What Temperature Is Your Hot Water Heater Set ?

[launderess]

Post regarding parts for a vintage water heater, then looking over the old adverts for Ruud Monel hot water heaters got me thinking. If back in the day 180F or so hot water was the popular setting, didn't it cause many accidents or injuries? I mean wasn't that one of the rationales behind lowering temps down to about 120F.

Also one must assume vintage appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers were designed to withstand incoming hot water at very high temperatures. My Miele OTHO states in the installtion manual that hot water shouldn't be higher than 140F.

 

[yogitunes]

I have a 50 gal gas fired hot water heater...and for the demand of 3 bathrooms and 4 washers, plus a double dishwasher, not counting the jacuzzi...I have it set at 160 degrees..(it can go to 180)..and have never run out...of coarse the washers are FL's....and we have taken 2 showers at a time...no problems

but I am looking at installing a second unit at the other side of the house, just because of how far and long it has to travel to get hot water to the master bathroom and kitchen...seems like I'm wasting water purging the lines

 

[favorit]

Lost in translation ....

the actual german word meaning "hot fill" is "WARMwasserANSCHLUSS" and I guess it's self-explanatory even for those who don't understand german. They mean "warm" the range 105°F < X < 140°F

They refer to "really hot" as "heiss" and "heisswasseranschluss" in hospital washers is a third hose/pipeline for water far hotter than 60°C/140°F, usually round 80-85°C. Normal washers/dishwashers haven't ever been hooked up to such hot water

Today in Europe the most common temp in water heaters is 55/60°C, anyway it's true that back those times we had electric heaters with a "small" tank (100-120 litres, that's round 25-30 gal) we used to raise temp to 80°C. Mixing it with cold water, the actual available amount of warm water was higher.

 

[appnut]

I have mine set on 115-120. I crank it up to 155 when washing a load of white and then use the residual hot water for successive loads. (Frigidaire front loader) So, in a way, I get free washing with hot water.

 

[launderess]

There Is Another Meaning For "Warm Shower" In German

But we're not on that right now!

*LOL*

L.

 

[qsd-dan]

145F, 'cause that's where the POS Kenmore water heater maxes out. Not only does it fail to get hot enough, it has a horrible recovery rate of time. I think the thermocoupler is starting to fail since I can see and hear the pilot flicker. At 9 years of age, I hope it dies soon!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I have a power vent gas water heater that uses electricity for spark ignition and to power the blower for the power vent. Because of this, I can operate a gas water heater with a timer. I have the timer set to turn on at 4pm and off at 8pm. I get home from work about 4pm. Given that it takes about 30 to 40 minutes to heat it to the max setting of about 145-150F, I have several hours to do laundry and run the dishwasher with very hot water. The rest of the water in the tank is plenty hot for my morning shower around 5am and is still quite warm just before the timer turns it again late in the afternoon if I have not been home to use any during the day. It's an economical and automatic way to have higher temperature water during the part of the day when I need it. The big drawback is that in case of a power failure, I won't have a way to replenish the hot water I use and, if the power goes out before the tank recovers in the afternoon, I have 50 gallons of warm, not hot water. If bad weather is in the forecast, I override the timer and keep the tank operating.

 

[hunter]

I have a tankless water heater...

...and I keep mine set at 140F. When I want hot water, I want it hot. I don't need to set it hotter as this is plenty!!

Hunter

 

[ronhic]

We have...

....a Rinnai Infinity here...

Which is basically a gas instant system that has remote control variable temperature in the kitchen and the bathroom. You can dial in any temperature from 35c to 55c (though bathroom is limited to 50c)....

Our is at least 10yrs old....and misses out on some of the functionality of the new controllers such as volume metering...

Home

Rinnai, a leader in hot water, heating & cooling solutions. A trusted household name, providing reliable, high-quality products, ensuring your comfort.

www.rinnai.com.au

 

[mayguy]

Hot Water Heater??

I didn't know there was hot water heater to heat up hot water! LOL

Sorry, it bugs me when people call water heater, Hot water heater.

We run ours at 120˚, plenty of hot water for showers, and other stuff.. If my partner going to take a soaking bath, then it gets cranked up all the way since he always runs the water steady to keep the tub hot.

 

[maytagbear]

The water heater for my apartment

is in the building's basement, which is locked, so I have it set higher than I would always like, around 145F. This is the first place I have lived in where the water heater was not easily adjusted. It is a 30 gallon gas Whirlpool.

I like a cool-ish shower, no higher than around 105F (just above blood heat), and so I can get that easily after two loads of hot laundry or a load of laundry and one of dishes.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[whirlcool]

We keep ours at about 130F. Our tank(gas) recovers quickly. But we hardly ever run out of hot water. I have been known to turn it up to 150 temporarily for a load of whites.

 

[mattl]

I have it set as high as it will go, tops out at 150-160 depending on use. In the winter I use hot water to feed my humidifier so the water is always very hot, since the humidifier runs most of the time.

Usually don't run out of hot water, but I put in a shower with 2 shower heads for 4 body sprays and I will admit to using the whole tank of hot water a time or two, it's just very relaxing after a bad day...

 

[sudsman]

I run @ 150 to to allow for heat loss in pipes.so I get at l

AT all the washers.

 

[58limited]

Mine is set at 160. It can go to 180.

 

[frigilux]

Mine is set at 130 degrees. The owner's manual for one of my dishwashers (either the current LG or or maybe it was the Smokey The Maytag...) also stated that incoming water should not exceed 140 degrees.

I also use several enzyme-based laundry products, and I think they lose cleaning effectiveness if the water is too hot (correct me if I'm wrong, Launderess).

 

[polkanut]

Last weekend I stayed at a friend's house and he ran out of hot water. The electric water heater is set @ 135 degrees. We had the older Tappan dw, and TL GE washer going plus I decided to take a shower at the same time. Needless to say I had a tepid rinse cycle for the last part of my shower. lol It took almost 2hrs for that 40 gallon heater to recover. I don't know what brand it is. I've never been a big fan of electric water heaters, give me gas any day of the week instead.

 

[passatdoc]

40 gallon Bradford White gas unit with quick recovery

Never run out of hot water, even if someone showers while a washer load is running. The dial markings vary from "Vacation" to "Warm" to "Hot". There is an "optimal setting" denoted by a thick hatch mark between "warm" and "hot". This produces about 130 F or 55 C. Rarely, if we need a load of whites to come out extra clean, I'll crank up the temp to "Hot" which is about 155 F or 68 C., then turn it down to wash additional loads behind the white load.

The heater is next to the washer. Rather than fool with the heater setting when I want to wash "hot", I'll usually prime the hot water line, either by running the machine on hot until it steams up inside, then hit drain/spin and then loading the machine for a load, or I can prime the line by running the kitchen sink faucet (common wall with the laundry area, on the other side of the wall) until the faucet comes out nice and out.

 

[jerrod6]

I have an older gas whole house tankless water heater. It doesn't have set temperatures but has a dial indicating ranges from low to high to max. I have it set to high but not max. In the winter with colder incoming water the temp at the faucet is about 115 still too hot to take a shower without mixing it with cold. In the summer the temp is about 130F.

The heater and all of my utilities are located on the other side of the house from the plumbing so you have to run the water for at least a minute before you get anything warm. The washer is on the side with the WH so it does get hot water quickly. The DW, being on the other side of the house, usually ends up getting cold water in the winter and warm water in the summer. The DW user manual doesn't mention a max incoming temperature but I think I read or the tech mentioned that it should not be over 140F.

Growing up we had a tankless heater as part of our boiler(the domestic water line coil was submerged into the water used to heat the house). The heater was set at 180F so the water was HOT. No one ever got burned we knew what we were dealing with.

I remember DW detergents and our KA manual stated that the recommendated temperature was 140F to 160F so the appliances then were expecting this high temperature. Even with this temp we didn't have glass etching.

I think the practice of having water temperatures no higher than 120F started with energy awareness and then came this notion that keeping temperatures this low would prevent burns. With the tankless I never run out of hot water.