Advice on water heater

SO, we're moving to VA (specifically, Fredericksburg/King George area) in about a month. Home inspection was done, and the biggest thing on it is that the water heater is original to the house (built in 1973 ) and needs replaced.

I figure now's a good time to ask the tough questions. Currently it's your standard electric water heater, BUT we have a propane whole house generator. As such, I'm thinking it's worth asking if I should instead have a propane hot water heater installed.

I'd love one of those heat pump water heaters, as the basement is unfinished...but I'm not sure how long it'll remain so, and I believe they need something like 1000 sq ft of space to operate efficiently/correctly.

My gut feeling is that we'd be better off w/a propane hot water heater, but I figured I'd ask you fine ladies n gentlemen here first. Thoughts?

 

I guess it would depend on the cost of getting the gas lines run for the water heater.
I would say gas is nice when the power goes out, but you have the generator.

 

Well yeah, there's that too. I'm not worried about the cost of the lines run, as there's already a line run for the generator, so I'd think it could tap off of that.

With that said...good point on the generator. As dumb as it sounds I didn't even consider that. I was just thinking that regardless of whether we have power or not, we could have hot water.

I'm mainly overall thinking of the cost of propane vs the cost of electricity, I suppose.

 

Must have great water there. I would go back with one exactly like it.

if you went with the propane you would have to probably move it somewhere and make everything to code.

 

Good point. If electric was THAT high or water were terrible, the water heater wouldn't be original to the house install. LOL

 

We got a propane water heater installed when we built. They are (at least then they were) more efficient than electric. Now, ours is installed on an outside wall because there no such thing as basements in Louisiana. We have a generator too, but it's still beneficial to have in general in my opinion.

 

Go back with another electric water heater. My all electric house is cheaper than my mixed gas / electric house ever was. Gas is fun for cooking and heats water a little faster than the electric does. But my house won’t explode and we won’t die of carbon monoxide poising. And my induction range is easier and faster to cook on than gas was. Gas water heater has a lot more parts that can fail and creates more corrosion of the external parts of the water tank. There’s a reason that electric water heater lasted all this time.

 

Yeah, in talking w/the wife we came to those exact same solutions. Unless the previous owners were gluttons for punishment, they didn't hold into the original hot water heater for no reason.

 

how many people are in the home? is there an option of draining the water heater before you're done? thats another reason i like the tankless water heater

 

Also, the gas water heater would have to have a vent to the outside, wall or roof according to code.
The electric won't have a pilot light that can go out, although ours has only gone out once in 17 years.


We have a gas water heater. furnace. and fireplace log starter.
Only the water heater runs in the summer..

Gas bill



Electric bill, I've only been with this provider 4 months.

 

Seriously consider an on demand heater. So much smaller and more efficient.

Also...I second the great water comment. My water is acidic and will absolutely destroy a water heater in less than 10 years.

 

We researched those when we had our water heater replaced in 2020, but decided to go with the gas tank like we already had.
If you go tankless, get propane or gas, the electric units got shitty reviews when I was looking into it...

 

And you need a lot of electrical upgrade for the tankless water heaters. Depending on what your panel looks like and how far away it is it could get complicated. Just replace what’s there. Worst case/ power outage/ natural disaster, you’ll have 40-50 gallon water storage to tide you over.

 

3, and yep, easily done. Basement is unfinished and draining is a simple matter of hooking up a hose and running out out the basement door.

 

Panel is brand new...and there are currently baseboard heaters in the house that we'll be UNinstalling, so it'll free up space on the breaker box. Breaker box is like 8' from the water heater.

But with that said, honestly, the comment about replacing what's there struck home. Where I live has some of THE hardest water I've ever experienced...so the fact that it's got the original water heater says quite a lot. Besides if I decide to in the future, we can always upgrade then.

 

In manassas/dumfries area a little north of you. We’re on city water, it’s hard. I installed 2 big blue filters, a sediment filter and a carbon filter, then a water softener. Under kitchen sink I put in a R/O system for fridge and sink spigot. I change the big blue 20” filters every 6 months. They are brown when I change them. That’s on “safe” city water . Don’t know why 2 pics

 

Thankfully we're not on city water.

 

I have a heat pump water heater that I use only in the summer. My oil fired boiler heats my domestic in the winter then I shut it down over the summer. I think that the heat pump heater only requires a 10x10 area. I am happy with mine had it for almost 10 years now. It has a 10 year warranty and the main board just went out in May. They sent out a free replacement and got me going again.

 

I’ll do tankless when my old tank goes out and a whole house filter with softener.

 

I believe Propane is more efficient than electric but also think it's going to be more expensive. My home was propane heat and it tore me up $$ wise. I found out there was a natural gas line that ended 2' into my property. Columbia Gas gave me the line, marker wire and risers. Rented a trencher and dug in 450' of line and converted my furnace back to run on NG. Actually found out it wasn't properly converted from NG to Propane when installed.

 

Check out the local codes before you do anything else.
I had been wondering about the useful life left in my 12 year old water heater but last week my neighbor had his fail and put my mind to rest! His was the original, also from the mid 70's, gas and installed in a bathroom (unlike mine). Local code says thou shalt not be allowed a replacement in a living area so it cost him a shit ton to have a new one mounted on the outside wall.
Water might not eat my tank but it's fuckin' awful to drink, highly chlorinated and full of crud, some of the lowest quality water in SC which is hardly a benchmark state for water - my carbon filter looks like the one above but after only three months and if I'm slack replacing it we get almost zero water pressure before 5 months is up. I miss my Florida well!

 

Keep it simple and get an electric water heater. Insulate it with a wrap. Grab an extra heating element for it while you still can and hang it up near the tank somewhere and you'll be all set up for a good while. The propane generator is great if you have a generous supply of fuel ready and the maintenance is kept up. If the house is quite large and you need more hot water look into going with a slightly larger unit than what is currently existing. An extra 10 gallons makes a difference sometimes.

 

If you go with a tankless/on demand, use an inline filter before the heater, whether it's city or well water. All the pathways are small in the tankless heaters and a lot of the problems people have with them are corrosion and hard water deposits in the small lines and heat exchanger. I went with tankless at the new house and haven't moved in or run water through it yet. After talking with a contractor at work about replacing a commercial kitchen water heater, we went through all the options and he recommended the filter if we went tankless. He said he's seen and installed many tanks and not filtering the water is the biggest reason for them failing prematurely. I'll be installing a filter for mine before we move in.