I am about to replace my 22 year old gas water heater with a Bradford White model. The basic model seems to be the M-I-5036FBN. However, I notice that there is a model (U1-5036FRN) that has a Digital Thermal Sensor and Resettable Thermal Switch. It is also an Ultra Low NOx Burner. I'd like to know what are any advantages/disadvantages to the Digital and Low NOx model. Thanks... Gary

Bradford White is a straight no nonesense install. Any reputable licensed plumber should be able to install it with ease.

Not familiar with either of those specific models but... I just replaced a 20 year old A.O. Smith (made in Mexico) 50g LP WH. It was still working but I wanted to avoid the new Gov't WH standards and the increase in cost of those new compliant models. After a lot of research and speaking to numerous plumbers and plumbing supply and retail WH outlet people I chose the Bradford White. Bradford White products are only sold through authorized pluming wholesalers to trade people and are not available to end users. They are made in the US and their support people are easy to get to and speak English. While there are complaints out there, as for every brand of everything, the huge volume of WHers that BW sells there are about the same volume of complaints as for the lower volume manufacturers. Another consideration was that the BW was a "high altitude" model necessary at my location while the box store Rheems and States were not. When I brought this to the attention of the aproned staff they said "they work fine as they are" which is blatantly untrue and the plumbing supply that sells BW and the installing plumber both knew that also. Installing the BW it was apparent that it was a higher level of quality and use higher grade components than the A.O. Smith it replaced and both the Rheem and State WHers I looked at. One plus was the brass, not plastic, 1/4 turn straight through drain valve. Another was the option for a top mount T&P valve which my installation required. Once the BW heated up I discovered that at the lowest temp (just under A) setting water was markedly HOTTER than the A.O. Smith was at the medium-high (C) setting. Seems the heating efficiency of WHers drops gradually over time so we don't notice it cause the WHer heats and doesn't leak. No doubt insulation and efficiency also improved over the 20 year service of my A.O. Smith. I drained my A.O. Smith WH every 6 months and got nothing out but clear water. All in all, the Bradford White is the choice to make IMO so sit back and enjoy your hot water.

The repair man came out and discovered that the earthquake sensor in our gas meter had turned off all gas to our house - and we did not even have an earthquake! Thanks for the link to the manual, Jake - I'll keep that on file. If we every do have an earthquake, we will have to go through all of this again. It appears also that our gas meter is very old, and so I am going to contact the gas company about replacing it so that this will not happen on its own again. I was unaware that the gas meter had an earthquake sensor - I thought we had to turn off the gas to the house manually after an earthquake, as we were always told to have the tools to do this and to know where the shutoff valve is, which we do. Anyway, we could never have relighted the pilot without gas! Normally I do a lot of cooking and would have discovered that we were without gas when I tried to cook, but we barbecued last week-end and have been reheating leftovers in the microwave - plus I have been making salads. It's been to hot to want to cook or eat anything too hot. We're not sure what tripped the sensor, but I'm afraid that it might go off on its own again, as it appears to be trigger-happy. Thanks for everyone's help! I hope that next time we will not have to call a repair man, although we might need help turning the gas back on from the meter. Here's some additional info on our water heater: The Bradford White URG250T6N is an eco-friendly gas water heater with ultra-low nitrous oxide emissions. It features intelligent diagnostics through an LED screen that give you 10 different indicators of how your water heater is functioning. Source It could be that the ultra-low nitrous oxide emission feature might be what makes it more expensive, and this may be required by the state of California.