Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 02, 1999 08:21am | #1

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   John,

   It depends! On many different factors such as the BTUH input of the new unit you installed in comparison to the clients habit of of hot water usage PLUS many other factors including but not limited to incoming water temperature, peak usage, expected recovery, etc. Electric water heaters are inexpensive. It may not even be worth your time to assess the situation. If all went well in their past situation, would it be worth the effort to make another trip when they ran out of hot water? Load an electric on the truck in the morning. Restore them to pre-disaster and take the rest of the day off.

   Tough luck bud. I would tell you just how silly you appear except the same thing happened to me! I pressure test each unit, now....sometimes? It'll happen again.

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 02, 1999 11:54am | #2

   *John: Were all these tanks electric, or just the pre-heat one? If they were all electric, it doesn't much matter which order you put the non-leaking ones. If they need a lot of water, set the first one to 100-ish and the second one to 120F. If they were getting plenty with 80F then 120F, do that again. Note that there are usually two thermostats, one high and one low on an electric.If just the 40-gallon pre-heat was electric and you bought a new 50-gallon gas unit and now have an extra gas unit, that's complicated. First off, their pre-heat scheme was odd. Pre-heating with electricity got them a faster recharge time, but only by using expensive electric instead of gas. Better to toss the electric, crank the gas heater and put a $75 tempering valve on its output set to 120F. More hot water ready to go, but heated with cheaper gas. You could put both gas heaters in series and have almost unlimited hot water, even more than their previous set-up at a lower cost (gas pre-heat versus electric pre-heat) even through there will be more losses through the two flues of the gas heaters. -David

2. 
   John_Keller | Jul 02, 1999 03:46pm | #3

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   David,
   There is no gas available on site.
   Can I just eliminate the leaking 40 gal.preheat tank and crank the 50 gal.tank? There is only one person living in the house so the demand is not that high.
   John Keller

3. 
   John_Keller | Jul 07, 1999 03:33am | #4

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   Today I installed a new 50 gallon hot water heater in a customers house because they told me it was leaking and I saw that it was wet under it when I arrived. I just received a phone call from the customer and it turns out it was the 40 gallon preheat tank that was leaking,not the 30 gallon unit that I replaced.The preheat tank is electric and warms the water to about 80 degrees.
   Since I now have a new 50 gallon water heater instead of the 30 gallon unit can I eliminate
   the leaking preheat tank?
   John Keller

4. 
   Guest_ | Jul 07, 1999 03:33am | #5

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   John,

   Eliminate the leaking preheat tank. A 50 gallon tank is plenty, especially for just one person.

   Regards, Jim