I have 2 years old water heater ...Bradford white...it started leaking when I called their cust. service they said...labor will not be covered only parts or replacement ..but I need to go to local plumber first and pay them to diagnose and than they will get me a replacement... In all of this ..labor will not be covered by Bradford white... Is there any better option? I can replace water heater myself ..I know tank has a leak so can I avoid local plumber and his labor ? I mean can I take it directly to Bradford white dealer or supply house locally and get a replacement unit myself?

I have a American Water Heater Company, water heater model# PVG62-50T63-3NHV. It is an 18 year old model (I know I need to buy a new one). Last weekend I noticed that the power vent was running a long time between cycles. Later that night while running a bath for my children, we did not have hot water. I went and checked the pilot and it was burning, but I couldn’t get the burner to ignite. I did some research and determined it may be the air pressure switch located under the lid on the power vent. So I went to few local places to try and buy a new one, with no luck. I explained to the gentleman that I was unsure if the true issue and he told me to jumper out the air pressure switch and see if it fires up. I tried it and the burner fired up. So I ordered a new pressure switch and installed it tonight and the burner still won’t ignite. The air pressure switch that I installed is a 0.82” WC, when I talked to American Heater Company customer service they claimed the WC was 0.50”, but the old switch did not state any WC. So after I couldn’t get it to fire up with the new switch I decided the vent could be plugged. I cut the vent about 6’ from the tank and didn’t see a plug. I then decided to see if it would ignite. When I tried it fired right up. Then I cut the vent in another location and still no plug. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.