We had a twenty year old water heater that finally called it quits this past spring. My wife and I discussed paying the extra cost to "upgrade" to a tankless water heater. In the end our frugal nature won and we put in another cheaper tank heater.

Then in August we were hit by a Derecho (an inland hurricane). The entire city was without power for more than 10 days (some much longer) and temperatures in the upper nineties. The one saving grace was I still had a working water heater since it's gas powered.