Water Heater flooded the shop

[Russianwolf]

Anyone have a recommendation on a new one? I would love to go tankless, but the timing couldn't be worse. The only one I'd go for needs 3 40 amp double pole circuits and I'd have to hire someone to wire it.

Damage is minimal, water on the concrete floor, Some wood got wet.

[Uncle Cracker]

Yup. The high power requirements are the trade-off on a tankless. There are high-quality commercial grade tanked units available everywhere, but the cost is commensurate. How about a standard unit on a platform with a catchment/drain pan setup?

[Russianwolf]

UC, I'm not worried about a leak. I just don't understand the need to keep a 40 gallon bottle of water hot all the time when we use it 30 minutes a day. If I had the cash ready, I'd pay the electrician and we be set.

Right now I'm looking at a $280 Kenmore unit to hold us over until the money is available. It gets good reviews. And I can install it myself.

[Uncle Cracker]

Over the years, I have had the best luck with Rheem. Never had a failure. I do remember a Whirlpool, a Kenmore (not sure who made it) and a Reliance, all of which had issues.

[just started]

I've never had a water heater that held on longer than 3 months from the day the warranty ran out.

[jackellis]

If you have natural gas or propane, there are a number of tankless water heaters that use either one or both. We considered them for our new place and eventually decided not to. Some things to think about:

They don't work well when the supply temperature is very low, as it is up here.

They are kinda spendy.

There may be a longer-than-usual lag between the time you turn on the tap and hot water comes out. I don't think a recirc system will help.

You might instead consider spending a little extra to get a better insulated water heater. Also, spend a little DIY time insulating the hot water supply lines wherever you can. Copper pipe coming out of the water heater carries a lot of energy even when it's not carrying hot water to a tap.

[dbhost]

Due to the power requirements, it looks like you have all electric like me. Lousy way to be for sure!

I replaced mine about 2 years ago with a Whirlpool...

One thing to be careful about is the physical size of the heater... I didn't notice when I grabbed mine, but the newer 50 gallon heaters are shorter, and larger in diameter. I had to build out the shelf the heater stands on in the laundry room...

If I had natural gas, I would for sure pony up for a tankless.

[woodturner]

They don't work well when the supply temperature is very low, as it is up here.

They are kinda spendy.

There may be a longer-than-usual lag between the time you turn on the tap and hot water comes out. I don't think a recirc system will help.

A properly sized tankless will work just fine at winter supply temperatures. The issue is that the unit has to have enough capacity to raise the water temperature the number of degrees you want at the flow rate you want to produce the water temperature you want.

They are expensive, but in many cases will save enough in energy costs to break even, sometimes in months.

A recirculating system will not help much, but a tankless produces fully heated hotwater within 30 seconds or less, typically. In my experience, that's a little quicker than the tank hot water heater produced less than fully hot water, and much quicker than the tank HWH produces fully hot water.

[Russianwolf]

Old one is out and new Kenmore unit is in.

Replaced the old torched fitting with compression fitting so that future work will be easier (if needed). finished the connections and filled the tank. Bled off the air and waited a good 30 minutes checking for leaks. None. Hooked up the wires and turned on the power. Should have hot water in a couple hours.

Now the old one, some moron set the thing. The upper element was set a bit higher than the recommended 120 (set to 130, no biggy), but the lower element was set at........ wait for it......... 80 degrees. That's eight zero degrees. The element was never coming on to do it's little "self-cleaning" and of coarse eventually the seal failed. The entire terminal was rusted on the thermometer, I'm lucky not to have been electrocuted.

[cwithboat]

Nobody mentioned that there is a significant tax rebate for gas, propane or oil water heaters.

[ragswl4]

For those of you considering a tankless, I purchased a Noritz 751 (highly rated) locally for $835. Supposed to run 4 showers at once. Downside is the exhaust system parts, 2-12" pipes, one 90 degree elbow and one wall thimble were $300. All in stainless steel (required by installation) ran the price up. Still, its 84% effeciency rating nets us $400 so not bad. Not installed yet, sure hope it works well.