What kind of Heating Elements do water heaters carry ?

Copper : Usually lasts for about 2 years in hard water areas (most preferred due to low costs ) priced at around 800-1200
Incoloy : Usually lasts for about 3 years in hard water areas ( preferred upto an extent)
priced at around – 1200-1500
Glasslined Incoloy : Usually lasts for about 4 years in hard water areas (cheaper in few brands costly in international brands) – 1300-1800

There are 3 different type of inner containers

1 : Stainless Steel – Used by many brands still – may phase out over a period of 5 years stainless steel is a good metal and non corrosive as well, but cannot withstand pressure of more than  7-8 floors 6.5 bar.

2 : Mild Steel (Enamel or glasslining) – Most Brands in today’s date use this container – To prevent corrosion almost all brands add a lining (coating) over the tank like (enamel / glass lining / polymer / titanium enamel and so on) These geysers are used today to cater the needs of high raised buildings (multi storied apartments) with more than 5 floors where the pressure is more than 3.5 Bar to 8.0 bar mild steel as a metal is strong and sturdy but attracts lot of salts making is prone to corrosion at regular intervals, due to the coating on the inner bed of the metal the corrosion rate is reduced up to an extent making the product functional upto a certain period, a metal container is magnetic this enables manufacturers to add a magnesium rod to keep the salts away from the bed of the inner container preventing corrosion or prolonging the life of the inner container,
the pressure withstanding capacity for this inner container is around 15-18 floors – 8 bar.

3: Copper – A Very Few Brands use the copper container in today’s date – the inner tank is excellent and doesn’t have any corrosion issues – copper is a non corrosive metal and a good conductor of heat, if insulated well the product can save a lot of power by keeping the water for a very long time, the only disadvantage of this inner container is that it cannot withstand pressure and may fail if used in a high raised building of more than 5 floors or used in pressure pump installed apartments where the water is pumped directly to the apartment, the apartment doesnt have an over head container most brands in the 70s till the 90s used only copper as a metal in water heaters but today’s manufacturing standards have changed not only due to rising costs of copper and competition as most manufacturing brands have toned down to enamel mild-steel or glass lined mild-steel.

Know more about water heaters in India