Everybody knows what these things do, so I don't need to explain it. This is basically fiberglass insulation with a thin plastic sheet on one side. You wrap it around your water heater and in theory this will save energy.

Installation is messy. No way around that with the pink fiberglass. You'll have to cut and tape. on the top. My water heater is 80 gallons so none of them fit, I had to buy two kits. Even more messy, but if you've every done arts are crafts as a kid, you'll figure it out. It does include nice white tape that blends. You won't anything more than cursory instructions.

Here's what you'll need to keep in mind. Unless you water heater is about 40 years old, this product if you use it like you might think, won't save much money. These tanks are already insulated pretty well. How can you tell? put your hands on the tank. If it's warm, you'll benefit. If it's cold, you won't.

But I discovered there's a lot more to this. When feeling the tank, I realized most of the heat loss is on the top of the heater. So I made sure I extended the blank to the top and covered the top. You'll have to do a lot of cutting and taping to make that look neat. Once you do that, you'll realize the bulk of the heat loss is not in the tank itself, but the pipes leading out of the tank.

So after you put this in place, you'll need to go to the hardware store and buy the pre-manufactured pipe foam insulators. They go on pretty quickly. Insulate about 10 feet away on the hot side of the heater.

Does it save money? Well, I found it reduces the time you have to wait for hot water, so it's definitely doing some good.

Plan to spend about 1/2 hour doing this job, and wear clothes that you'll wash afterwards. That glass fiber is really messy.