Electric Hot Water Heaters

[RichZ]

My old electric hot water heater seems to be dying. I'm going to go check out what Home Depot and Lowes have next week. Has anyone bought an electric hot water heater lately? Anyone have any recomendations? I can only use an electric hot water heater in my house. We don't have gas, and I really don't want to get a tank for gas, so we need another electric hot water heater.

Thanks!!

 

[MikeD74T]

By dying do you mean leaking??? If not, thermostats & elements are an easy fix. MikeD74T

 

[RobertN]

Have you flushed it to get all the sediment out? Might be worth a try. Might drain it and check your heating elements too; they should be replaceable.

Amazing even on city water how much sediment you can get.

 

[MikePA]

Has anyone bought an electric hot water heater lately? Anyone have any recomendations?

We have an AO Smith now. Previously, we had one sold by our electric co-op (sold at $1/gallon capacity) and before that, one from Sears what was in the house when we bought it.

 

[irvingj]

Rich- ditto the comments about flushing-- electric elements run so hot they'll force minerals out of solution... this will gather at the bottom, gradually building up to "smother" the lower element, blocking heat transfer--or worse. Not that we live in hard water areas or anything!

 

[hr3]

Rich,, I just bought a new one a few months ago. We had a 80 gal. When the kids were growing up so we decided to go to a 50 gal. The only reason we replaced it was we were having a new well pump and xtrol tank put in and I wanted the whole thing relocated to the center of the house.. Sooo I told them to replace the 努ater heater at the same time,, the old one was 35 years old too.. The price was about the same as the Big Box stores.

One problem I had with the new one was the T-stats settings.. At first I didn't notice but when I got my first electric bill Wow... It took another month to get them adjusted right.. The top element was doing all the work and it cost me !!!

 

[Bedlam]

I agree , just what is dying ?It could be a simple fix. (element).Fingers crossed.
But we need to know How Old It is? Leaking, not heating? two elements to it? overheating?
All this will help all of us to help you.

 

[keegs]

I bought a Westinghouse at Lowes about 2 years ago. It's holding up well.

My schpeal on electric HW heaters is to keep them well grounded, use dielectric nipples at the connections, absolutely flush it once a year (make sure you turn it off before you flush).

 

[SpringHollow]

Just a little bit of advice - i always replace the crappy cheap gate drain valves with a good ball valve style. This allows much better flushing (which i would do more often than once a year) and you do not need to worry about a piece of junk getting caught in the valve preventing it from shutting off completely.

Ken

 

[eepete]

I've had bad luck with a "high end" 80 gallon unit sold by Whirlpool and made in Tennessee by a major water heater manufacturer. Bought it at a box store. Two problems: The temperature control is a cheap potentiometer (it's a Ceramet ceramic pot for the geeks in the crowd). A lot of these pots get flakey after about 50 adjustments and don't like high humidity. The relays are undersized, and have stuck on. An online check shows this to be a common problem. There are also failures to an open. We have two of them (on one each geothermal heat pump) and the one that is cycled the most is giving trouble. Some day I'll just re-do the controller board for it.

In the old house, we had the standard hot water heater where you could replace the thermostat by the elements with a generic thermostat you could get at a hardware store. We were on well water, and all the comments on flushing are correct. The ball valve idea is great! Seems like very 3-4 years it needed a new thermostat.

So at this point, the old bimetallic thermostat looks better than the electronic control, just because the silly engineers that did the electronics control don't know enough about selecting the correct components (or their management knows too much about selecting parts that will barely make it past the warranty period).

With the geothermal heat pumps that also make hot water, the water is circulated through the heater via the drain valve in the bottom (and the hot water out at the top). In theory, this means that "the pot is always stirred" and sediment isn't a problem. In practice, well, time will tell. Surely someone in the construction trade wouldn't steer me wrong!

So I'd stay with the old fashion thermostat. Buy whatever has the most insulation around the tank. Replace the drain valve with a ball valve. Flush out the sediment annually.

Question for keegs: With regard to "well grounded", do you consider the ground provided by the AC power connection to be OK? And do your grounding concerns change if you have plastic/PEX vs. copper pipes?

Pete

 

[keegs]

Question for keegs: With regard to "well grounded", do you consider the ground provided by the AC power connection to be OK? And do your grounding concerns change if you have plastic/PEX vs. copper pipes?

Pete

Hi Pete,

We have poly from the city main here in Jersey to the house and copper indoors. When I installed the tank I ran a strap between the water lines (in/out) and a strap from the water line to a seperate ground I set through the basement slab.

 

[eepete]

keegs: Makes perfect sense.

By any chance do you have a sacrificial anode installed anywhere in you're houses grounding system (either a hunk of zinc or whatever they put in if you have a propane tank) ?

Pete

 

[SpringHollow]

They did not install any sacrificial anode for our propane.

One in your hot water tank makes a lot of sense. There are two different kinds, depends upon your water conditions which one is best.

Ken

 

[keegs]

keegs: Makes perfect sense.

By any chance do you have a sacrificial anode installed anywhere in you're houses grounding system (either a hunk of zinc or whatever they put in if you have a propane tank) ?

Pete

Pete,

There's a grounding electrode at the main switch (outside the house) and there's one in the basement. There's an anode in the tank but that's it.

 

[eepete]

One in the tank means you're good to go. When I was on well water, the key was get the pH under control and have an anode somewhere.

ksimolo, what are the two different kinds? I've just been using marine-type anodes attached to the ground system for the house. I have one I can dig up every 5 years and see how it's all going.

Pete

 

[RichZ]

Sorry, I should have been more specific in my original post. The heater isn't leaking, but it isn't putting out much volume anymore. our hot water pressure is very low. And the unit is OLD. We've been in this house ten years, and the people we bought it from were in it for 17 years. They say the hot water heater was old when they bought the house 27 years ago. I have no idea how many heating elements it has, and I figured that it was so old, I'd never be able to get parts for it to do any repairs on it. I also thought that it's got to be much less efficient than a modern unit.

 

[kenmac]

It's been there too long . Just replace it. Not much difference in any of the so called brands. Longer tank warranty just means larger or multiple anodes

 

[RichZ]

Kenmac, ,that's what I was thinking, and our HVAC guy (who is a friend) said that he hasn't noticed any difference between repairs on any of the brands, and he's certified to do warranty work. He feels they're all pretty much the same. That's why I posted here, I wanted to know if anyone had any good or bad experienced with electric hot water heaters. I figured unless I heard otherwise, I'd just try to find one at the best price possible. I'll probably check out Home Depot and Lowes for prices soon, for starters.

 

[SpringHollow]

THe two types of anodes are magnesium and i believe aluminum. If you are on a well and there are iron bacteria, the magnesium will give you a sulfur smell.

Ken

 

[eepete]

ksimolo: Tnx! What a great way to start the day, learning something new. I've used the magnesium/zinc ones, didn't know aluminum could be in the mix. If you had the aluminum, you'd not want to use water from the hot water tap for cooking, since that might raise your aluminum intake.

Pete