Mine is 19yrs old, will be 20yrs old in Dec. Mfg. Date is 12/2006 40gallon (my AC condenser is from 96 double , a tank but also ) Currently having no problems with it, although occasionally my wife and kids complain there is no hot water but that's more likely to do with my son or daughter taking a half hour hot shower IMO but they say occasionally some inconsistencies. Half of me says it ain't broke don't fix it, other half says, it's going to go any second and probably at the worse possible time, mid week, when everyone is working and in school and needs showers and I don't have time to replace and I should just plan on doing it on my terms on a weekend when everyone is aware of it and be done with it and go to a 50gallon as we are family of 5.
Why do you heat your hot water? 40 gallon is pretty small for more than 3 people...50 would be the smallest I'd go. Is it gas or electric? If gas, standing pilot, or no? If it is a standing pilot gas water heater, then you are already on borrowed time...lucky to get seven years outta those, at least in these parts.
Hahah!!! Yeah it is small, was a window's home prior to myself and family moving in and we grew a little. Looking at charts, yes 50 would be the smallest. This is natural gas line with a standing pilot I believe. Everywhere I look it said they only last 7-10, how on earth did it get this far? Crazy!
Ok, well I would not go back with a standing pilot type...they are the least efficient, due to 24/7 heat loss up the stack, and that center HX tube is right where they rust/leak then too. My 2 cents...
Not that it happens often... went nearly two weeks without power 15 years ago. I had very few amenities. One that I did have was hot showers due to a standing pilot unit. We tend to forget what a luxury that is until it's one of the only ones we have left.
I replaced mine about 4 years ago. Had a 50 and occasionally would run out of hot water. I replaced it with two 40 gallon water heaters running in parallel. Built input and output manifolds with ball valves on all connections. Important consideration is all pipes in and out have to be the exact same length for even distribution of water. This way I can disconnect one of the water heaters if the other runs into trouble. I also installed WIFI enabled units so I can control the temperature and if I go away can turn the temperature down real low and then turn it back up before I return. Best part of having two 40 gallon units I have never had a problem with hot water even when my son has his friends staying over.
Good point...but I think I recall OP talking about putting in a generator transfer switch, so that could/would alleviate the issue...very lower power draw too, so...
Yep. It's give and take. I burn a little extra gas but my bill isn't bad. I had a genny running fridge, deep freeze and a box fan (close to $400 in fuel by the time it was over...learned from that). I did also have iced cream as a luxury and made it a point to enjoy some.
That's why I have 2 gennys...a big one to run the well pump, etc every now and then, and a little 2500w inverter genny (with eco mode) to run the small stuff 24/7, without eating me out of house n home
RCBS and brenndatomu you are giving me nightmares about my 26 day experience going without power.. yup. MIL wanted to have thanksgiving here for 14; yup can laugh about it now sort of..
My previous gas water heater tank was already in this house when I bought it. It was a 2009 State Industries Select model that died in 2023. It died in winter - actually the end of winter, but the replacement install work was done on a windy, single-digit day. Is there a reason you aren't looking at on demand? IDK if they can actually keep up with the needs of a 5 person family, but I love mine. It's a direct vent, so on a wall and frees up all the space that the tank used to take up. That may not work for you, so just a suggestion. Full disclosure, I replaced both my FHW boiler and WH with a direct vent comb-boiler. My boiler was over 30 years old, so figured I would replace both at the same time. I only use the water heater portion since I use pellet stoves for heating. It is electric ignition, but plugs into a 120 outlet and only needs power for lighting for a second - a backup battery easily handles that during power outage. It definitely saves a lot of propane compared to the 40 gal water heater/tank I had previously. Regardless of what you decide on, take a look and see if what you are looking at qualifies for a tax incentive (either state or local). Also, your local utility may offer rebates.
I’m a big fan of always trying to upgrade something. I’d at least have the replacement close by if yours is 20 years old. Last house I bought the first thing I did was replace the water heater. Never even fired it up. I like the idea of two in parallel or an on demand. If we build new I will probably do a tank to feed the everyday faucets and an on demand to feed the spare bathrooms. Might be cheaper just to have two tanked heaters!
I also looked into adding a water recirculation system. Looks fairly easy to do and fairly inexpensive but the more I looked into it, obviously it jacks up your utilities cost. We often have to wait a full minute or two before getting hot water upstairs in the kids and our master bathroom. The routine is turn the shower on and go layout what your going to wear to work that day, by the time your done you just about have hot water or it's only a few more second wait. Not a huge inconvenience as we are use to it and its just routine but would be nice to have hot water. Not sure if anyone is running one or has experience with them. We have pipes going through a concrete slab over and up into those bathrooms on the 2nd floor. They can be cooold in the winter....
There is a system out there that can be added on to your sink that uses existing lines to quickly flush hot water through to the bathroom...I first seen it used on This Old House, it's pretty slick, I'll see if I can find it. IIRC it uses the cold water line as the return to the water heater, it has a pump that you flip on to recirc just until the hot water gets to the bathroom, then you turn the recirc pump off and everything returns to normal. No extra standby losses that way... Edit: here it is... How To Install a Hot Water Recirculation Pump - This Old House
I'll bet they have a motion sensor you can add to activate it. I'm pretty sure I've seen one a few years ago. Maybe something like garage door eyes mounted at the door. Once tripped it activates the pump so that by the time you're ready to use the sink fresh, hot water is at the faucet.
Same here. Considering two systems, one for each side of the house. But as mentioned above if there is a switch or motion activated pump, I may look into that as well. We just wait now but all I think about is how wasteful it is to keep dumping water like that into the septic.
