Bradford White Reviews

Moved into our brand new house with a Bradford White water heater in October 2021. Fast forward to December 2022 and we are having issues with our water heater. Keeps kicking the breaker in the water heater and having to reset it. Call their customer service warranty department and they will only pay for parts but no labor since it’s over a year old. Customer service lady gets an attitude because obviously they don’t care. Won’t let me speak to a supervisor and ends up just hanging up. Will never recommend this product or ever buy one.

I have two Bradford/White 40gal gas Powervent tanks at my residence that were initially installed by the builder in 2005. Since then I have had to replace each tank every 2-3 years due to leaking water. After recent failure of tank(s) and denial by Bradford/White to honor warranty, I asked for help from the City of Batavia, IL water department. Bradford /White customer service/lab began to blame tank failures on the water provided by the City of Batavia and lac of maintenance by me, the homeowner for their faulty tank design. I can tell you I regularly drained a bucket of water monthly from each tank spicket and annually drained/flushed each tank as well.

Ryan Homes development- Water Heater is 2-1/2 years old and have had to replace 2 elements and 2 thermostats. Company will not back-up their 6 years warranty on product. Other people in development having been having same type issues. Stay away.

Had a plumber install a new Bradford HWH to replace an older Reem HWH that was not leaking and running fine. Just did not want to deal with having to rush when the old one might break or start leaking. Installed Feb 2020 and here it is November 2022 and the Bradford White started leaking all over my basement. Called the original plumber and was told it was under warranty and the tank would be replace by Bradford White, but I have to pay the 500 dollars for installation and wait 5 days till he can get here. Must be to keep plumbers in business. Next time I will buy from the big box store and install myself. Not a happy customer.

Had a Bradford 55gal Hot Water Tank (HWT) installed 9/20 (manufactured summer 2020) Model RE250T6-1NCWW. Detected issues and called in plumber to assess, plumber remarked that they been busy all year with BradfordWhite HWT. Anode failure (wrong construction material) resulting in damage to interior tank. BradfordWhite would only address minor repair and not acknowledge poor manufacturing that resulted in further damages. Plumber advised that recent experience has shown that repair and flush to these BradfordWhite HWT, would not last long and to expect problems again <1yr. Previous Rheem Tank lasted 20+years no issue.

I bought a house in 2020 with a Bradford White hot water tank in it, and according to the serial number, the tank was made in 2011. The tank failed shortly after I moved in. Repairs cost $200 to apparently clean out dust from the bottom of the tank. Eight months later, another fail with no hot water and no relighting of the ignition. I now see why there are several service stickers on the tank. They were not annual inspections, they were multiple repairs. Time to buy a real hot water tank and scrap this dollar-store item!

I have a American Home Shield warranty. My Hot water heater failed last August. They replaced it with a Bradford-White. It failed after less than a Year. I have been dealing with this issue for a week now. Their product, their warranty and their "licensed" warranty service companies have been terrible. Don't buy from Bradford White.

Two water heaters broke within 5 years and the warranty is for 6 from the original install, regardless of the replacements. The inside of the heater is FAULTY and cracks. There was all kinds of rust. Now, I have to either pay for labor...$1200...to get a replacement installed that will likely break again in 2 years OUT of warranty after already paying for labor again in 2019 for the first replacement...or I can scrap it all and start over. Neither of which I can afford right now.

Updated on 03/24/2023: Bradford White Defender 40gal Water heater model RG240T6N installed in Aug 2020 is now 2 1/2 yrs old. When it was 15 months old (March 2022) the gas control valve failed. Valve was under warranty but labor cost me $374.00 to replace valve. 3 months later no hot water. I went all summer without hot water. Finally, in Aug 2022 I had enough to have company back out. They said there is a plate inside that needs cleaned. Well I can't take off gas control valves and mess with gas. So now here it is March 2023 and the burner won't stay on. Pilot was out this morning but it's been acting up for a month. Light pilot at 6:30 am, green light started flashing. Burner stayed on for 2 seconds, then the red light flashes - indicating it's a gas control valve problem. Then 10 minutes later burner comes on and goes back to green flashes. It's a money pit. The company I bought it from is great. They actually came out in Aug 2022 and fixed it free (after I saved all summer and went without hot water). Today they will charge me, but it's the last time.

We recently installed the Aerotherm heat pump water heater from Bradford White. I was worried about noise levels because of the location within our house but with the vents attached we are experiencing just under 50 dba from 3 feet (56 dba @ 3 feet without vents). Have been running it on heat pump only mode for two weeks now and have experienced consistent hot water. Just fantastic and our natural gas bill has dropped significantly (vs. our old natural gas water heater which was also Bradford White and reached end of life without any issues). I wish the tank had some of the advanced scheduling features, etc. that its competition has but the low noise level and consistent hot water are excellent.

Bradford White not take responsibility and cover labor cost of replacing 2 hot water heaters within 5 years. Brand new house built in 2016 1st HWH breaks in 2019, under warranty was replaced, but I was out $1000 in labor, 2021 replaced again, under warranty, but, I am out $2000 in labor. At lest this time they offered a $500 check as a goodwill gesture, in 2019 I got nothing! Stand by your products and do the right thing!

We bought our house in 2019 and the contractor who built the house installed a nice Bradford White hybrid water heater. This water heater ran great with no issues until the day before Christmas Eve of 2021. My wife noticed that the water in her shower was not very hot. I came home from work that night to check it out and noticed that the water heater seemed to have no power. The fancy panel/motherboard was black and would not reset with the reset button. I had to stay home from work on Christmas Eve day and first called Bradford White which had a recorded message that they were closed for the holidays. I then called a local company to come and take a look at it. They stated they did not service our area.

Terrible product, lasted 2 years. By comparison my previous unit lasted 20. Why would they put a microprocessor on the bottom of a 50 gallon water tank? Complete and total design flaw. Also reflects poorly on the installer.

Bradford White URG250T6N 50 gal water heater. Installed by plumber. 10 year warranty. Started gushing water in 2 1/2 years and flooded my garage. They honored the warranty on the water heater, but I'm still out $500 for a plumber. Very unsatisfactory. Customer service said they would not cover the labor even though the unit only lasted 2 1/2 years. That's not really standing behind your product.

Bradford White has to be the worst water heater in existence. A terrible product! I've had 3 Bradford White electric water heaters in 10 years. It seems like it's the only water heater that plumbers carry and I think it's because they know they won't last and can make money constantly replacing them. Anyways I had a 15 year old Rheem replaced with a Bradford White. Within two years it started leaking. The water heater was under warranty, but installation costs weren't, so I had to pay to have it replaced. This one lasted about 2 years before it started to leak too. Same story - under warranty, but had to pay to have it installed.

We purchased our Bradford White electric water heater in 2015. In 2019, its motherboard burnt and luckily it was still under warranty. We spent $700 to get new water heater installed. Fast forward, 2 years later, our water heater is leaking an immense amount of water from the bottom. Our plumber does not believe that the company will replace another. DO NOT buy this water heater!!! 2 water heaters in 6 years is just ridiculous. They should be ashamed of themselves...

Ours died just after three months. We installed it July 2021 and here we go with no hot water October 2021. I have two blinks on the diagnostic light. Reading online it looks like a faulty pressure switch. Everything else running off natural gas in house works fine. My cheap big box water heater lasted at least 3 years before it started having problems. We'll see what the service company says in the morning.

Our plumber installed a new Bradford White water heater in our new house. Two months later, it started making a very loud buzzing/rattling noise. And then it started spilling water into the tray below, eventually flooding our laundry room. BW replaced the faulty heater, but they refused to pay for the reinstallation. So I ended up paying ~$600 to install the same water heater twice in about 3 months. My understanding is that their competitors have better warranties for when things go wrong. Would *not* recommend buying a BW heater.

Got a 10 year warranty water heater. 3 years then fail. Company is like "pay a plumber we appove of" to convince us it was our failure and "we will provide a free replacement part 2 weeks after the failure." You are okay waiting 2 weeks for hot water and trust us to decide on the failure right? I mean just because we don't answer our phone and you have to wait 20 minutes doesn't mean we are not honest? Cmon it's just normal not to tell you the specific details of our warranty.

New 50-gallon Bradford White water heater was installed in my new home in 2018. It FAILED after only 3.5 years with water leaking out all around the top, connection on side and around the bottom. When the plumber called supplier, this water heater is no longer being sold. Even though Bradford White say the water heater has a 6 year warranty, I found the warranty to be useless. The plumber called, as well to confirm. I have NEVER had a water heater fail this fast. All others have lasted for many years. I then decided to have a Noritz tankless water heater installed. I'll never purchase another product from Bradford White!

I had a Bradford White Gas Water Heater installed to replace a 15 year old water heater that was still working. After 2 years on the Bradford White, an internal seal or weld gave way and it sprayed water over a bunch of items which were not tolerant of water and leaked over part of the basement laundry room. Needless to say I am not impressed and after reading other reviews here, I would definitely recommend buying from another company.

Had replaced the conventional water heater with BW tankless water heater in 2017. In 4 years, there were two major repairs. One was 2 yrs in and the second one was just two weeks ago. Both times the fuse was blown and the control board needed to be replaced. The fan also caused issues and needed to be replaced twice two weeks ago. The first replacement fan failed the second day. Both times we were without hot water for almost a week. The second repair cost me a little under $1,700. Less than two weeks after that second repair, the unit failed again. I have had it with this BW unit and decided to change back to the conventional water heater. I had filed a claim with BW. So far BW has not responded. My advice is to avoid Bradford White tankless water heater.

This water heater was installed in my new home in October 2019. I've called a plumber 3 times since then due to the unit leaking. I've had the T&P valve replaced, which didn't help. I had to have the water heater replaced in May 2021. The warranty is useless. The water heater in my previous home lasted 20+ years. I'll never purchase another product from this company.

Had a Bradford-white water heater installed on March 9th of 2020. On March 17th, we were closed for covid shutdowns. This water heater never operated correctly and the company is not standing behind it. I would never purchase from this company again!!!

This water heater lasted a lot longer than most I have read about 7 years but it cracked and cannot be repaired. We have never had to replace a water heater in such a short time. Not a good brand. Will buy a different.

Had to replace a Bradford White water heater in 4 year old house - replaced with a Bradford white. Now 3 yrs later motor has died. Paid $363 to have plumber out to replace parts not covered by warranty. He has to source new motor which we hope is covered by warranty - then another plumber visit cost! Have owned 7 or 8 homes in past - have never had these issues with any other water heater - not reliable and very expensive to replace and install.

New water heater installed in September 2019 and was leaking water just 18 months later. A licensed plumber discovered that due to the leaking the pilot light would not stay lit. Had it not still been under warranty for replacement I would not have never purchased another Bradford White.

New 40gal Defender water heater installed May 2020 as a warranty replacement for other defective one. Warranty goes from original install and has now expired. I've had issues with water temp and had to have defective thermostat replaced ($400) and now pressure relief valve has a pretty fast constant drip and needs to be replaced. Shouldn't have these problems with 7 mth old water heater.

On September 21, 2020, Poe's Plumbing & Backflow replaced our water with Bradford White 50 gallon Eco-Defender Ultra Low NOx Serries (gas), magnesium rod with our 12 yrs Whirlpool gas. On Oct 8, 2020, my son broke out in hives and continued to broke out in hives until they replaced the water heater with aluminum rod on Dec 30, 2020. Bradford White or American Home Shield did not cover the plumber cost and we paid the full installation cost for the labor of $462. Between September 8, 2020 and December 30, 2020, I had to chase down Judy at Poe's Plumbing & Backflow, American Home Shield and Bradford White to replace a new gas 50 gallons water heater with aluminum rod.

Purchased and installed a Bradford White water heater on 12/3/2020 and found out on 1/11/2021 (had to call a plumber) that we had a bad part (T&P valve), the plumber purchased a new valve and installed it for $350. When I contacted the Bradford White warranty department I found out (like other reviews stated) they will not deal with the actual consumer who paid all original costs plus repair cost, they will only deal with the contracted plumber through the supplier (Ferguson, as an example). So I am out $350 for something that should have been covered by Bradford White, this is not right!