What Temperature Is Your Hot Water Heater Set ?

[launderess]

Enzymes

Think laundry and dishwasher detergents have started to use "Frankenzymes" that aren't affected by very hot water temperatures. Persil and many other European detergents all claim to have full active cleaning power from 85F to 140F or higher. However suppose if one used a "boil" wash, that would kill off the buggers.

 

[mrboilwash]

I was wondering if there might be a potential risk of legionellosis at temperatures below 140°F. But on second thought water in the States seems to be heavily chlorinated, so it`s probably safe at any temperature, right ?

 

[foraloysius]

Stefan

I have wondered about that often too but never got an adequate answer. Nobody seems to be bothered with it.

 

[DADoES]

 
102°F to 104°F (38°C to 40°C) as the "normal" setting. Sometimes lower for a lukewarm/cool shower in the summer heat. Occasionally higher for laundry depending on the load. Ran a load at 122°F (50°C) last night. Can't go higher than 140°F (60°C).

 

[mrboilwash]

I admit to flush my shower hose every now and then with hot water just to be on the safe side, but I have no influence on the temperature, I live in a flat.
Guess my hot water supply is around 60°C and our tap water here in Munich is not chlorinated at all.

 

[foraloysius]

I have a flow through system that is part of the central heating system. Combined boiler/water heater. There is no control for the water temperature and it takes a little while before the max. temperature is reached. But then it is really hot, I'm sure it's over 140F/60C. When I filled the LG Turbodrum with hot water it was steaming quite a bit.

 

[autowasherfreak]

We have an older gas Kenmore and settings are low, high, and very high, and I have it set at very high. I haven't checked to see what the actual temperature is.

 

[circlew]

Don't know what the water heater here in the rental house is set at, but it can be rather hot. However, it seems to turn cool rather fast. It's an electric Whirlpool, I think 40 gal. It's in the dungeon of a basement, and I don't go down there unless I absolutley have to.

In the house I'm renovating, I got a Rheem electric, 50 gal. I wanted a 62 gal., but forgot to tell the plumber before it was ordered. Mark (the plumber) installed a loop with circulation pump, which he suggested I put a timer on it to circulate the water at times I'd be likely to be using hot water. I'm planning to set it at about 140F, so will have water hot enough to clean effectively.

 

[jeffg]

We keep our 50-gal Rheem at 160F. No small kids to worry about and it makes a big difference in washer/dishwasher performance.

 

[logixx]

113°F for tap water. We use hot water to heat the radiators, too. I don't know hot that water gets. I know it once was set to 194°F and the radiators got so hot you couldn't touch them... but the rooms heated quickly! It's now set to AUTO mode and is controlled by the central heating's computer which takes into account the outside temp as well. The tap water always remains at 113°F, though.

This is our oil-fired heating system from Buderus. I don't think the thing I called "recirculation pump" is really that - I don't know what it is, actually. There should be two pumps somewhere, though.

 

[jerrod6]

I remember reading about the Buderus oil fired boiler on the HVAC web forum. The professionals there think they are one of the best oil fired boilers you can buy.

Perhaps the thing labeled recirculatioin pump is the expansion tank but is it connected to your domestic hot water heater or to the boiler or both? If connected to both maybe it has something to do with transfering heated water to your water tank to heat your domestic water?

 

[retro-man]

The ones in the house were set at 150 but last year dropped them down to 140. didn't really notice a difference. During the winter when the boiler is on the water goes from that 40 gallon tank to a 50 gallon ge electric tank. At this time of the year when the boiler is off we just go with the 50 gallon electric. Actually much cheaper this way. electric is about 10.00 per month in summer for electric hot water and drops to 5 or 6 in the winter. Boiler does not need to be on so that drops my gas bill and the a/c doesn't need to run so much without the boiler on. The only thing running on gas in summer is the clothes dryer and that uses max of about 2 therms a month. Now at the hair salon we have 2 50 gallon tanks and are set about 110 degrees, supposedly by state law. In the winter they get kicked up to around 140 degrees cause our water is so cold here. With 5 shampoo sinks and a top loader ge washer that we only do hot washes because all of our towels are white, we go thru a lot of hot water.
Jon
Jon

 

[tomturbomatic]

Tom, If your 40 gallon tank runs out of hot water quickly, either the lower heating element is out or something is wrong with its thermostat.

Be sure that the circulation loop is well insulated, otherwise you will be losing heat through it and will be paying for lost heat on your electric bill. The most modern way to go with the pump control is a remote switch in the kitchen or bath that runs the pump for maybe a minute or two, just to bring hot water to the point of use.

Electric water heaters could be as fast as gas, but the power companies were afraid of the demand with two 4500 watt elements operating simultaneously in thousands of homes, usually at about the same times like when everyone is getting ready to leave the house in the morning. Wiring from the water heater all the way back to the power plant would have to be heavier so electric water heaters heat the top third or so of the tank to the desired setting using the top element which used to be 4500 watts in "quick recovery" water heaters, then switch to the lower element to heat the bottom 2/3s of the tank.

One of Carter's proposals for the energy crisis was that all new construction would have to heat a percentage of the hot water needs with solar, but Ray Gun came in with his fossils, I mean fossil fuel people, and scrapped all of that.

 

[passatdoc]

Legionella

Most cases in USA seem to come from air-conditioning systems, where there is a reservoir of stagnant water in the system that isn't maintained properly. Rare to contact it from cold tap water that hasn't stagnated.

Yes, most US tap water is chlorinated (or chloramines are added) though in March of this year, our local system changed to another method, I forgot the name of it. I don't know if chloramines were removed, or just reducted with the new disinfectant added. For a week in January, we were asked to conserve water because the central county plant was retooling its disinfection process and there would be no deliveries of water to the local water agencies.

 

[syndets2000]

...hot water....

I keep it at about 150- it serves three seperate apartments- I like it hot-

 

[dj-gabriele]

I have hot water from the waterduct, it's supposed to be heated via co-generation but I'm not sure, anyway the temperature at the faucet is 45-48°C (113-118 °F) and of course there is an endless supply of it

At my parent's/summer house there is a combo boiler-central heating system and it a semi-instant boiler: it has a small 60 L tank (16 gallons) and has an output of 20 L of 50°C per minute with an increase in temperature of 35°C, so the supply is endless too. And it's also connected to the solar collectors with an auxiliary 150 L tank.

 

[dustin92]

ours is gas, and it takes 2 to 2.5 hours to heat up so we keep it on the max setting of about 160F

 

[brisnat81]

Tank is maintained at 160degF

Legally the water at the taps can be no hotter than 120degF so there is a tempering valve on the outlet of the hotwater tank that mixes hot and cold together to get to 120degF

 

[bosch2460]

So, while on the subject of water heaters........

I have a question that I have wondered for sometime. On a water heater than has 2 thermostats on it, I never know which one to set on what setting. I keep mine on 140.

My question is, how should the upper element be set, and then what about the bottom element? I am not even exactly sure WHY there are 2 separate settings for a one tank heater.

So, would anyone like to enlighten me on the correct way of setting it? Thanks in advance....

Joel

 

[sudsmaster]

About 130F here as well.

The Neptune front loader runs off the water heater. It will only heat to 130F anyway.

The Miele 1918 is out in the workshop and has cold fill only. It does fine with that. Usually wash whites at 160F, and perm press at 120F there.