A.O. Smith Corporation is an American manufacturer specializing in residential and commercial water heaters and boilers, and stands as the largest manufacturer and marketer of water heaters in North America. Beyond its core water heating products, the company also supplies water treatment solutions in the Asian market. With 24 locations worldwide, including five North American manufacturing facilities and plants in Bengaluru (India), Nanjing (China), and Veldhoven (Netherlands), A.O. Smith operates as a truly global enterprise.
The company's roots stretch back well before its water heater focus, with a history that spans manufacturing, defense, and heavy industry. During World War I, A.O. Smith became the largest bomb manufacturer in the United States, and by the end of World War II, the company ranked 74th among all U.S. corporations in the value of military production contracts. During the war years, A.O. Smith produced an extraordinary range of military equipment, including bomb casings, aircraft propellers, landing gear, torpedoes, and components for the atomic bomb project, totaling 4.5 million bombs, 16,750 sets of landing gear, and 46,700 propeller blades by 1945.
The postwar era marked a decisive pivot toward the water heating industry. In 1946, A.O. Smith opened a 400,000 square foot residential water heater plant in Kankakee, Illinois, which also produced water heaters under the Kenmore brand. The company entered the commercial water heater market in 1948 with the acquisition of The Burkay Company of Toledo, Ohio, and soon introduced the first glass-lined commercial water heater, the A.O. Smith Burkay B-65, a landmark product that set a new benchmark for durability and performance.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, A.O. Smith continued to diversify and innovate. Its motor division, built through the acquisition of Sawyer Electric in 1940 and later Whirl-A-Way Motors of Dayton, Ohio, introduced the hermetic motor, a critical component in air conditioning and refrigeration compressors. In 1965, the Motor division further advanced pool pump technology with the invention of the enclosed canopy, two-compartment motor, which improved reliability by separating switching components from motor windings. The company also expanded into fiberglass, oil field pipe, and agricultural products, including Harvestore, a glass-fused-to-steel silo for dairy and livestock operations introduced in 1949.
By 1969, A.O. Smith had produced its 10 millionth residential water heater, and by 1972 the company had expanded into Europe. The 1970s brought further growth, including the introduction of the energy-conscious Conservationist line of residential water heaters in 1974, the opening of a hermetic motor plant in Bray, Ireland in 1976, and the launch of Aquastore glass-fused-to-steel storage tanks in 1978.
Today, A.O. Smith stands as one of the most recognized and trusted names in water heating, with a legacy of manufacturing excellence, technological innovation, and global reach that spans more than a century.
