New water heater, 40 or 50 gal?
jcrowley99
15 years ago
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Comments (8)
asolo
15 years agowa8b
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Do I go tankless water heater or wait for 75-gal gas heater?
Comments (22)The reason we have 2 tankless heaters is so both of them are close to the point of use, which equals less wait time. I also drew our house plans to make sure my hot water use areas were "clustered" because of this. Due to the piping in our double wide, we have to wait up to 5 minutes for hot water from a tank heater. Ridiculous. I have played around with my parents' stuff and have never waited more than 10 or 12 seconds for hot water because their heaters are also near the point of use. Their and our tankless heaters are Rinnai, btw. The only instant hot water I have ever experienced was in a really nice hotel... ;-) I don't know how big our current tank is, but we often run out of hot water for our family of 4. I'm looking forward to never dealing with that again!! Vonda PS Hello to a fellow Arkansan. Might not be the greatest state in the Union, but it's home. :-)...See More75 gal. or 50 gal. hot water heater
Comments (8)I think you need a 75 gallon model or, if your water supply isn't too hard, a tankless heater. With a 2.5 gpm shower head mixed at 2/3rds hot and 1/3 cold, a 50 gallon tank gives you 30 minutes of showering. At that point, you have 50 gallons of (at best) lukewarm water in the tank. You'd probably need to wait 30 minutes from that point until the water in the tank is again hot. If two are showering at once and no other hot water is being used, it'll start getting cool after about 10 minutes. If you're using a lot of hot water, there isn't going to be that much difference in operating expenses between the two sizes, you're going to be burning BTUs to heat water either way. You can easily cover the cost difference with the savings you'd have by replacing your old washer with a front loader....See Moretankless water heater - 50 gl water heater???
Comments (19)There is a LOT of disinformation on these forums about on-demand tankless units, ESPECIALLY the electric units. First, energy cost savings is NOT a reason in itself to make the switch. No reason alone is sufficient. It is the total package, in light of your particular lifestyle, that will dictate the pro-con outcome of the decision making process. First, tankless units save space -- a lot of it, especially electric units that do not need to be vented. In Texas we have no basements, so that can be an important issue. Second, an electric unit is unlikely to blow up, unlike anything using natural gas. Third, there is an endless supply of hot water, which in a successive-morning-shower household like mine, is a really important issue. And finally, yes there is some documented comp fuel savings (electric tankless over electric tanks, or gas over gas), that is really offset by the added initial cost of the unit plus upgraded electrical service or gas supply line sizing. Moreover, there ARE full-house electric units out there that provide plenty of water, unless you plan on taking two showers simultaneously while also doing your laundry and running the dishwasher! And if that's your bag, you can run 2 or more electicals together. Or get a really big gas unit. Bottom line, nearly every nay-sayer of tankless units ignore the pros and focus on a single con - cost, cost, cost. Well, we all don't drive a Ford Focus for a reason. Some of us enjoy our Buicks, Porsches or Camrys even though another car would get us from point A to point B cheaper while using less fuel etc etc etc. Full disclosure: I have a Steibel Eltron Tempra 36 whole-house electric unit. Love it. My electric bill went up nary at all....See MoreBradford White vs GE 40 Gal Electric Hot Water Heater
Comments (5)All though there are some very high end exceptions, as a rule there really isn't a hill of beans difference between electric water heaters. Basically they have a steel pressure vessel which is usually line with a baked on powder coat ceramic finish which is advertised as "glass lined" Surround that they have an insulation blanket. Some have a fiberglass blanket but most today have a rigid foam insulation material. That is all encapsulated in a thin sheet metal sheel. They nearly all have 4500watt 240v electric heating elements that are made by a third party supplier and with some rare exception, the heating elements are interchangable between brands of water heaters. They have an upper thermostat which switches between the upper heating element and the lower element and it also has a built in overload control (reset button). The lower thermostat only turns the element on or off. In fact, you can buy a universal rebuild kit at Home Depot which has both heating elements and both T/stats for $31.27. They may or may not come with a T&P valve. If you need a T&P valve it is a universal part made by Watts Corp. that fits into a 3/4" port in the top of the tank. Some also come with the dielectric nipples packed with the water heater. Many of them are actually made on the same production line and they don't get a manufactures name until they reach the final labeling and packaging dept....See Morejcrowley99
15 years agocloudcrasher
15 years agolazypup
15 years agoHU-544790994
3 years agoStax
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
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