Replacing Suburban water heater for Atwood

old guy wrote:
now this is my opinion and I have worked on both and I would take a suburban over an atwood any day. easier to work on and the parts are cheaper. the plastic plug is about the only advantage the atwood has and that is not all that much to write home about

I've owned both Suburban and Atwood water heaters and would hands down always prefer an Atwood as in my experience it's recovery time is far quicker than the equivalent sized Suburban. :B In theory the Suburban with it's porcelain lined steel tank should last longer than the Atwood with it's aluminum tank but most owners will sell their camper long before they have to worry about the tank. Anecdotally there do seem to be more stories here on the forums about Atwood tanks splitting, none that I've ever read about Suburban, but who's to know whether that's really true or not. :@ I haven't had any issues with our now 4 yr old Atwood nor do I expect to, the trick being to flush it out occasionally and properly winterize it each fall. As for the OP, no way I'd go through all the work he's planning just to avoid having to use an anode rod. :R