only) if you perform the annual maintenance, just flushing it. No anode rod. Mike Holmes installed one in a horse barn in Canada. I have a split level house so I reframed the joists under the upper stairs and put the short version in the crawlspace. It almost fit with the top concealed in the 2x8 joist space but needed a couple more inches for the domed top and the fittings so I just routed a nice cutout in the floor for full access to the top. I can just tilt it to slip it in and out of the crawlspace. It reclaimed a lot of space in the half basement and rerouted all the plumbing for complete concealment.

Haus said:

When I redid our kitchen I had to relocate the sink and did the whole of it in pex for the hot and cold runs with sharkbites, including splicing it onto the existing copper stub pipes coming up out of the slab. I've also replaced bad/old toilet cutoff valves with Sharkbite versions. As mentioned, get the right cutting tools, clean and properly deburr your copper well and you should be fine. Fixed a split copper pipe in a wall in my mom's house by splicing in pex with sharkbites, also quick and easy to fix. All of it is holding great (*knocking on wood*)

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There is a stainless steel flex hose made for water heater installs with female NPT to SharkBite. Probably no faster DIY method to connect to existing plumbing.