What Matthews water actually does to a tank
Maintenance advice is usually written for hard water, and most of this region does not have it. Your supply comes from Charlotte Water, and the question worth asking is not how much scale it leaves but how corrosive it is. Soft, lightly buffered water forms no protective film inside the tank lining, so the anode rod is doing the entire job of protecting the steel.
That inverts the standard advice. An annual flush matters less here than it would in a hard-water city, and the anode rod matters far more. A tank that has never had its anode checked at eight years old is running on whatever is left of it, and once that is gone the tank itself starts corroding.
- Anode inspection is the one job on this list that changes how long the tank lasts.
- A T&P test with a pressure reading, because a weeping relief valve is usually pressure rather than a failed valve.
- A flush, with an honest warning first: on a tank over about ten years that has never been flushed, the drain valve frequently will not reseat once opened.
What Matthews itself changes
The housing in Matthews
Matthews is older than its reputation. The peak build decade is the 1980s at 23.1%, and 1980 to 1999 together account for 45.3% of the housing stock. That makes Matthews a third-cycle replacement market rather than a first-failure one: most of these homes are on their second or third water heater already, and the tanks going in now are replacing tanks that themselves replaced the original.
Where the heaters sit
Garage and crawlspace both common given the build era, with closet installs in the newer infill. Access is generally reasonable but the older subdivisions have tighter crawlspaces than the 2000s stock.