Bradford White Reviews

Do NOT buy a Bradford White water heater. Here's my story: We built a house in 2018 and the builder put in a Bradford White water heater. By 2023, we dealt with 6 months of discolored, rusty water. They said we needed to replace the anode. We did that. We installed an electric one. Supposedly the best anode rod you could get to protect your heater. We STILL had discolored water but didn't have any further recourse. Then the heater started leaking from the bottom in Feb 2023. It was within warranty, so Bradford White covered the replacement. We had it replaced by a reputable plumbing service. We put the electric anode in to protect the new heater.

They advertise their water heaters last 15 to 20 years and they warranty them for 6 years. Mine lasted 6 years and 1 month and water leaking all over floor. This is the second Bradford White (and last) water heater I will buy. The first one lasted 5 years and 4 months. Neighbor bought one at Home Depot and still working after 15 years. Bradford White gas water heaters are junk. You would think for $2000 they would last longer than 5 or 6 years.

I bought a 50 gal Bradford White water tank approximately 6 yrs Ago. The warranty expires at the end of this year. Their website states the product lasts 10-15 yrs and this one lasted less than half. The warranty covers the tank but I still need to pay $1250 for a plumbing company to remove and replace it. That is the cost of a new tank. I will not replace this tank with another Bradford White. This product is garbage and lasted half the years they promoted. DO NOT BUY!

Our first water tank lasted 15 years, but this one needed replacing after less than 7! That's shameful for any company nowadays, especially a high-ticket item that 'should' last at least 10. We will never purchase another Bradford tank again.

Bradford/White Hydrojet hot water heater tank 30 gallons. Now just 3 years old releasing large quantities of water from pressure valve. Replaced valve AND turned down residential inlet psi to 65. No effect still releasing water daily. Tank was flushed once since being installed. Plumber says buy a new tank of quality. Pretty much says it all. Spent 850 to install hoping for 12 to 14 years worry free... l got barely three. Furthermore, you will see by reviewing the complaints that zero are answered by the company Bradford/White because they don’t care. So recommend you steer away from this manufacturer otherwise the risk appears to be fairly high.

I had a brand new Bradford and White Boiler installed less than a year ago. It failed shortly after. The company is not paying for the expensive labor to replace it. This company obviously does not stand behind their defective products. My plumber just used them but now I am researching them and never would have chosen this company.

Our water heater failed after 3 years. Our plumber installed ten of these heaters and 7 have failed in 3 years or less. We had three reps come to investigate and we were told they would have replacements installed at no cost to us or the plumber. They honored nothing! The plumber was on the hook for the install and we were on the hook for the replacement. Poor product and liars for reps!!!

Ordered a stein celebrating Super Bowl LVII on February 15, 2023 for estimated delivery by 7/10th. On 7/17 was told delivery has been pushed out to Aug 21st. On Aug 24th was told new expected delivery date was Oct 2nd. Oct 9 was told new delivery date was Nov 14 (but the website said on potential new sales shipping is expected Oct 29). There is a "5,700 limited edition" notation on the original order and is still on the website, but the cust service rep reported 500" on backorder. I do recommend this company.

I have a new Bradford White 40 gallon gas water heater with the motor on top. I have had it for almost 2 years now and I love it. No problems. USA MADE. Great Customer service and Great warranty. I love the water jet inside that reduces sediment build up. Genius. Great Job Bradford White. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM. THEY ARE THE BEST.

After old water heater finally kicked it- I miss it! 20 years!!.. Had new BW propane heater installed. Worked for a few weeks until propane bottle exchanged. 5 flashing lights of doom. I live remotely, so plumber only available every few weeks. Waited for new valve. Installed. Same thing a month later! This happened 3 times. All in all it was 6 total months with no hot water. Yes, a new regulator was also installed. Wasn’t the problem. A year later- 5 flashing lights of doom. No hot water again, and no plumber available for weeks. I loathe BW with a passion. Worst tank ever. Over 1000.00 in repairs because of BW bad product. Might just have to get a new water heater and throw BW in the garbage where it belongs.

Bradford White does not stand behind their product - Their warranty is worth nothing - The computer board went on our solar water heater that is only 3 years old - we called them about the warranty - they have no list of plumbers that honor their warranty - It took 5 representative for us to find that out - they gave us a plumber but he does not honor the warranty - They do not stock parts so "you have to find one yourself". Yup that is what we were told - We are going to go buy a water heater this evening as it is easier than working with reps that are not trained and was not able to help us - We dread what we will have to do to get reimbursed - Yes we have to pay and then they will reimburse us - when we talked to the rep they said, "Oh it has to be approved." - WELL it is still under warranty. Do not use Bradford White. They are a nightmare.

Bought houses with Bradford White tanks and they're much worse compared with other brands. Smart buyers should stay away from Bradford White tanks due to their unfriendly design for DIY maintenance, very expensive replacement parts such as Anode rods (10 times higher than normal rods), & questionable quality esp. those Honeywell Controllers Bradford used on its tanks.

Purchased 1/31/2019, model re2h50s10-1ncwt. One year later 1/20/20 f4 error code. Will only run on electric mode, we purchased it for Hydros. Took a month for company to respond to complaint to tell us to pay a plumber to look at it to diagnose. Has happened three times so far and a complete waste of money. The company clearly does not care about the product they sell. 11/16/21 same issue occurred and again today 7/18/23. This water tank does nothing but cost more money to not work, have no hot water or only runs on electric.

I had a General Electric heat pump water heater. Bradford White took over the warrantee service for this water heater. Consequently, when mine went bad - it was replaced by a Bradford White heat pump water heater. The General Electric heat pump water heater had no trouble keeping water hot even when we had company (for 6 People). The replacement Bradford White heat pump water heater will not generate enough hot water for 2 people - actually not even enough for one long hot shower. I have talked with two different support people at Bradford White - one said she would call back within 1/2 hr - 2days later I have still not received the call. I called again and was told there is nothing they can do. - The Bradford White will not function as well as the General Electric did. So now to have hot water on demand - I have to set my water heater to electric mode - so the money spent on the heat pump is a total waste.

I've had 3 water heater malfunctions in the last 4 years. The first one, the water heating element melted, which they acknowledged was an issue, dumping 40 gallons of water into my bedroom. The 2nd one had the tank leak, and the latest one, 5 month old water heater, just failed at the heating element again. Their customer service told me that I will need to file this through my home owner insurance and they will talk to their legal department. This is complete ** and lack of responsibility on Bradford White. Because my deductible is higher than the repairs, this will come out of my pocket, again! This is a shady company that does not stand by their products.

I bought a Bradford White hydrogen fifty gallon electronic tank in 2019. Only three and a half years old and it stopped producing hot water. I've had three different plumbers look at the issue and tell me that it is a bad water heater. Tech support is saying it is not. They will not warranty my hot water heater. My warranty expires in 2025. They will not warranty my hot water heater. Stay away from this company entirely.

In 2019 our old hot water heater decided to break on us. We really liked the 80 gallon that the previous owners had installed so we wanted to keep the same size. Our HVAC company told us the only h/w heater they carried was a Bradford White AeroTherm hybrid model. It was installed a week before Thanksgiving. 5 days later, the electrical board broke, control panel just had a bunch of numbers indicating an error. Turns out, the board was fried, a day before Thanksgiving. Called our HVAC company and due to the holiday, they weren't able to order a new electrical board so we were without hot water for over a week. We should have heeded the warning. Three years later, the electrical board again is fried. Now it's going to take 2 to 4 weeks to get the board in. So with two little kids, we are left with no hot water for up to a month. Do yourselves a favor, and go with another h/w heater. Bradford White has seriously gone downhill in quality.

November 2022, did not have any 100 gallon commercial hot water heaters in town so we ordered one out of state cost $470 to ship, gets here on Friday, installed it, next day water leaking from the bottom, warranty and customer service staff, WHAT A JOKE! Many hours later Ferguson (great company!) just got one in stock, but it's Saturday and had to use a company to deliver it, $400! Plus the plumber charged me twice for install. So we had to pay two installs to the plumber and a total of $870 for shipping plus $6k for the hot water heater, did Bradford White help with anything, maybe credit or discount for a future hot water heater, what do you think? GROUNDHOG DAY!

Purchased 50 gallon Bradford White electric hydrojet water heater in 2014 and it totally was a fail. It had water pouring out of bottom. Now will have to spend another 1000 for junk when warranty was only 6 yrs.

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!