Water Heater Replacement or Addition
Hi All- We’re in a bit of a bind and could use some advice. A bit of background: We have a four-family home with a total of 7 adults and 2 kids living here. We have a 50-gallon water heater that until now has been just OK. Now it’s not–people are probably showering all at…
Hi All-
We’re in a bit of a bind and could use some advice. A bit of background: We have a four-family home with a total of 7 adults and 2 kids living here. We have a 50-gallon water heater that until now has been just OK. Now it’s not–people are probably showering all at once and the hot water is not holding. This is not a shocker but we do need to fix it ASAP as the tenants are COLD!
The boiler room has a low ceiling (7.5 feet?). One plumber told us that we will have to buy two 50-gallon heaters since the one we have will not be compatible with a new one. He also said that a bigger tank 75 gallon plus would not fit because it would be too tall.
First of all: Has anyone been in a similar situation and how did you fix it?
Second of all: Any specific recommendations for plumbers who have dealt with water heater evaluation/replacement?
Your help is MUCH appreciated, as always, as we really want to take care of this quickly but don’t know where to turn….
by the way, I know a little late, but if anyone reads this and is interested…..an AO Smith 75 gallon water heater is shorter than a 50 galon!!!
For safety reasons only. I presume you’re still tempering water temperatures down at the fixtures, right? So if you don’t want to have 150Ëš water available at the faucets, then yes, a mixing valve eliminates that risk.
Thanks all! Our hot water is gas-heated, so oil-fired, as nice as that sounds, isn’t an option right now.
It sounds like cleaning out the sediment, as recommended by bobjohn, might be a good starting point, although I think the problem is probably not enough hot water, since it’s only happening in the early morning “rush hour.”
Next we’ll check the BTU situation, which is also a good suggestion that I wasn’t aware of before this post.
Thank you, as always, for your time and input. This forum is an invaluable resource. I’ll check back in and update when we get to the bottom of this….
Ah, got it now. But my hot water heater feeds 2 showers, 2 bathtubs and 5 sinks. So I’d need a tempering valve on each of these or I risk people burning themselves with 150 degree water, yes?
And I assume it’s more cost effective to add 1 Holby valve in the basement by the hot water heater than to add 7 tempering valves across the 5 sinks and 2 tubs, especially since both tubs and 1 sink would require ripping open the walls.
*now* does a Holby valve make sense?
You’re not missing anything except that the shower mixer is already doing that for you.
Adding a Holby valve and tempering the water at the source would only serve to make you mix less cold water at the shower fixture.
Think about it. You’re starting at one temperature of water and finishing at another. Using two devices to get there is the same as using one.
I do recommend installing mixing or tempering valves too, but only when there is some significant unmixed demand in the equation.
Capeesh?
Master Plumber, wouldn’t a holby valve slow down the volume drawn from the tank?
For example, assume my tank is set to 120 degrees, I have a 2.5gpm showerhead and I set the shower to full-on hot. I’d be drawing 2.5gpm of 120 degree water.
But what if I set the tank to 150? And have a holby valve set to 120? Then when the shower pulls 2.5gpm at full on hot, the 150 water leaving the tank mixes with cold water (I assume around 45 degrees this time of year) until it’s cooled down to 120.
I’d still get 2.5gpm of 120 degree water out of my showerhead, but I’d be pulling less from my tank.
What am I missing?
BTW, if you suddenly notice the issue, maybe you need to start with maintenance of the existing boiler. dump the sediment, clean the burners. could be enough. and would cost next to nothing.
A shower faucet is a tempering valve.
Adding another tempering valve, Holby or any other, will not help increase the availability of hot water since the water mixture reaching the user would be the same.
A separate tempering valve helps when there are other full-temperature sources drawing from the hot water supply.
You could also investigate a Holby Valve.
A Holby Valve is an expensive valve — as much as $1,000 — that goes between the hot water tank and the showers and such. It gets set to a temperature — say 120 degrees — and has a cold water pipe leading to it as well.
You can then set your hot water heater(s) to a temperature that’s MUCH hotter than is safe. (I think 120 is considered about as high as you want it set). Anyway, with the Holby valve you can set the tank to say, 150. The water leaves the tank at 150, hits the holby valve which senses the water is too hot and mixes in just the right amount of cold to bring the water down to 120.
Bottom line, it let’s you set the tank a lot higher and therefore people use less hot water and therefore the initial tank of hot water last longer.
Now, keep in mind that maintaining the tank at a higher temperature will cost more. And that once the tank is depleted it will take longer to recover all the way up to the higher setting. But… this could be a relatively easy way to have enough hot water in these colder months. Then, in the summer you could turn the tank back down.