Kevink1955
Member
I currently have a 50 gal direct vent water heater, it's 20 years old. It's stll runing strong but it's time is up, want to replace it before it leaks.
The question is since I have a fairly large jetted tub and the 50 gal just about does it if you are carefull not to use any other household hot water and the heater has completed it's cycle before you fill the tub, by the time the tub is full the water has gone cold. What size indirect should I use.
Most seem to be sold with first hour ratings of around 100 gal with 30 in storage, Since the tub has high flow filler and can be filled in about 6 minutes (about 60 to 70 gal) I feel that I need to disreguard the first hour rating and have all the water I need already stored. The reason for my thinking is that if the cast iron boiler starts cold it takes at least 5 min to get the boiler water up to 150 so for that first 5 min I would be drawing down a 30 gal indirect and it would run cold before the tub is full.
I think I need 60 gal in storage to be happy with the system. I am also finding some brands call their tanks 60 gal but only have 50 gal storage because the coil takes up room and other wishfull thinking factors. So I need a real 60 gal storage.
Is my thinking correct, last thing I want to do is replace a working gas heater with an indirect that cannot meet the high demand. The bolker has 110,000 BTU output and I could make the indirect a priority zone but would rather not so that could slow the recovery even more.
The question is since I have a fairly large jetted tub and the 50 gal just about does it if you are carefull not to use any other household hot water and the heater has completed it's cycle before you fill the tub, by the time the tub is full the water has gone cold. What size indirect should I use.
Most seem to be sold with first hour ratings of around 100 gal with 30 in storage, Since the tub has high flow filler and can be filled in about 6 minutes (about 60 to 70 gal) I feel that I need to disreguard the first hour rating and have all the water I need already stored. The reason for my thinking is that if the cast iron boiler starts cold it takes at least 5 min to get the boiler water up to 150 so for that first 5 min I would be drawing down a 30 gal indirect and it would run cold before the tub is full.
I think I need 60 gal in storage to be happy with the system. I am also finding some brands call their tanks 60 gal but only have 50 gal storage because the coil takes up room and other wishfull thinking factors. So I need a real 60 gal storage.
Is my thinking correct, last thing I want to do is replace a working gas heater with an indirect that cannot meet the high demand. The bolker has 110,000 BTU output and I could make the indirect a priority zone but would rather not so that could slow the recovery even more.