Water Heaters

[nastytrucker]

Originally Posted by Dennis_H

Ken,

I'm doing the same thing right now. I have 2 40's in series and have the more efficient one doing the majority of the heating and the next as mostly a holding tank. With 6 people in the house, we were running out of hot water all the time. I cranked up the temperature with a single, but that only works so far. I was going to put in a new single 80, but this was cheaper and was in stock when I wanted to do it. This didn't seem to hurt the electric bill and I don't run out of hot water ever.

Dennis_H

Do you really never run out of hot water or have you never used up the whole 80gallons? This seems like a good alternative to a tankless if you can put 2 40's back to back.

[kenw]

Originally Posted by arcproducts

OMG --- That stinks, but all the houses in our subdivision are like ours. Dumb dumb dumb.

It's not just your neighborhood, most houses in the greater Houston area are that way. But worry not, it isn't as bad as it seems.

1) It's an un-cooled space so the heat it gives off won't hurt your AC (having it in an inside closet would be bad for that reason).

2) Your attic is very hot most of the year, so the loss of heat from the heater is minimal, so that's a plus.

3) being very high, you can still use it if you ever loose water pressure, ie, you can still take a hot/warm bath or shower, albeit with very low pressure, even when a hurricane knocks out the power to the water supply's pumps.

see? you just have to know how to look at these things......

[kenw]

Originally Posted by nastytrucker

Do you really never run out of hot water or have you never used up the whole 80gallons? This seems like a good alternative to a tankless if you can put 2 40's back to back.

in reality, with 2x40 in series you still can run out of water, but there are very, very few things in a normal house that can use 80 gallons of water quickly enough to be an issue.

[picman]

Interesting remarks on brands here: http://www.weilhammerplumbing.com/products/

and has some not so good things to say about tankless here:http://www.weilhammerplumbing.com/houseofhorrors/

[toverman]

My parents have a gas water heater in their attic that they replaced last year (I remember now). An important thing for the plumber to note is the drip tray, which is really important with the heater where it is. It will help catch water that may come out of the heater and direct it into the sewer. An independent plumber installed my parents' new heater and did not pay attention to the rusty drip pan. Just a thought!

[arcproducts]

Ken - thanks for the gentle reminder - it IS a matter of the cup is half full or half empty now isn't it ?

Brian - nice info - I sent the link to my husband

Todd -- awesome observation, the plumber we spoke to this morning, said he inspected ours, and it was in good shape. He did tell us a few other things that you DO want to replace and not re-use from the old one, like some hoses or vents or something ... my husband knows, and agrees

Thanks once again everyone !!!!!

[Dennis_H]

Originally Posted by nastytrucker

Do you really never run out of hot water or have you never used up the whole 80gallons? This seems like a good alternative to a tankless if you can put 2 40's back to back.

I guess you could, but we haven't run out with 6 people (2 of them teenagers). As Ken said, it's the recovery time that kills you and this seems to minimize it for us by having a 'pre-heater' and a storage tank. We should save more water if our new washer we ordered ever comes in...

A tankless was not an option for us since we had electric.