My twelve year old 40 gallon gas fueled hot water heater is starting to make some noises (I think it was rated as lasting 12 years). We would like to be pro-active and replace it before it floods the basement. So, what is the latest word on hot water heaters - tankless, more efficient, any new safely features (this one was installed in one of those shut-off pans). We live in a 4 season climate - so we need it to work in 100 degree and 0 degree weather and have very hard water (filled with sediment). Also, when my daughter is home (not often but holidays) she uses a ton of very hot water to shower with.
I don’t know about hot water tanks, but have you thought about getting a water softener? You can rent or buy them. Our water is very hard so we’ve always had a softener.
We replaced our water tank a few years ago for a tankless model. I really like it. We always have hot water and if it did leak, the water damage would be minimal. Only downside is that it takes a little longer for water to get hot (I notice it mostly for our upstairs shower which is likely the farthest from tank)
Our boiler has tankless and we always had hot showers, even on the 3rd floor. Hot water was quick to the lav and kitchen, on the first floor. But, it was random whether or not a tub got enough.
Granted, this boiler is 40+ years old. We’re replacing with a 40 gallon tank (and new boiler.)
We have a tankless, and I’m not a fan. First, we replaced a traditional gas-heated tank, and as the installer drove away, check in hand, he noted, “If your power goes out, you instantly have no hot water.” Ummm, I hadn’t thought of that, and it would have been a deal-breaker. Even with an electric tank, you have enough hot water to take a shower or two after the power goes out. When our power was out for 4 days due to an ice storm last winter, a hot shower would have been heavenly. Second, as for the supposedly “limitless” hot water, it does run forever, but it can handle only one shower or other major hot water-consuming appliance at a time. This is supposedly a problem for a very small percentage of tankless users, but I apparently know all of them, leading me to think it is a problem with a much higher percentage than the official estimate. We have good water pressure in our house, so perhaps it isn’t such a problem if yours is piddly. Third, it was installed, our installer set it at what he said was the highest temperature at which it could be set. That wasn’t hot enough. Google eventually led us to a work-around or hack or something (I don’t remember what we did), and we got another 20 degrees out of it. If you get a tankless, be sure to check out the maximum temperature on your model. Finally, it sits on the outside of our house, right where everyone can see it, instead of being tucked discreetly tucked into a basement closet. There are models that can be installed inside, so be sure of that as well.
We went tankless earlier this year and I really like it. There are larger models you can get for homes with more bathrooms if you have multiple people showering at the same time. The only downside is that the hot water never runs out so the teens can really take endless showers ;-).
Our tankless coils run through the boiler, so yes, if the power was out, there is hot water in reserve to somewhat heat a shower, maybe just one, maybe lukewarm. Supposedly, with the new gas operated tank,ven in an outage, the water would heat. Guess I’ll find out on Thursday.
We replaced our 14 year old water heater just last week for the exact same reason. I felt like we were on borrowed time with it and didn’t want to go through the replacement process in an emergency situation. I called our long time plumber and he recommended that we stick with the same size and manufacturer. We got a 75 gallon Bradford White propane tank with a 6 year warranty. There is a 10 year model as well but we have our house listed so it wasn’t worth the extra money to us. If we were planning to stay here, I would have asked more about shut-off features.
We have a lot of water treatment equipment to soften and neutralize our very hard well water. We haven’t had any problems with sediment in the tank.
I’m reading with interest as we need to replace our hot water tank soon. Our plumber recommended staying with a traditional hot water tank but we haven’t done anything yet so this is interesting and timely for me.
If you are thinking about a tankless water heater, I would ask how hard water might affect it.
Our house (and a great many in our neighborhood) was built with a geothermal heating system. Ours and the majority of the neighborhoods have been torn out because of hard water and high iron content water. The systems get plugged and have been a real problem. We’ve had the same problem with our water softener, the high iron content builds up and there is very little water that flows through it.
Future SIL used to work with a plumber and he is a fan of tankless. One reason being for installation it’s much easier on the back. My sister replaced her water heater with tankless and it gave her more room and she was able with her remodel to move her washer and dryer inside the house. She does feel it takes longer for the hot water to reach her shower but feels the trade offs have been worth it.
We have two large water heaters in our house. We replaced with traditional water heaters because we have plenty of space, they are less expensive. We always have hot water as we have a recirculating pump. Both of our utility rooms have drains in them in case of a leak so no worries about flooding. The biggest reason I keep the standard 70 gallon water heaters is that in case of an earthquake if water lines are disrupted we have a supply of water.
How often one loses power is a big issue to consider. In our House1, we would have never even considered tankless. Our 70 -gallon tank gas water heater just kept on going when the power went out. The luxury of taking a hot bath when the power is out and not worrying about having enough hot water for washing dishes etc. was impossible to us.
House2 has a tankless combiboiler. We were told by the service guy that these heaters last 12-15 years (ours is about 10, so has to be replaced sometimes soon). Folks who hate tankless usually have a poor installation or a complete mismatch of their heater BTU to their household’s needs. The guy recommended Lochinvar brand boilers.
You probably could get local input if your water is hard and sediment is an issue. As above the temps are set low by plumbers (120 here) and this optimises life but is horrible IMO for use. When you increase the temp (we can, to 140), this increases water hardness (the guy here said 120=5 grains, 140=20 grains in my location). Maintenance is yearly but you can descale your own system (there are instructions). we have moved into a new house so maybe water pressure is limited by code too, but in reality the system is meh. It was rife with issues for the first 3 weeks exacerbated by a shed load of mansplaining from the builders people. The reciric needed to be fixed/parts replaced and it is only just tolerable. It is good enough and probably will be balanced by less water wastage. If it is a money saver and that is important, then tankless is probably all good.
Just saying: I got a lot of recommendations on the boiler and tank, but what it ends up about is what your plumber feels most comfortable with, has experienced success with, over the years, and has the expertise for.
I thought our 10 yr. old water heaters needed to be replaced, but our HVAC guy insisted they’ll be good for at least another 10 years with new anode rods. For a small fraction of the cost of new water heaters he replaced the anode rods and cleaned the tanks. They’ve been working well ever since. He also recently revived our master suite HVAC with an OEM hard start kit after a previous tech had used a cheap one that failed almost immediately. Hope he never retires.
The idea of tankless appealed to me until I read that it’s much better for sequential use than for simultaneous use. When family visits, it’s not uncommon for four or more people to shower at the same time either after a swim or getting ready to go out.
Having grown up in a country where tankless water heaters are the norm, we had a small tankless heater inside each bathroom and one in the kitchen. We never had the problems of cold water runs or lack of hot water. Tankless water heaters were meant to be installed in small houses or apartments. I don’t know whether existing 40 or more gallons water heaters are meant to be replaced by just ONE tankless heater serving the entire house with multiple bathrooms and kitchen even though the specifications say that they can.
“Tankless water heaters were meant to be installed in small houses or apartments.”
Not true.
You need to make sure you are getting the right thing that can handle max water flow. Our hydroair combiboiler works as both a water heater and a “furnace” and has enough capacity to provide both heat and hot water for the entire house. I would steer away from plumbers who only occasionally deal with boilers and only work with folks who do boiler install for a living. When ours needed a repair, the first two plumbers who showed up were completely unfamiliar with boilers even though they said they were servicing boilers.
@cbreeze “Having grown up in a country where tankless water heaters are the norm, we had a small tankless heater inside each bathroom and one in the kitchen. We never had the problems of cold water runs or lack of hot water. Tankless water heaters were meant to be installed in small houses or apartments. I don’t know whether existing 40 or more gallons water heaters are meant to be replaced by just ONE tankless heater serving the entire house with multiple bathrooms and kitchen even though the specifications say that they can.”
Me too. We had all those tiny tankless gas water heaters hanging out outside wall of the bathroom and ordered new gas tank when the gas ran out. Not a fan of these water heaters, especially those gas type. You need to have good ventilation to make it work, not like someone posted earlier that you can put one in a closet, or it could kill you (the silent killer of carbon monoxide. And since they are usually installed outside of the house, they got rotted by the elements. Last year, I read an article an American tourist went to a Mexico resort and was killed by a leak of gas from this kind of tankless water heater.
We had the bathroom tankless when we lived abroad, ours was electric. But the thread is referring to whole-house tankless.
Looks like I will be replacing with another 50 gallon tank - they warranty for 6 or 10 years (you pay extra for the 10 years).