<p>We have hit the 10 year mark and along with the washing machine, garage door and one of the toilets now our hot water heater is acting up.</p>
<p>Because our NEVER used Jacuzzi needs 60 some gallons to fill (we never put in a whirlpool heater), we have a 75 gallon Bradford White with the hydro jet technology. There have been times when the 4 of us are showering back to back and the last one runs out of hot water. S1 is a college freshman and S2 leaves next fall so I might not need the big heater, but…maybe…these old bones will start taking baths…</p>
<p>The tankless versions will not work because we have no way to properly vent it. Our house is set up for a power vented water heater so that adds to the cost of the unit.</p>
<p>The big question is…if I downsize to a 50 gal unit, will I get hot showers only when the kids are away at school?</p>
<p>We have 2- 75 gal units…One services kids bathrooms,and the other serves ours with a the large soaking tub,and rain shower…I would suggest you keep what you have</p>
<p>We have a 40 gallon storage tank that holds hot water heated by the boiler, it doesn’t have its own heat supply. It’s covered in 3" of foam insulation so the water stays hot a long time, it only loses a couple degrees per day.</p>
<p>If we take one shower at a time, to boiler can heat it pretty much as fast as it gets used, I don’t think we’ve ever run out. Two showers at once can start to get lukewarm if they are long showers, like 15+ minutes.</p>
<p>75 gallons just seems really huge to me… if 4 people are using it up, maybe you should crank the temperature higher. Or get low-flow shower heads. Or take shorter showers. :)</p>
<p>Not sure why power-venting would preclude getting a tankless heater. Can’t you power-vent those?</p>
<p>I just got a 55 Bradford White (no longer comes 50). It fits size, so plumber didn’t have to redo plumbing. Tankless was not an option. Hot water comes quicker than in my former 20 year old tank.</p>
<p>I hope you replace before it starts leaking–that was messy.</p>
<p>Our plumber told us we could mount the tankless unit on the outside of the house…no venting issues there. Much more costly than the inside mount though…</p>
<p>We just got a tankless. You can mount them outside but ours is in the basement, mounted on a wall and they just drilled a hole through the concrete/brick and it vents right next to our front door steps (hidden by some bushes, of course).</p>
<p>We have a 75 gal, oil-fired, for 5 and have never run out. No one takes super long showers in the mornings here though. My energy-conscious S says you only need to size it for the water you need during a peak of usage…normal showers/dishwasher use about 15 gal, washers use around 25. He wants me to go tankless as well but the oil-fired unit was expensive and is relatively cheap to operate, so I’m not eager to buy something else just yet!</p>
<p>Two 40-gal natural gas fired high efficiency water heaters. One for the kitchen & kids’ bath; one for the master bath & laundry. (I also have 2 high efficiency gas forced air furnaces to go with the water heaters–one for each side of the house. Just the way house was was designed.) </p>
<p>I’m considering having having recirculation pumps installed on both water heaters since we have no basements here and the water lines runs under the concrete slab the house sits on. (Where’s it’s always a nice cool 55 degrees–cools the hot water in the line off fast, esp in the winter.) The distance from the water heater to the master shower is about 50 feet–which means it takes forever for the hot water to show up.</p>
<p>I have a 40 or 50 gallon water heater w/ 3-4 inches of insulation wrapped around it. I don’t think I’ve ever ran out of hot water… But I usually only have 1-3 people showering here on a given day.</p>
<p>Check for state rebates. Some energy efficient models have rebates in my state, WI. My water heater just died, got a new 40 gallon GE power vent from Home Depot. Being by an outside wall, the venting is no big deal, though they didn’t like my 20 year old venting system, and had to redo, for an extra $130 or so. Yes, hot water is now faster. I’d think a front loading washing machine would use far less than 25 gallons. </p>
<p>Mine was leaking, but right into the sump pump tank, so no big mess, if wasteful. </p>
<p>Am curious as to which would be more energy efficient, large tank or really cranking up the temp in a smaller tank when occasionally needed for the jacuzzi or more people showering.</p>
<p>We have two 50 gallon gas water heaters in our basement. They should be ready to replace just about the time #3 heads to college and we’ll probably replace with one 75 gallon. 2 3/4 baths. We only ran out of hot water once and I think I had dishes cleaning, the washer going and all 5 of us taking showers one after another so no recovery time. The worked, but clearly once it’s the two of us we won’t need that much hot water on standby.</p>
<p>We have the standard 40 gallon heater for our family, which was 5, now down to 4 at home. It’s fine for us. Two people can shower back to back in the morning provided they don’t take long showers. I like a nice hot bath and some family members shower at night instead of the morning.</p>
<p>I tried mightily to talk my husband into this when we installed the tankless heater (to no avail). Tankless does not mean instant hot water - it simply you don’t run out of hot water - even when it’s being used in different locations at the same time.</p>
<p>My husband didn’t want to install a recirculating pump because he didn’t think it was very energy efficient. For some reason, it seems to take forever for the hot water to reach our kitchen sink even though the kitchen sink faucet is closest to the heater.- this was true before we had a tankless heater and after we got one. Not so much of an issue with the bathrooms.</p>
<p>In our last house we had 2 60 gallon tanks that were piggybacked - never ran out of hot water. With a single 60 gallon tank, we often ran out of hot water - especially because I like to take baths.</p>
<p>We have a 100 gallon commercial gas hot water heater put in by the previous owner. I love it. We never run out of hot water. I have a 45 gal soaking tub and DH can take a shower while it fills. </p>
<p>We saved $15/month on our electric bill and about the same on gas when we turned off the recalculating pump.</p>
<p>I did not realize that some recirculating pumps had timers on them so you can turn them off during down times. I need to grab a flashlight and check it out…</p>
<p>A better question would be: how many btus do you use and what is you per btu rate?</p>
<p>We have a recirculating pump and I have no intent on ever turning it off. The entire house’s plumbing volume adds to the capacity of the hot water heater, so I can take a shower and fill my gigantic tub at the same time. I also do not want to pay for the water which goes down the drain while I wait for the hot water to reach the showerhead. And I’m not even talking about the clicking noise of the contracting and expanding water pipes! I think all of it is worth the extra $3-5/month I might be paying for keeping the recirculating pump going. :)</p>