Best free standing hot water heater

What do you plumbing and heating experts think the best free standing hot water heater is? Also what sizing do you find appropriate for a legal 3 family? Last, would you do two or one to meet the sizing requirements? We do not have a boiler so indirect is not an option unfortunately. Thank you in advance for your replies.

stuyheights

in Heating and Cooling 10 years and 6 months ago

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stuyheights | 10 years and 6 months ago

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Hmm. I guess your right. What water heater do you suggest? we are looking for something extremely efficient. Appreciate your recommendation

Master Plvmber | 10 years and 6 months ago

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I would think you’d have trouble venting the Vertex since it can’t share a chimney with another appliance and its termination through a side wall has to be 2 feet away from a window or door.

stuyheights | 10 years and 6 months ago

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Thank you Master Plumber. I was wondering if the 50 Gallon was enough. Thats good to know. I was eying up the AO smith Vertex. They make a 76k BTU and 100k. We have 3 kitchens, 3 washing machines, 3 dishwashers, and 4.5 baths. I don’t want to over size but at the same time, we don’t want to ever run out of hot water. Im open to any other suggestions you may have. Thank you for taking the time out to reply.

Master Plvmber | 10 years and 6 months ago

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At the level you’re talking about, a tank with a flue connected to an open chimney and glorified Bunsen burner on the bottom, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between any of them save for a half-inch of insulation here or there. I’m a big fan of redundancy, so I always prefer two 40-gallon units over a single 80-gallon. And so forth. You can play with the math, but generally speaking, a 50-gallon water heater serves 4-6 people fairly well without going overboard. If you want to go a little bigger, I’d go with BTUs over storage and get a 50-gallon, 65,000 BTU, high recovery unit rather than a larger tank.