Not specifically regarding this water heater, but I did buy a water heater from Home Depot warranted by Rheem which began leaking within the warranty period. I called Rheem and they sent me an email telling me that they agreed the product was defective and recommended the water heater for replacement by returning it to Home Depot with an email to replace it. They sent me an email which I brought to Home Depot along with the removed unit but then Home Depot would not honor the warranty by either replacing the old one or charging me the difference between the old one and a new comparable one as the email stated. Rheem also would not reimburse me. So the effect was that neither the seller or the manufacturer would honor the warranty and instead just pointed fingers at each other. So that makes me wonder why I would ever buy any Rheem warranted product if it's not worth the paper it's written on.