Let's talk HOT WATER!!

[neptunebob]

I remember seeing an ad from the 50s at the Westinghouse museum for a Westinghouse water heater that a boost feature. When you needed extra hot water you would press the (W)at the top of the tank which turned on another heating element. I guess they wanted people to show off their Westinghouse water heater.

 

[blackstone]

Water Pressure

When I had a new gas water heater installed this summer, the pressure relief valve immediately started dripping. The valve was rated for 150 lbs. The plumber had to install a pressure reducer right after the water meter. This reduced the water pressure in the house noticeably, but I'm used to it now. I live in the lowest part of Springfield, near the river, and there is very good water pressure in this area.

 

[sudsmaster]

Ralph,

Well, the 50 gallon Wards water heater here certainly does have some lime scale build-up. I flushed out as much as I could about four years ago, but I can still hear it rumble and grumble a bit when it comes on after a shower, etc. Half the water pipes here are fairly old too, maybe 40 years old (the original 1941 pipes were probably replaced in the 60's). The other half are copper, probably put in around the 70's.

All the talk about lime scale and Mieles leads me to wonder if I could drain the Wards water heater, to where it has just maybe five or ten gallons of hot water in it (with gas shut off, of course), and then add a solution of hot water and citric acid and let it sit for an hour or two, and then drain it and flush it out.

But I might want to have a replacement water heater standing by just in case ;-). They are actually not too hard to come by... people who are replacing tank style water heaters with tankless models often give them away on CL. Sometimes they sound like they are nearly new.

 

[Cybrvanr]

having a water heater that needs electricity is sort of a hinderance around here. We get frequent thunderstorms during the summer, and ice storms during the winter, and the result is frequent power outages. If one has a water heater that does not require electricity, you can still at least get a hot shower. For this reason, tankless water heaters have been slow to catch on around here. Many require electricity. I've always wondered too about gas applicance that depend more and more on electricity. Does the efficiency gained by using electric components like draft blowers and stuff balance out the consumption of electricity the appliance now uses?

 

[tomturbomatic]

Blaackstone, A situation like yours was shown on a segment of Ask This Old House.

 

[dalangdon]

I found an interesting thing about tankless heaters - or at least about our Bosch tankless heater.

For the last few months, it was having problems with error codes, and would have to be reset. At about that same time, the sink in one of the bathrooms developed problems with water hammer and pulsing. Two different plumbers told me that it was a bad stem on the hot water faucet, and that it would be several hundred dollars to find and install a replacement. (It is a 50's era Crane sink)

Finally, the sink got to me, and I went out and got a new one. When I unhooked the hoses from the old sink, I decided to try an experiment, and switched hoses. When I did, the hot water was fine, and the cold water was messed up. It was a bad hose! (needless to say, I returned the sink I bought - the Crane has much more pizzazz.

Since I fixed it, the Bosch has worked flawlessly. I'm theorizing that the water hammer in the line tripped some sort of sensor in the Bosch, hence the resetting. Unfortunately, Bosch does not give you any sort of guide to what their error codes mean, or I might have been able to have figured it out sooner.

 

[paulg]

Vintage

I was on an estate sale and the owners had an ancient TOASTMASTER electric water heater in the basement. And it was still running! It actually had the official Toastmaster toaster decoration on the side. It was big - probably 60 gallons.
Nothing like toasty water in the morning.
START YOUR DAY THE TOASTMASTER WAY!

 

[tomturbomatic]

During Carter's term, he called the energy crisis the moral equivalent of war, IIRC. Before his term expired, an energy bill was passed that mandated that something like 30 or 50 per cent of all water heating in new domestic construction had to be solar or some other alternate source. The next administration promptly removed that from the books. Think of all of the decades since then that we could have been developing technology to make alternate forms of water heating more affordable, efficient and reliable.

 

[toggleswitch]

I beleive it was he also that got rid of standing pilot-lights in most gas applications, which saved HUGE anmounts of natural gas.

He had to get the states to enact laws (since the federal gov't can not for this type of thing) by threatening to withold federal funds for things such as roads.

Aa a result of electronc/electric ignition stoves advanced to "the next generation" with features such as sealed burners

Sadly we seem to be moving away from this simple energy & resource-saving practical idea.

 

[pturo]

Jimmy Carter gets the reputation for being one of the weakest Presidents, but I think he was the smartest. He saw this energy issue decades ago and the associated problems with the Arabs in the middle east having a stranglehold on our nation, and the money they control, a threat to peace.

Of course, he got slaughtered by our Congressional system that runs on lobbyist money.

He really thought long term what was good for America, the people, not Exxon Mobil, GM and the Arab Emerites Royal Family.

Why don't we the people get to vote on things, big things? National Referendums should be created for war,immigration, economic policy, energy policy and WE THE POOPLE should vote on them, and the government elected officials should carry out the wishes of the American people, or be fired for malfesense of duty.

The system needs an overhall, big time.