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Re: Hot water heater advice Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:25:02
In Reply to: Hot water heater advice, dtech, Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:24:57 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
It can be the thermostat, but there are a bunch of other possibilities -
(1) crud buildup is filling the bottom of the water heater. You do use the drain to clear out the crud every year, right (you can stop laughing now). This effectively decreases the capacity of the water heater - you'll run out much faster because your 40 gallon is now a 20 gallon. Oh, by the way - if you don't do a yearly drain of the crud, don't try it now. The crud has just formed a solid mass. And the valve will likely fail, too.
(2)The fill tube has rotted away. Cold water enters through a fill tube that goes to the bottom of the tank; hot water is drawn from the top of the tank. If the fill tube rots away, the incoming cold water is drawn right into the hot water output - you get nice hot water at the bottom of the tank, but lukewarm water is drawn out.
10 years is about the limit on most water heaters these days. You can extend their lives by regularly draining the crud and replacing the anode rod. But unmaintained, 10 years is about right.
New gas hot water heaters are a little more expensive these days, because of some recent changes in safety requirements. But as an example, I just had my 10 year old AO Smith 40 gallon gas water heater replaced for $750. I had another quote for an American (brand name) 40 gallon unit for $900. The 10 year old unit I replaced I had put in myself (10 years ago) for about $350 - the cost of the unit. Getting rid of the old one was a pain - literally. Hurt my back getting it out of the basement. That's why I paid a younger guy to do it.
Many folks have recommended on-demand units. Get the latest Fine Homebuilding for a few articles. Things to know - you may need to increase the gas delivery rate. A typical 40 gallon hot water heater is about 40,000 BTU. An on-demand unit can run 150,000 BTU. That's a lot more gas. In the end, less fuel used, but you still need to size the fuel line coming in and the exhaust line going out. On-demand units also have the 'cold water suprise' factor. From Fine Homebuilding - Dad takes a hot shower - Pipes are full of nice, hot water. 10 minutes later, Mom gets in to shower. The water in the insulated pipes is still hot, but the uninsulated on-demand heat exhanger cools off. Turn on the water - Mom gets a couple of minutes of nice hot water, then the plug of cold water hits.
The other one - on-demand units are rate limited. If you take a shower and someone turns on the dishwasher, it can only produces so much hot water. So the temperature drops. This is a cold shower, unless you have a temperature balanced shower valve, in which case the shower pressure drops to a trickle. There are solutions that involve adding a small (10 gallon) backup tank.
But assume at least half-again as much for a tankless than a tanked system. Tankless are more efficient, so fuel costs go down. Unless you have a teen-ager that loves taking longer showers with the 'endless' hot water.
If you go with a tank unit - yes, get a drip pan. But plumb the drip pan to a drain. If the water heater has a minor leak, an un-drained drip pan is OK as long as it gets checked regularly. But if it isn't checked regularly, or you have a big leak, the worst case is street water pressure / well pump running through the water heater and out the drip pan. So plan for a robust drain. The automatic water shut-off is also a good solution.
posted by 192.249....
, Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:25:02 <-- Viewing This Message
, Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:12:21
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