Natural Gas Water Heaters

[nkyrental]

So I get an e-mail from a neighbor, it starts, "you have rental property, which water heater is the best?" I responded that Bradford White is always brought up in conversations, but is not available to the general public, you have to get a plumber to get one. I told him the big box company water heaters are generally not real good.
He responds and asks about Kenmore. I have no idea. So, my question to you guys, are the Kenmore Miser water heaters any good? Are there any other brands out there worth looking at? I know this guy, and he will look for days to find the "best bargain" then call around and get someone to put it in for him.

[Service Guy]

I haven't put a kenmore in, but they used to be built like tanks. The oldest water heater I ever replaced was 27 years old and still working...it was an old Kenmore from 1979!

[FINER9998]

a friend of mine has an electric kenmore that was installed in 1980. it was mothballed for the last ten years with domestic hot water provided via a boiler powered boilermate. after his most recent oil delivery in may, '08, he decided to reactivate the electric kenmore during the non-heating months. it worked fine, but one shower has a multiple shower head set up which puts a larger than average demand on the HW heater. he replaced the heating elements and its working fine, even keeping up with the shower he refers to as his indoor carwash. i have no idea if the current kenmores are built as well.

personally, i have a 50 gal nat. gas GE purchased @ HD in april, 2001. I installed it and it has been performing without incident.

[nkyrental]

Thanks for the replies. The Kenmore's get some pretty good reviews from what I found on the internet, I have a few of the Lowe's water heaters in some of my rentals and they haven't given me any problems yet.
I went over to his house last night to see what his problem was. He showed me the water heater; it looked like about a 5-7 year old AO Smith. It was newer because it had the window view, filter screen, and the "clicker" pilot lighting mechanism. I asked him what was wrong and he said no hot water. Aaagh! Did you try to re-light the pilot? No. So I tried to relight, it lit easily, but would not stay on. So, I looked underneath and the filter screen was completely clogged with hair and lint. I got his shop Vac and went to the house and got a piece of 3/4" Tygon® tubing and some duct tape. I taped the tubing to the end of the shop Vac, cut it at a 45 degree angle on the other end and proceeded to clean his filter. It lit fine after that and was working. I'm not a plumber, but hearing about the filter screens clogging on this forum saved him a lot of trouble. My question then is, what dumb$#@ engineer decided to put the filters on the bottom with 1 inch clearance? Seems they would at least put some legs on the water heater so the filter can be cleaned easier.

[OBD]

If you ever get a chance look at the tankless gas water heaters. They give endless hot water and take up less room. You also can install them outside or inside. The inside units will require venting. Check this website out http://www.foreverhotwater.com and look up zip code 33629 and you will see our company as the only four star dealer of the Rinnai Tankless which is also know as a Bradford White tankless also...JFYI...OBD