Let's talk about water heaters!
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While I thought your HVAC system was fine as is, I'd recommend replacing the water heater. A 20 year old unit is well past its expiration date and it's living on borrowed time. And they decide to start leaking at the worst time possible.
As far as size it really boils down to what your demand is. With two people in the house, we find the 40 gallon unit to be sufficiently large. If you have a bunch of people taking showers in the morning at the same time, a 50 would probably be in order.
The 50 gallon is undoubtedly more expensive to buy, and over time you'll be heating quantities of water that you probably don't need, resulting in increased energy costs.
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WTg and Big Al, thanks for these comments... hmm food for thought here. Yes there are only two of us, both Mr SK likes to take very hot baths in the winter. He takes his bath in the evening, I generally only shower in the morning....
Oh and Al, our water heater is gas.
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In our new house, the water heater is a 21 year-old Whirlpool. I can't remember what was in our old house, I bet I have paperwork for it somewhere on my computer. Or I could call the company that installed it and see how big it was, I'm sure they still have records from 3 years ago.
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You mean at the old house? Unfortunately, I don't remember. At the new house, the current water heater is a 40 gallon. But we haven't moved in yet and so the showers, washer, and dishwasher have not been used, probably since february. So that has me worried. I have a quote from a company with a good rep and I may just go with them and get it replaced before we move in (which is coming up soon now!)
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Oh yeah, good idea! It's not a tankless. I can check it out. It looks to be similar in size to the new house, but I'll see if it says on a label somewhere. And for the record, we don't have problems with water here, the hot water doesn't run out, and someone running water while the other person is in the shower doesn't mess things up etc.
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Ok, now I'm starting to serious consider a tankless...
Yes, it's a bigger cost upfront, but their life span is twice as long as a traditional WH, for one thing....
And tankless seems like the better option if you're going to be traveling, for example... Also they take up more space.
One of my concerns with switching to the 50 gallon is that it will be taller and the current location doesn't have a lot of vertical wiggle room....
Still lots more to think about... -
I think Nina's water damage was because of a tankless water heater that spewed hot water and steam into her house for days, so not sure it's superior if you're away from home for extended periods.
There are short tanks that are slightly wider. Let the plumber look at the space and tell you what they can fit in there.
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I think Nina's water damage was because of a tankless water heater that spewed hot water and steam into her house for days, so not sure it's superior if you're away from home for extended periods.
There are short tanks that are slightly wider. Let the plumber look at the space and tell you what they can fit in there.
@wtg said in Let's talk about water heaters!:
I think Nina's water damage was because of a tankless water heater that spewed hot water and steam into her house for days, so not sure it's superior if you're away from home for extended periods.
I had forgotten that, thanks for the reminder!!!
There are short tanks that are slightly wider. Let the plumber look at the space and tell you what they can fit in there.
Thanks, I will ask. Mr SK is at the house right now and I had him measure the current unit.
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Repair costs on tankless are a lot more. They have circuit boards. A regular water heater is a pretty basic device and usually the thing that goes is that it rusts and starts leaking and you just replace the whole thing. It's the thing that our HVAC guy told us about high efficiency furnaces and boilers. They are very efficient, but they break more often and cost a fortune to repair. Kind of like owning a Tesla.
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Repair costs on tankless are a lot more.
Yes, I'm getting that impression
Unfortunately, the tanked water heaters don't get much good press either. I'm trying to look at different brands, and every site I look at says basically "they don't make 'em like they used to"
The company I want to use sells, installs, and services AO Smith. Which is a brand I've never heard of, but it has it's share of reviews along the lines of "this thing came with a 6 year warranty, and it started leaking at 6 years and 2 months"
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I recently learned that there is such a thing as a heat pump water heater -- and right after reading about them, I found out my neighbor installed one a few months ago. I don't know what the fuel source of your water heater is -- ours is electric (we don't have gas at our house) and it is the single biggest consumer of electricity in our house, costing us anywhere from $40-50/month by itself (we had the electric company come in and do an analysis for us of why our bills were so high so that is their calculation.) Heat pump water heaters are able to somehow magically transfer the heat from the air in the basement or wherever they are installed and use that to heat the water and they basically cost nothing to run. My neighbor said his was a little more expensive than a normal electric water heater to purchase, but he hasn't noticed any jump in his electric bill at all (his old water heater ran off his oil heater, so he was expecting to see a higher electric bill from installing an electric water heater but he hasn't seen any increase at all.)
I definitely plan to go this route when it is time to install our next water heater (which is probably soon -- I bet ours is pushing 10-12 years old now). I guess it would only make sense if your current water heater is electric though - I think gas water heaters are a lot more efficient and you wouldn't need to add extra wiring and stuff. If you do have an electric water heater, I'd look into it though!
