Say Hello to Our New Sears Kenmore Water Heater
There's a new member in our household today. A new 195 lbs., 50 gallon, natural gas water heater!
While we're trying to do as much as possible ourselves, we got help on this one. Anything involving natural gas...na' ganna' do it.
So, we had Paul and Dario (our tile and plumbing guys) take a break from the bathroom work and help us out. Today they spent most of the day draining and detaching the old water heater and then installing the new one. By late this afternoon we had hot water again!
But our Sears water heater isn't just new. It should be better, too:
- Greater capacity. Our old heater held 40 gallons while our new heater is a 50 gallon model.
- Better efficiency. Even with 10 gallons more capacity, our new heater is rated to cost $60 less per year to operate. (Actually, our savings should be even more because the sediment in our old heater was probably reducing efficiency by up to 75%.)
- Hot water return. As part of some plumbing tweaks, Paul recommended adding a loop in our hot water piping, going from the water heater to the tallest water fixture in the house and then back again. This allows hot water to continuously circulate and then return to the heater when it cools. The result: water should be hot right when we turn on the faucet. While this costs a tiny bit more in heating costs, we'll use less water waiting for the shower to heat up. And the highest fixture in the house is pretty high. With these ceilings, it is approximately 21 feet above the top of the HWH in the basement.
The return pipe attaches to the valve at the bottom of the tank, pictured here.
So, new water heater!
Anyway, even though this expense snuck up on us we knew from our original inspection that the old water heater was pretty old. It was going to happen some time.
Besides, our new water heater has much more entertaining warning pictures than the old one!
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Comments
Did you guys look into tankless (on demand) hot water heaters at all? Inquiring minds want to know (especially since we're contemplating putting one in to save $ and space).
Posted by: kitschywoman | February 10, 2004 10:36 AM
My sister had one of these installed and loves it: http://www.gotankless.com/
Tankless water heaters make so much more sense that heating a tank of water all day every day all year long! I don't know why new houses still use old fashioned tank heaters!
I am curious to know if a tankless would have worked in your house or if there were issues?
Posted by: LisaB | February 10, 2004 11:12 AM
We did look at them but they weren't a realistic option for us. This is mainly because our contractor had already started plumbing for a conventional system (i.e., the hot water return described in our entry). We hope to maintain energy efficiency through the high R-value of the new tank...plus our contractor is insulating the new piping.
With no experience with tankless systems, I'll admit I'm curious too. I know some folks over on the discussion boards at Breaktime have experience with them if anyone is interested.
(Funny fact: I hadn't even heard of tankless systems until I saw them listed on one of the Google ads on the right side of our first water heater entry!)
Posted by: A | February 10, 2004 12:19 PM
Hi Guys,
I looked into tankless here at the lake. Advise your friends that a whole house tankless water heater draws about 300 amps, so you need a new electric service probably larger than the one you have for your house now. 200 amps ?
good job!
Dad
Posted by: dad | February 10, 2004 1:13 PM