We need to design graceful failure into our products.

A water heater’s only failure mode is to dump 50+ gallons of water into your home. Aside from setting your home on fire or asphyxiating your family with CO, this is the worst possible outcome of water heater usage.

Alternative types of feedback:

Predictive:
– An alert triggered by factors that would indicate an impending failure (rust in water, moisture on exterior of unit).

Reactive:
– A built-in pan or outer jacket, attached to the home’s plumbing and/or directed out of the home.  Similar to an air conditioner’s condensate pan and drain lines. This isn’t uncommon but it should be built into the product. Plumbers offer it.

Graceful failure is not a feature to upsell.