Water Heater advice needed

[EddieWalker]

I'm looking at water heaters and trying to decide which would be the best choice. Hopefully y'all can help me out.

My ultimate goal is to have three 50 gallon water heaters to supply water for 7 showers. I have the water capacity covered with a 1 1/2 inch line coming in and plenty of power available. For right now, I just need one to get things going.

A commercial unit will run $2,000 and not last any longer then the box store brands. Many RV Park and hotel owners have switched to this method of multiple 50 gallon units, so I'm gonna give it a try.

I prefer readily available off the rack stuff. It's easy to replace and usually more cost effective.

This is electric only. No gas available.

The three brands I'm considering are Reliance, GE and Whirlpool. Price range for all with the same warrantee and size are similar. The Reliance is a bit more, but not much.

Also warranty issues. Is a 9 year model that much better then a 6 year one? Is a 12 year worth the extra expense over the others?

Personally I've found it rather hard to collect on warantees after so many years. I've never tried with a water heater, just tools, and it's a huge run around with varying results. Or I should say, I'm skeptical on whether the warrantees are valid.

I've also been told that some products are exactly the same, but they charge more for a longer warrantee on it to compensate the replacement cost. Don't know if this is true with water heaters or not.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[millsnhills]

Eddie,

Just curious why you said Gas not available. As soon as I read this and thinking about it serving a park I though 1500 gallon tank and using propane?

Jeff

 

[bczoom]

Eddie,

I replaced mine a year or 2 ago.

What I found was that the one that had the 12 year warrantee was double the price as the 6 year. I went with the 6 year and if it makes it any longer than the 6 years I'm ahead of the game.

I also keep my eye on scratch-and-dents or overstock or whatever. I picked up a 2nd water tank (not sure if it's going in the shop or keep for a spare) from Home Depot for $80.

Brian

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Eddie,

I've been looking at replacing my water heater and I like the models and prices at Lowe's. I attached a sample of their 50 gallon units as well as an 80. The main differences in the more expensive units are: <ul type="square"> [*]Longer warranty [*]More insulation [*]Better components (e.g. stainless steel vs. copper heating elements) [*] Fancy control box (this actually may be a good feature for your application) [/list] The more expensive units are more efficient mainly because of more insulation. Note the energy factors range from .87 to .95, and the higher the factor, the larger the diameter due to more insulation. By the way, I'm not sure any multi-year warranties would apply in a commercial setting.

 

[jloppy]

Heating anything , especially that much water, with electricity is always going to be more expensive. I work for a local natural gas company and install water heaters and gas appliances everyday.

I don't have propane or natural gas at my own residence, just so you can see where I'm coming from.

If natural gas is not available, I would not invest in propane- go with an oil (no.2 fuel oil) water heater instead, because it is cheaper than propane.

Standby heat loss is the major expense of any tank style water heater, so if you have to have an electric model you may want to think about instantaneous water heaters. They will last at least 20 years and take up very little space. The major plus for this type of unit, is that you never run out of hot water, well...that is if you pay your utility bills!

Now that you are totally confused, please let us know what you decide.

 

[Whiskey]

EddieWalker

How about the new "heat as you need it" thingys. We have them in the office here and they will heat water as fast as you can use it......maybe a little pricey on the front end but cheapper in the long run.....no need to keep 50 gallons hot all the time, just when needed.

I can't remember the name but Paul Harvey has adds for them all the time on his show...starts with an "R"

Edit....just looked under the sink here in the office, name on this one is tiny titan water heater. It's a little smaller than the adv. desk top computer brain box

 

[BB_TX]

Eddie - Curious how you intend to plumb those. Years ago we had 2 50 gallon heaters plumbed in parallel in a small business assuming there would be equal flow thru each when the hot water was turned on. Wrong. For some reason, most all the flow went thru one of them and the water would eventually run cold even though the other heater was still hot. The supply pipe split into both heaters and the outlets came back into a common pipe. Looked like there should be no problem. Apparently due to the dynamics of the flow, most of the water went thru only one. You could put your hand on the outlet of one and it was hot. The other was barely warm. and the common pipe was barely warm. Don't remember how they solved the problem.

 

[dmccarty]

Eddie,

In the new house we put in a 80 gallon electric water heater. We bought the most expensive unit HD had in stock. We wanted a large unit since I have the wife and two little girls who will be using more and more water as they get older. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

In our old house we had a water heater that was 40 gallons or so. If we did not use low flow shower heads it was very easy to run out of hot water. With low flow heads the last person, meaning me, might not get the hottest water but at least it was warm.

The yellow tag cost to operate the 80 gallon tank was less than the cost to run the other water heaters that HD had in stock. I think the heater was around $400. Our old house's electric bill before we sold it was running about $40 a month. A big part of that bill had to be the water heater. The only thing consuming power was the fridge, a few lights, and the water heater. Our new house's electric bill for the same period was $80. That included the water heater, lights, TVs, microwave, OVEN, stove top, fans, fridge, freezer, and lights.

We looked at on demand water heaters. With electric power I was worried that the units would not be able to heat up the water. The on demand units heating ability depends on how many GPM are being used plus how much heat the heater can put into the water. If the source was 40 degrees the heater might only be able to add say 40 degrees to the water. Tain't hot enough. I did not have time to figure out the well water temp though I could guess. nor the GPM we would be needing..... So we went with the old water tank.

We also looked at solar water heat but it did not make money sense for us. I have heard that the new energy bill put in some Federal incentives for solar water heating but I could not find it in the bill. In NC there where tax credits for solar water heating. A buisness had pretty good credits. Might want to see if you state has these credits and maybe the Feds can help out now.

I don't expect to use a warranty. I figure the company offering them is pretty sure that the equipment will not fail and cost them money during the time period of the warranty. It is worth it to me to not have to hassle with a broken unit. I don't have the time and don't want to lack hot water for a day or two. And if I can't get it fixed I then have to wait on a plumber. We are waiting two weeks right now for our plumber to show up to fix a freezeless faucet that froze. Not a big deal for the faucet but it would be for the water heater. Hopefully a 12 year warranty will last more than 12 years....

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks for the advice. I'm leaning towards the Whirlpool one from Lowes just because I like shopping at Lowes more then the other stores. No other real reason unless somebody knows something about Whirlpool that I should know.

The manifold required for multiple water heaters is the key to keeping them all working together. Or so I've been told. It must be the exact same length and size to operate properly. This requires some clever twists and turns to make it happen, but from what I've seen, it's the middle one that is the hardest.

For now, I'm only puting in one water heater. I've plumbed in a once inch CPVC line to distribute it down the road with a 1 1/2 inch supply.

The propane option is always there, and I'm still looking into it, but not for now. Right now I'm more concerned with getting hot water going and seeing how the electric models are doing. Pesonally I'm not convinced on the savings of gas over electric. I've heard and seen some convinceing arguments for both. Same for the on demand, instat water heaters. For the upfront cost, I'm not sure how long the return payback will be. Still in consideration for the rest of the park, but not really an option right now.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[BB_TX]

When we built our house, the builder suggested putting in two 50 gallon water heaters, one for the master bath, second one for the kitchen, laundry room, and kids bath. Great idea. No matter how long our son or daughter stayed in the shower ( which usually lasted as long as there was hot water) we always had hot water to our bathroom. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I need to look at the brand. They are 21 years old with almost no problems. I replaced both the upper and lower heater elements once in one of them and the lower element once in the other. Very good service.