Let's talk about water heaters!
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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 Aum么nier
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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鈥檙e scheduled to get the new water heater installed a week from today. Whew. Hope the install goes well. I鈥檒l be glad when it鈥檚 all done, we have the water heater, the stair railing, and some bathroom vents. And it鈥檚 all supposed to get done before we move in, but I鈥檓 not holding my breath.
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40 or 50? Inquiring minds want to know.
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- AO Smith. That鈥檚 the brand almost all the local contractors are installing, and based on googling around, I鈥檓 resigned to the fact that they鈥檙e all probably crap anyway
- AO Smith. That鈥檚 the brand almost all the local contractors are installing, and based on googling around, I鈥檓 resigned to the fact that they鈥檙e all probably crap anyway
