Let's talk about water heaters!
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What do you have now, and what was in your old house?
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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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what about capacity? 40 gallon or 50 gallon?
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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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What about the rental? Tankless? Or if not, can you see how big the tank is?
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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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Our rental house water heater is a 50 gallon Whirlpool. I don’t see a date on it.
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Never heard any complaint from anyone that their hot water heater tank is “too big,” that they have “too much hot water.”
Most of the cost of changing it goes to labor anyway.
Just go with a big tank and be done with it.
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Good point Ax.
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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.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@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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Welcome to the world of home ownership. Don't get me started on portable dehumidifiers.
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Portable dehumidifiers must be up near the top of crappy appliances!
Ugh, reading reddit (the homeimprovement subreddit) is just very discouraging.
The current water heater is 23 years old. As the saying goes "they don't make 'em like they used to."
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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!
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Yes, I've heard of those. We have natural gas though, so we're going to stick with that.
Also, by way of update, I've been reading a lot about tankless and we definitely don't want one. So now I have two companies, and just need to choose I think. One company is a bit cheaper but has fewer recs and reviews... so I'm trying to figure that out.
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Well, in looking through the online reviews, I saw one from the loan officers who we did our mortgage with. He has a pretty uncommon name, so I'm sure it's him. That and the fact that the company was rec'ed by my real estate agent has me about ready to move forward.
I hate making decisions. How did we ever even buy this house?
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Ok, I picked. We’re scheduled to get the new water heater installed a week from today. Whew. Hope the install goes well. I’ll be glad when it’s all done, we have the water heater, the stair railing, and some bathroom vents. And it’s all supposed to get done before we move in, but I’m not holding my breath.
