Return-Path: Received: from H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa15532; 11 Apr 93 16:08:46 EDT Date: Sun, 11 Apr 93 16:07:16 EDT From: Sanjiv.Singh@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU To: bovik@cs.cmu.edu Subject: waterheaters Our water heater started leaking a while ago so I did some research into water heaters before going our and buying one. The march issue (1990) of Consumers Digest has a good article on water heaters. From reading this article and from talking to people about waterheaters I have learned some useful things. Note that some of these might be particular to gas water heaters. Waterheaters leak either because water is escaping from the relief valve or because the main tank is cracked. If your WH is leaking, put a container underneath the relief valve. If you don't collect any water in the container, then its the tank and its not cost effective to repair. Replace the waterheater immediately or you risk a considerable water damage. Electric waterheaters in general are less efficient than gas waterheaters. There are three variables to consider when you are choosing between waterheaters: - capacity of tank: small households could probably make do with a 30 or 40 gallon tank but large households (with 4-5 occupants) will prob. need a 50 gallon tank. You can get tanks as large as 80 gall. but they are very expensive and real engergy hogs. The best deals are usually on 30/40 gallon tanks. - burner size: these days most waterheaters come with burners that are rated between 32000 BTU and 36000 BTU. The larger the burner the faster the heater can recover the water. - First hour Rate: This stat tells you how much hot water you can get in the first hour of operation (presuming the tank is full of hot water). If all water heaters were equally efficient, then this would simply be a function of the capacity and the burner size. Water heaters are installed by large plumbing companies, places that deal with waterheaters (eg. Mr. Waterheater), and large department stores (Sears, Builders Square). The plumbing companies are generally more expensive than places like Mr. Waterheater. The lowest price we got was from Builders Square and the highest was from Sears (Kenmore brand). If you need the waterheater installed right away, call a place like Mr.WH. Generally, waterheaters are waranted for 5 years or 10 years. The last one we had (5 year warranty) was about 15 years old according to the man who came to install the new one. We bought a RUUD pacemaker from Mr. Waterheater. It has a 50 gallon tank and a 36K burner. The First Hour Rate is 72 gallons. 5 yr. warr. We needed this size of a tank to heat water for two apartments. It cost us $350 with taxes, delivery & installation. Mr.WH was very professional and I feel they did a pretty good job. They came the next day after we called, were done in an hour and charged $35 less than a couple of plumbing companies that I got quotes from (Stahl, E.H. Miller). I decided not to use Builders Square because I was required to go into their store (on McKnight road) to do the paper work and after installation and delivery were added up, they were not any cheaper than Mr.WH. If you can install the water heater yourself (which I dont reccomend unless you really know what you are doing-- you will be dealing with both water and gas lines), BS might be worth it. They sell a comparable heater (to the one we got) for $200. -Sanjiv