Water Heater Problems

[Eddie Watkins]

My water heater went out last night and when I went to light it the pan had water in it. It is 11 years old coincidentally today. I did some checking to see if I wanted to go tankless and cost came back at about $2800. I did see some threads, though, that cautioned about the new standard water heaters and some design problems that they are having. I can buy a 50 gal Bradford-White from a plumbing supply company for $348+ tax or have it installed for around $800. Seems like the savings for a tankless may not be that great or at least a long payback. Any recommendations on brands or suggestions? All the connections are flex hose so doing it myself is not that tough. What's the best brands? Why is the tankless so expensive to install?

[Randy Cohen]

so does the pan having water in it mean your tank is leaking or is it a small pan and its condensation?

[jeremy levine]

Many of the tankless heater require upgraded venting because the run so hot, so that might contirbute to the cost.

[Roger Morris]

Ed,
I have two tankless water heaters. One in my business, and one in my house. Mine are both electric, no venting required. Installation was a matter of sweating some copper together and calling an electrician buddy of mine to wire it. You'll need some pretty heavy wire (#6 I think) and a couple of switch boxes, but I love mine. Got them off e-bay. Titan is the brand name. Tried an American Heat(made in China) and it was junk. The big thing is how cold is your water coming in? The colder the water, the bigger the unit you will need. The water at my business is not too cold and I get by with the small unit Titan makes(in Florida). At my house however, my water is VERY cold and I needed to upgrade to an 80 amp unit. It is true, you can take endless hot showers, they only run when the hot water is on, and they do save you money. The smaller unit (n120?) cost me less than $250, installed. I probably have about $550 in the larger (n180?) unit. Of course that was plumbing it myself and my friend didn't charge my for the electrical work. I'm in south east Ohio and our winters get pretty cold and these units work fine for me. The guy on ebay I bought both of mine from was w30chuck. He has treated me very well and seems to be very knowledgable. Send him an email,and he'll give you his phone number if you want to ask him any questions. Hope this helps.

[Roger Morris]

Ed, just copied w30chucks phone and e-mail from his site:

I can be reached at 305-557-7330 Mon. thru Friday 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM est., or by email at, w30chuck@gmail.com

if you're interested. Good luck.

[Eddie Watkins]

Ed, just copied w30chucks phone and e-mail from his site:

I can be reached at 305-557-7330 Mon. thru Friday 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM est., or by email at, w30chuck@gmail.com

if you're interested. Good luck.

Thanks for the information. I'll check into it.

[Eddie Watkins]

so does the pan having water in it mean your tank is leaking or is it a small pan and its condensation?

I would think it means the tank is leaking since the pan has never had water in it before but the remnants of Gustavo just passed east of here and it is very humid, much more so than normal, so it very well could be condensation. The tank is wrapped but I can't say for sure it isn't condensation. The water does not seem to be flowing as ifit were still leaking. Thanks for the idea.

[Tom Godley]

Water heaters required new safety devices -- I believe start of 07 - Some did have problems but that was the early ones going out.

If it is any more than a few drips of water - then the tank is leaking. But I have had water heaters that dripped quite a lot on start up because of condensation -- the combustion gasses condense on the cold surface of the water flue and drip into the pan. This only happen when the water is cold and you first light it.

I have never noticed much difference in the brands - the one thing to look at is the burner size.

You can get a 40-gal with a burner in the 25k range and one up in the 60's - this will recover much faster and often works better than just getting a larger tank that you need to keep hot 24/7. It all depend on how much and how fast you use it.

[Greg Peterson]

Sound like you're in more of a 'need' mode for hot water right now. Going with a standard hot water tank replacement unit for now would seem to be pragmatic.

However, you may want to consider upgrading to a tankless unit. I consider the tankless unit to be an upgrade for the efficiency and space savings these units offer.

[Eddie Watkins]

The tank services the master bath , which has a large jacuzzi tub, and a guest bath. My guess is the tank is a 50 gal tank because of the tub which I never use but LOML does. My guess is that it is seriously oversized even with that requirement.

[Tom Godley]

You need to size the HWH to provide the volume of hot water needed within the recovery period of the heater -- obviously Many HWH are oversized because the recovery of the cheaper units is so small.

I do not know what the size of the tub is -- but if it will use all the HW that a 50gal tank will deliver in less than about 1/2 an hour than you need the larger tank.

Often the 50 gal tanks can be a waste. I have a house with an indirect 32 gal tank connected to a 105 btu boiler -- I have never run out of water even with three bathrooms going and kids.