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Hey guys,
I’m buying a water heater (electric) for the new house. Any recommendations? Not necessarily brand names but any features you’ve seen that might be one of those “must haves”.
Thanks.
Mike
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Hey guys,
I’m buying a water heater (electric) for the new house. Any recommendations? Not necessarily brand names but any features you’ve seen that might be one of those “must haves”.
Thanks.
Mike
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Replies
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Mike
Buy the "basic" 40 or 50 gal electric water heater with a six year warranty for about $150 for the most bang for the buck. After that there are some added available features but because they are produced and sold in considerably lower quantities your price rockets.
Available are 10 or more years of warranty: "wrinkle elements" with lifetime warranty:
"self-cleaning"(??) models: and models with "more insulation"---all for a lot more $$$.
You can usually by two standards for the price of an upgrade and still get about 15 years of service out of either unit, depending on water quality until the tank fails.
------------------Iron Helix
*go to http://www.heatinghelp.com and get the book called "the water heater bible", or something to that effect (there is only one book there about water heaters so its easy to find).you will learn just about everything there is to know about water heaters: - a second anode rod to extend the anti-corrosion life - a curved dip tube to assist self cleaning - how to upgrade any heater to better cleaning - how to replace the anode rods for extended life - how to select anode rod material for various reasonsand more.Supposedly, if you follow the advice in this book your heater could last forever. I have a bit to go yet before 'forever' to prove it to myself, but so far so good (past 10 years with my gas unit and going strong).
*now watch, next week it'll fail!by the way, Mike, if you have the choice to install gas you might save some money (in most places the gas rate is lower than elec, for a given appliance, but depends on where you are).
*Kerr: I don't know a place where natural gas isn't cheaper (by a lot) than electricity. Has to be the case, since some electricity is generated from nautral gas at 35-45% efficiency and the electric company charges you for ALL the natural gas plus other stuff.Michael: A $75 way to extend the capacity of a water heater is add a tempering valve. By mixing hot and cold to a pre-set temperature, it allows you to crank the heater temperature without scalding yourself. I leave my HWH set as low as possible normally. But crank up the HWH when we have lots of house guests and need more hot water. Especially handy with an electric HWH due to the slow recovery time. -David
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Hey guys,
I'm buying a water heater (electric) for the new house. Any recommendations? Not necessarily brand names but any features you've seen that might be one of those "must haves".
Thanks.
Mike