Need to purchase a new electric water heater. Currently have a 50 gallon with a family of 4-5. I have hard well water with a lot of sediment in the current unit that is about 19 years old. It not leaking but the heating elements are not working as they should. I am looking at a 80-100 gallon tank to replace the one I have now. Any recommendations of brand or type ( stainless steel verse glass lined etc)?
Any chance you can get natural gas? Might 2 40 gallons hooked together if you have to stay electric. Bill is going up!
nope all electric.
There are like 4 companies in the USA that make water heaters. They just stick different names on them when running that companies order.
The newer models are far more efficient than what you have now. I was amazed at the difference in the same size replacement.
50 gallon, family of 4-5, hard water and you got 19 years out of one and the elements are just now going out? You quite possibly got the best hot water heater that ever rolled off the production line. I went through 3 elements in 12 years before I went to a tankless HW heater.
I use A.O. Smith. Use to get them at the plumbing shop. Lasted for years. Now they sell them at box stores and may not be the same quality.
Tankless is the only way to go!Originally Posted by jbsoonerfan
For sure! I live with my wife, son (15) and three daughters (12, 10, 9) and we can all shower in one evening and never run out of hot water.
Before I got it, people referred to them as "instant" water heaters, ummmm no! I quickly learned they were not instant as I had expected, but I was amazed that you had hot water as long as you could want it.
Navion is a good tankless brand
We’ve got a Marathon electric water heater, lifetime warranty if I’m not mistaken. Bout to build a new house and going with tankless.
Have you drained the tank lately? You mentioned sediment.
I would install two 40's or 50's vs going bigger. I've got a tankless and love it.
We have a 50, our plumber recommended 2 40’s as opposed to 1 80 when we built. Stuck with just one (for now). My question is how many people have whole house electric tankless heaters?
@kennethandmacy
2004 Triton 196
200 Merc
1199/898
A common overlooked maintenance item, draining the tank each year.
The initial investment on whole house tankless can hurt.
The Marathon would be an excellent choice. Plastic lined fiberglass wrapped tank, no anode to worry about, lifetime tank warranty if you register it. A note about the sediment and hard water....no mater which unit you choose, periodic draining and flushing is recommended to rid the tank of sediment. Hard water is rough on elements, you'll typically find they get coated with mineral deposits which makes them less efficient and can also cause element failure. IF you ever decided to go with tankless, flushing/cleaning of the heat exchanger (running a solution through it with an external pump) would be a 'must do' on your water system.
2 units is a good idea....but only if you are set up for it and have the space. The footprint of a single 80 gallon is less than 2 - 40 gal side by side. There will be additional piping for the second unit. There will need to be another 240V circuit/separate breaker run for the additional unit unless you purchase units with the interlock wiring feature (only allows one unit to operate at a time). Ideally on a 2 unit install with identical heaters, you would want to install them in parallel, meaning that the cold inlet is split equally to each unit, hot outlets are combined equally from each unit. This allows both units to share the load equally. And with shutoff valves on each, you can valve one off should there be a problem and keep using the other. In a series install, the lead unit for incoming cold will always be doing the most work (second heater in line is heating the warm/hot from the first unit), and if one unit is valved off, both are down.
Tankless is the only way to go, never run out of hot water ands saves a ton on the electric bill because it's only on when the water is on. Tank style heaters boil all the time day and night 24-7
I highly recommend a Marathon by Rheem, I think ours is 80 gallon but looks like 150 gallons due to all the insulation and plastic shell for heat efficiency. Our house is all electric.
+100
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