Well guys my hot water heater has started leaking and I’m heading out this weekend to purchase one. The one I have is a 50 gallon electric model. I have been looking at the new electric hybrid models and they claim there three times more efficient and I also considered a tankless one but in a gas version model. I have propane at my home and we have a gas cook stove. What would be the best choice to save money down the road? They recently raised out electric rates in my area and I’m trying to find better ways to cut cost.
Beat me to it... Gas might be a bit cheaper to run, but the electric is more efficient...no heat lost up the flue. Over one year in on my hybrid now...glad I did it...
I will face the same question soon. A friend installed a hybrid, and loves it. It takes a little more maintenance, and makes a little noise. There you go, all I know.
My understanding is that the Hybrid will remove moisture from its surroundings. This would mean I wouldn’t have to run the dehumidifier as much. That’s one reason I’d like the hybrid.
More maintenance? There's a mesh air filter to wash out about once per year, that's about all I know. It does make a little noise...its basically a tiny little AC unit...you probably wouldn't want it in your living room, but it's pretty quiet really...but my Richmond is one of the quieter ones so...
I’m gonna watch my electric company, sometimes they have rebates on water heaters. My old heater is fine for now.
Very happy with the hybrid electric unit we installed the end of December. Water is hotter (temp set same), plentiful ( used to have issues with temp after 2nd person showers), and costs have decreased. I want to get the Jan/Feb bill to really look at costs as we had a ton of holiday lights so drop was not as big as expected. Either way, definitely more efficient than the 14 y/o unit that has been on borrowed time for 2 years. I think I was close to fail.
From my experience with water heaters, water quality matters. If you are on a well, the tankless and hybrid versions have problems with sediment and dissolved minerals requiring frequent cleaning. Since you already have propane, I would recommend a 40 gallon gas with the power vent. They have very quick recovery and none of the sensors and controls that I have seen fail on the tankless and hybrid water heaters. I believe in the KISS principle on water heaters.
I had a Geospring hybrid water heater at my old house. Had one issue where something took a dump in the electronics within the first year, but it was fixed at no cost and still ran off the heating elements. In the summer it pretty much negated the use of a dehumidifier. In the winter the ‘waste heat’ from the pellet furnace let me run it in heat pump only mode except for a month or two when it would make the basement too cool for my liking. The house I moved to has natural gas, so I went with a basic 50 gallon gas model. Thought about a tankless on demand water heater, but the extra expense with everything else I was doing, needing to run larger gas pipes and not wanting the wife to yell at me if there was an electronics issue with the tankless made me stick with the tried and true model.
installed a hybrid a little over a year ago, and after the labor warranty was over began having problems. At first the unit would run for long periods of time. After service call replaced control panel (cost me the service call) manufacture replaced the control panel. After two weeks water heater was doing the same thing. After another service call it was found to be low on Freon. Manufacture decided to replace unit because it was easier to replace the whole unit rather that replace the hybrid unit. Adding the cost of another service call for me. This hybrid unit did not have any valves to add Freon to the hybrid unit. Yes the hybrid unit is just a air conditioner mounted on a hot water tank
update on the replacement hybrid hot water heater. Plumbers came and replaced the defective unit with another new unit. The company sent two plumbers to replace the unit, however only one was doing the replacement while the other watched and yes I was billed for two plumbers for a total of 3hrs of labor.
Hello I could not decide either so I got 1. Oil Boiler with Indirect SuperStor Tank for DHW 2. On Demand Eco-Smart instant electric DHW I was using the on Demand Electric but when Covid hit I switched it to the oil because of the big price drop! If oil goes way up, then I will switch back to electric. Both systems use the indirect tank and with the pellet stove a couple of feet away warms the 45 degree water in the ground in the 40 gallon tank during the night up to 80 Degs! Note: if the air around a normal indirect tank is 80 Degs from the pellet stove then the water in the tank will rise up to 80 degrees too! No fancy dancy expensive hybrid is needed! LOL So I can have it the cheapest way. lol
