Advice replacing old water heater

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nolarad

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One of my two 50 gallon natural gas water heaters is 15 years old and I am considering prophylactic replacement. The other is a 3 year old Rheem that was put in right before we bought the house. Both are in the attic. There is a recirculation pump on a timer. We have not had any problems with running out of hot water with the current set up even with 2 kids, bathtub, etc. I am thinking about replacing both heaters with a Rinnai RUC98i primarily to get rid of the 100 gallons of water sitting above the rest of my house having heard some horror stories of catastrophic leaks. We live in New Orleans, have city water and already use a water softener. Would appreciate any thoughts/advice on the decision.
 

FullySprinklered

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I think you're a prime candidate for a tankless. I'm not a big promoter of the tankless movement, but you have the southern latitude and an aging unit up in the attic to be concerned about; I say go for it. Attics water heaters worry me.
 

Jadnashua

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You have two things going for you...likely relatively warm incoming winter water temps (lowers the temperature rise required), and soft water, so that the heat exchanger may not need to be cleaned as often (demineralized). But, the things are not cheap, can still leak if there's a problem (nothing's perfect or forever), and, the attic in New Orleans may be hot enough so that the stock WH may get enough heat to not need to run a whole lot in the middle of summer!

So, you may never recover the installation costs, and a big unit may mean a new gas line, meter, and internal piping, which adds to the not inconsiderable cost of a tankless. While you can probably neglect any maintenance on a tank for years, that's not generally a good idea on a tankless. Second, finding qualified service technicians may be tougher than you think. SOme places, they're good and plentiful, some places it's like finding someone to work on your Ferrari.
 

nolarad

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It works out to about a $2k difference in up front and I do not have the expectation of recouping that cost anytime soon. There is a good service tech company locally (I would have them do the install). How high is the risk of having a tankless heater leak? How often would I need to descale with a water softener?

Thanks very much for your help.
 

JOE_DYI

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I live in Florida, and we have warm temps most of the year. The water heater is kept in the garage and the garage is usually warmer than the outside temperature most times of the year. I'm telling you this, because it is relevant to the choice i made for my water heater.
When I had to replace my standard electric water heater, i opted for a Ge Hybrid which combines the standard electric coils with a heat pump. the heat pump can produce lots of hot water cheaply, but if it every gets really cold, the heater kicks in the electric coils to supplement the heat pump.
So after 5 years, it started to leak, and I bought it at Loews, and when I bought it I also paid $79 for an extended labor warranty. I had to extend the labor because Ge put 10 years on the tank. So after it leaked, the service company sent an inspector at no cost to me, and he took pictures and wrote it up in his report. The outcome of the $79 was that they refunded the entire $1500 I paid for the water heater, and told me to buy whatever I want, and they would pay for it to be installed.
So the Hybrid did lower my electric bills, and it did it in a very noticeable way. if i had no insurance, the tank failure would have made my savings zero, and it would have ended up costing me more than if I had gone to a regular electric heater.

So the new model of the GE Hybrid, as of last month, went down to $999.00, and it was improved in many ways, more mental, and a nicer design all the way around. I paid Loews $99 for the same extended warranty, and the insurance company paid my plumber $546.00 to install the new model, and i put approximately $500.00 back into my bank account. Don't ever buy a Hybrid without and extended warranty.

The moral of this story is that paying more is not always the more expensive way to go. if you live in a hot climate for most of the year, the hybrid is a good way to go. it blows cold air into it hot environment, but it does not blow enough to make my garage cool
 

Dana

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Hybrid /heat-pump electric HW heaters aren't always cheaper to run than a gas-burner- it depends on your electricity & gas rates. And it doesn't solve the anxiety about having large tanks of water to leak either.

But in the Gulf Coast states installing a heat pump water heater indoors takes a bit off the cooling load (predominantly latent load, but some sensible load), which is a (small but real) total operating cost savings that isn't reflected in the EF efficiency number. If you install the thing in a garage or outdoors the water heating efficiency might be slightly higher (but lower in winter), but the distribution losses indoors are a net heat gain, which adds to rather than subtracting from the cooling load. But installing it outdoors would lower the leaking-tub-o'-water anxiety.

Whether a tankless or heat pump water heater works here depends a lot on how you use hot water. Tankless water heaters have peak flow limitations, heat pump water heaters have very long recovery times and have to be big enough to fill your biggest tub. A primary reason most people have for going tankless is to buy back some precious space- there's almost never a financial return on investment.
 
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