Can we talk water heaters?

[Jenelle]

Kinda boring subject, I know...

I just sat here and skimmed Suze Orman's entire free book in one sitting... And am determined, once again, to find extra dollars wherever I can.

So something that has come up a few times with dh, but has never been a priority, is our water heater.

When we bought this house, the water heater was a rental. When we had a problem with that one, they brought a new one. And when that one wasn't big enough, they brought the biggest one they have. So, it's great that we've never had any expense with it other than our monthly fee... But doing the math, of course, it does add up.

I figure, we've lived here for about 5.5 years x $18/mo = $1188

We plan on staying here, for at least another 5 years I'd say... probably more. So I am wondering if it would be smart to buy a water heater with our tax refund. We would have to pay to have it installed also, I'm sure.

Anyone have any thoughts? I feel like about the time we would do this, then there would be problems and I would wish we'd just stayed with the stress-free rental.

[Dar]

It seems like you'd save quite a bit... and you could get a tankless hot water heater, which would save you $$ on your bill as well...

Dar

[2cutiekitties]

we are going to replace ours. "They" say that they are really only a 10 year product, which is pathetic, but what can you do. When we looked at water heaters at home depot it was pretty cheap. Like under 1K with installation.


We checked into the kind that heats up on demand, it was so expensive, you would have to live in your house 20 years for it to be a worthwhile purchase. Maybe our next house.

[Think of Winter]

Water heaters are cheap as appliances go. 1K sounds awfully high. I'd think you could do it for more like $500, or a lot less if you can install, and I don't think it's hard.

Tankless cost a lot more. I think they run about $1500 and probably the same to install. You'd probably need to have someone take a look at the spot you want to put it to get an estimate. Some (gas) need a vent. But we do want one, even with the extra expense. They also take up less room, and we really need every little space.

[Ola_]

We are looking at a tankless too! Currently we also have a rental one. I figure with the tankless, if we're not using the hot water, it's energy savings. If we use a lot of hot water for some reason, at least we won't run out. We just need to save up for the initial purchase and install cost now.

[PenelopeJune]

We bought a regular gas water heater a few years ago for about $300 at Home Depot.

[Guinevere]

I think price depends on both size and type (tankless or not) as well as what kind (electric or gas.) Electric, if I remember correctly, is cheaper on the front end, but not necessarily to run. With installation, our last hot water heater, which was gas, ran us around $1500 or a bit more, so I don't agree that they are "very cheap" to buy and install, unless you know someone who can install it for you for free. Ours was rather large, though. But yes, I still think it would be worth it for you to buy your own. In fact, I had no idea that one could "rent" a water heater -- what an interesting concept!

Guin

[Jenelle]

The people who lived here were very old... I just figured the rental was a convenience thing, and it is convenient. It is electric, and it is a program through our electric company.

I don't know how many gallons it is, but the lady said it is "the biggest they make". We run out of hot water frequently (my husband takes VERY long showers -- don't get me started ).

So this concept of a "tankless" water heater is interesting and new to me. I will have to research that.

I have often said to my husband that I cannot believe this is the best we can have. I've said "what do people do that have even larger families?!" It just seems that we run out of hot water awfully fast, and when I have had them come out to make sure something wasn't wrong, she's just looked at my husband and basically told him he needs to take shorter showers.

[bscal]

I have a gas water heater. I had to have a brand new one put in last summer. Total cost for the water heater itself and the repairman's fees was $780. We got a very large one and have never had a problem with running out of hot water. I can have the washer going, washing on hot, run the kids a bath and DH take a shower and all 3 have hot water. With our old one, which was a little smaller, our master bath shower would run out of hot water if anything else was on.

As for how long it will last. Ours came with the house. We bought it 10 years ago. We have no idea how long this water heater was in the house before we bought it. The house was built in 1989 so I know it had to have been replaced at some point, I'm sure it wasn't 20 years old when we moved in. So we know for a fact it was at least 10 years old. And it was fine until the valve thing controlling the water pressure in our house broke and caused our house to have 90+ lbs of pressure, versus the 50 lbs of pressure it was supposed to have. Cracked the water heater all the way down one side.

One more note, our plumber does not recommend the tankless water heaters. He says the repairs on them are very expensive. He would not put one in his own house and does not recommend them to customers. He basically said it is a great concept but give them another 10 years of R&D before buying one so the price comes down.

Beth

[alegna]

I've never heard of renting a hot water heater- how interesting.

Tankless can be very pricey to install, though I'd love one.

-Angela

[Norasmomma]

18 dollars a month to rent a water heater + paying for the electricity seems too much to me. A brand new water heater only costs a few hundred dollars, they aren't difficult to install. I'd be buying a new one ASAP.

FWIW-we had a water heater pretty much explode in the crawlspace(ours is under our stairs). It cost approximately $200(although we got that wholesale, Dh is in construction) to get a big one and DH installed it that day.

I also am a long shower taker and we never run our of hot water-unless we are doing dishes, taking showers, and doing laundry.

I definitely wouldn't be renting a water heater from the electric company-usually any thing like that is way expensive(renting phones or buying from the phone company, things like this etc). Essentially to me the power company is double dipping in your pocket. Go look at the water heater and it should tell you on it what gallon size it is. If it's the "biggest" there is it would be huge the largest I saw on Home Depot is 80 gallons(which is about $800).

[Fuamami]

Originally Posted by Jenelle

I have often said to my husband that I cannot believe this is the best we can have. I've said "what do people do that have even larger families?!" It just seems that we run out of hot water awfully fast, and when I have had them come out to make sure something wasn't wrong, she's just looked at my husband and basically told him he needs to take shorter showers.

Yeah, I have to agree. Seriously. It's mixed with cold water and if it's the largest one they have it's probably in the vicinity of at least 50 gallons. He's using up 50+ gallons of water for one shower? I'd get a new heater and an aerator for your shower head.

[Jenelle]

Originally Posted by Fuamami

Yeah, I have to agree. Seriously. It's mixed with cold water and if it's the largest one they have it's probably in the vicinity of at least 50 gallons. He's using up 50+ gallons of water for one shower? I'd get a new heater and an aerator for your shower head.

Ah, with the aerator there is less pressure, and so he stays in there even LONGER... Rinsing, rinsing, rinsing, la la la la la... I think maybe what we need is a psychologist to figure out why he has to be so obsessively clean!

Edited to add: But that would cost money, which defeats the whole purpose of this thread and me being on the F&F board in the first place...

[SleeplessMommy]

Does you house have natural gas? That should have a much lower cost of heating water (and faster recovery time.)

Even if you go with a new 50-80 gallon electric water heater, you can get a low flow shower head to decrease usage. ASK for an energy star model.

[Kyamo]

Originally Posted by Jenelle

So I am wondering if it would be smart to buy a water heater with our tax refund. We would have to pay to have it installed also, I'm sure.

You may be able to purchase your existing water heater directly from the company you're renting from. Then you wouldn't have to pay installation. I know ours is a rental and you can buy it from the company, my parents did. We plan to do that eventually, depending on how much they charge, but I was going to wait until we have more emergency fund to cover its eventual replacement when needed, since its around 14 yrs already.

[tamagotchi]

We have a tankless water heater. When you first turn on the tap it can take a minute or two to start heating up the water. This is annoying if you just want to wash your hands or wash a dish. We have gotten used to doing a lot of things with cold water so we don't have to wait for the hot. On the other hand it is nice that once the hot water starts flowing, it does not run out... so we don't have to worry about timing our showers any more.

[mamaofprincesses]

Check with your gas and/or electric company as well. Ours offer fantastic rebates for buying energy-star rated appliances. We got $100 back when we bought our washer/dryer.

[mtm]

I was just looking at hot water heater blankets in Home Depot and trying to decide if it would save me money. Maybe one would help you? they were cheapish $20-30.

[gentlemango]

Originally Posted by Jenelle

Ah, with the aerator there is less pressure, and so he stays in there even LONGER... Rinsing, rinsing, rinsing, la la la la la... I think maybe what we need is a psychologist to figure out why he has to be so obsessively clean!

Seriously? I would turn your water temp WAY down. Set it to 110 degrees and let him use full hot water to take a shower. When the tank is gone, his shower is over. He will learn to take shorter showers, I promise.

[oneKnight]

If its electric and "the biggest they make" it's probably over 40gallons and has 2 heating elements. What recently happened to us was that the bottom heating element went out. SO since hot water rises to the top, and the top element worked fine we had hot water for a little while but it ran out VERY quickly as the warm part was used up. Could be your problem?? It cost like $20 to fix ($12ish for the part and $6 for a tool)

A low flow shower head is the BEST thing ever invented!!
It also helps make low water pressure feel more pressurized and seems like it just generally cleans/rinses you better. I have had one for "forever" (my parents had one before I moved out too) and when I shower at MIL's it feels like their showerhead is just "dumping" water on me.