A freind of a friend came over and gave me a quote on installing a replacement natural gas water heater. I asked him what to get as far as warranties. His reply "Get a 6 year, because getting a 9 or 12 year warrnty is just a ploy to sell insurance. The heaters are all the same physically" Is he right?

He is right. Some water heater manufacturers will supply an additional anode rod with an insurance upgrade but all else remains the same. You will have to determine your 'risk factor'.

How old is your currant water heater?

Basically. In fact, one brand you buy a 6 year, then pay the premium and they send you a new name tag to make it a 10 year heater.

Before you actually install the tank, remove the stock drain valve and change it out to a ball valve boiler drain. These are foolproof basically, and you can drain the sediment in your water heater yearly or every 6 months if the sediment is bad and not worry about the drain clogging, or the valve dripping afterward. Draining the sediment from the tank will restore a gas hot water tank to 90-95% of efficiency when new; It only takes a very small amount of sediment to reduce the efficiency on a gas hwt to about 70% of new. On electric tanks, sediment doesn't affect efficiency, but once the sediment reaches the lower element, it will cause superheating and cause the element to fail. As stated by everyone else, save the money and get a 6 year tank and swap the drain valves and perform regular maintenance to make your heater last a very long time.

I disagree with him.
The heaters we used to use from the plumbing supply houses were all the same you just paid for the warranty.

But if you buy from another place like Home Depot it does make a difference. Longer year unit will give you a better water heater. Some you bump up from a plastic drain valve to a brass one. But the big difference for me is you upgrade to stainless steel water heater elements. These seem to last twice as long and cut doown on maintainance. The three major plumbing supply houses in my area only offer the 6 year model so they only have to keep one in stock.

I have a 50 gal sears 6 thats 13 years old and working fine. Some tell me I'm on borrowed time. Big box gives me a 10% vet discount, plus getting a 250 gift card for getting a Deere mower. So a new HWH looks doable - Same guy will pick it up, install it, and take away old one for 250.

Ok, I will just say this.. If you don't have a flammable vapor ignition resistance system on your current heater, I wouldn't replace it.. Yes the newer tanks are safer, but they are so problematic, I wouldn't get rid of your old heater unless I had to. If your current heater is operating properly, you can probably get another 10 years out of it. If there is a time limit on the rebates or whatever, get the new tank and leave it in the box. Just my $.02

After about 6 years you could be on "borrowed time" but that does NOT mean the heater might not last 20 more years. I recommend replacing them WHEN they start to leak. You could replace your heater with a new one and THAT one could start leaking in 3 or 4 years. There is no guaranty how long yours will last or how long a new one would. Your experience with this one has no relationship to what will happen with a new one.

You can install the "lifetime" elements in ANY heater for a lot less money than the extended warranties cost.