Hot stuff
Friday evening I got my tankless uber water heater installed and running. I got the optional electronic thermostat which is pretty cool since it lets you set the heater's temp above and beyond what the built in dip switches let you do (from 100F to 167F with the thermostat).
This bad boy is rated at 300 gallons an hour of hot water, and it will do that every hour, until it runs out of gas, water, or electricity. Compare this to the original 40 gallon water heater which can only do 60 gallons in the first hour (and who knows how much in the second hour), though it can do it without electricity (but so far we've not had any power issues, so that's a minor concern). I haven't thrown out the old water heater yet. It's got valves on it, so it's shut off from the system and can be disposed of at my leisure. I may keep it around though because it could be converted to be a storage tank for when I need an instant 40 gallons of hot water (which seems unlikely, but you never know).
I took it out for a spin by taking a nice long shower Friday night, and I wasn't disappointed. To further test its capabilities I decided to take my soaker tub for a spin. I seriously doubt that the old water heater, even in its prime, which it's far from, would have been able to fill the tub. I don't know how big the tub is, but it's at least 60 gallons (it's physically larger than the external dimensions of the 40 gallon water heater), and might be closer to 80 gallons. However, the idiot plumbers plumbed the tub with 1/2" lines, feeding into 1/4" soft copper lines which feed into the 3/8" mixer valves. Ugh, it took close to 20 minutes to fill the tub. Next time I use the tub, if I ever do, I'll crank the heater up to 167F so that I can mix in lots of cold water to speed the filling process.
The tub incident left me wondering about the existing water heater and the tub. I know from taking a shower that the new water heaters pumps out water just as hot as the old water heater, so the previous owners surely suffered the same lethargic tub filling experience I did. If I recall correctly, the previous owner said that they never really used the tub, and I'm guessing this is why. I wonder if I was to replace the 1/4" line with 3/8" line if the tub would fill any faster (there might be an anti-scald valve in there slowing things down). When I redo the bathroom I had better find that there are 3/4" lines in the main wall and not 1/2" lines running all the way from the basement. Well, those are questions to be answered on another day.
This bad boy is rated at 300 gallons an hour of hot water, and it will do that every hour, until it runs out of gas, water, or electricity. Compare this to the original 40 gallon water heater which can only do 60 gallons in the first hour (and who knows how much in the second hour), though it can do it without electricity (but so far we've not had any power issues, so that's a minor concern). I haven't thrown out the old water heater yet. It's got valves on it, so it's shut off from the system and can be disposed of at my leisure. I may keep it around though because it could be converted to be a storage tank for when I need an instant 40 gallons of hot water (which seems unlikely, but you never know).
I took it out for a spin by taking a nice long shower Friday night, and I wasn't disappointed. To further test its capabilities I decided to take my soaker tub for a spin. I seriously doubt that the old water heater, even in its prime, which it's far from, would have been able to fill the tub. I don't know how big the tub is, but it's at least 60 gallons (it's physically larger than the external dimensions of the 40 gallon water heater), and might be closer to 80 gallons. However, the idiot plumbers plumbed the tub with 1/2" lines, feeding into 1/4" soft copper lines which feed into the 3/8" mixer valves. Ugh, it took close to 20 minutes to fill the tub. Next time I use the tub, if I ever do, I'll crank the heater up to 167F so that I can mix in lots of cold water to speed the filling process.
The tub incident left me wondering about the existing water heater and the tub. I know from taking a shower that the new water heaters pumps out water just as hot as the old water heater, so the previous owners surely suffered the same lethargic tub filling experience I did. If I recall correctly, the previous owner said that they never really used the tub, and I'm guessing this is why. I wonder if I was to replace the 1/4" line with 3/8" line if the tub would fill any faster (there might be an anti-scald valve in there slowing things down). When I redo the bathroom I had better find that there are 3/4" lines in the main wall and not 1/2" lines running all the way from the basement. Well, those are questions to be answered on another day.
posted by Mark at 1:17 PM
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