Donate it to Mythbusters, watch it get blown up good...
Posted on 02/02/2011 3:08:04 PM PST by Bean Counter
Our 1985 model 50 gallon electric hot water heater is original to our house and has been extremely reliable since we have lived here, but lately it is showing signs of age and I wonder if there is anything I can do to extend its life.
It takes a lot longer for it to recover after one use, a shower or a load of laundry, than it used to. Also I have been cleaning particles of white crusty debris out of our various hot water strainers and it's clear the stuff is coming from the hot water heater.
Is there anything I can do short of replacing it, that will restore some of it's heating capacity in whole or in part? Am I better advised to wait until it fails completely, or should I be looking at replacing it now before it goes?
A new 80 gallon electric tank will fit in this one's place and runs about $600. I'm almost certain that a new electric water heater will be more efficient than the 25 year old model so there will probably be some modest savings on our electric bill. The main goal is to restore our hot water in the steady volume we used to get.
This is the last appliance in the house that we have not upgraded, repaired or replaced, and I think the time to kiss it goodbye is drawing near...
Sounds like its full of sediment, to the point of trying to flush it out is futile. This would explain all the issues you are having.
The next water heater you buy, flush it out at least once a year and replace the anode rod every five years or so. You will get maximum life from that unit.
The hot water and also the slight electrical current, causes minerals and chemicals to participate out of the water and build up inside and ‘scale’ the sides of the tank.
Have you drained and flushed the tank?
Have you replaced the heating element?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GERpIx_QLo
Replace it. Weld 3/4” shaft stubs on the ends of the steel tank. Attach two flange bearings to some channel stock and place the bearings onto the shafts. Fill the tank with sand or water, cap it, and you now have a really nice lawn roller for about $30.00. If you want it to push by hand, bend the channel stock into a Y and attach a T handle. If you have a rider mower, make a hitch hole in the Y and pin it to your riding mower. Your lawn will be as smooth as a tennis court in two months.
To extend its life, drain it, cut in half length wise and turn into a flower planter. As a water heater its life was over years ago.
Otherwise you may come home to a flooded house some time very soon.
A water softener will double the life of all your plumbing.
Replace it. The bottom of the tank is probably filled with gunk and the vital insides coated with minerals and crust.
You should get much better results from something new.
Skeeter, my friend, definitely replace it before it dies. Most things don't have the courtesy of giving out during the week day; they drop on the weekend, when the cost is much higher to replace.
>> So do you flush it once a year like you are suppose to?
PLEASE don’t tell Mrs. Tick that the HWH needs flushing.
I get enough grief for not flushing the john. I don’t need any more.
And if a hot water heater has a SEAT that I’m expected to leave a certain way, I don’t want to know about that either.
If you like copious amounts of hot water but do not want to pay to have heated water just sitting around cooling off investigate the various instant hot water heaters. I have an electric but I am in a mild climate I have heard real good things about the gas fired ones. The boy scout camp even installed them in the bathhouses and the last shower is as hot as the first and no money is spent heating water when no one is home all week long.
You will save money in the long run by either replacing the tank or going with a Rinnai on-demand system (which I love and would not trade for a million $) - your savings from the efficiency in either case will pay for the replacement in short order.
We put our old one out one the curb and called the trash people to come and take it. But before they came, several scrap metal people who were canvasing the neighborhoods came and took it in their truck.
1985 heater was likely a 30 year heater if you drained it every year, almost nobody does.
They also have cathodic rods that should be replaced at about 15 years.
If you have done so it might have 10 years left and it would be worth replacing the heater elements. But the tank or other components could fail next and you’ll be wishing you had replaced it.
I’d replace it with the same size, unless you have added a bathroom or your family has grown. A new one should do a little more on a little less energy.
white crusty stuff is most likely calcium and other minerals precipitated out of solution over the years.get rid of it and go with natural gas.Calcium deposits in the water are a sure sign of imminent failure.Simply put buy one now while it’s at your convenience or buy one when it ruptures which is usually on a cold february sunday night at around 9:30pm.. :)
Presto -now you have a really nice bomb shelter.
>> really nice lawn roller
That idea is a “keeper”. Thanks.
Thanks folks, excellent advice, and I already had the new one picked out anyway. Now I have lots of ammo to give the Missus when she wants to know why we need to do this now.
Thanks!
Donate it to Mythbusters, watch it get blown up good...
Dump in a couple of quartss of CLR
Go to Lowes (or other some such .. ) purchase two new heating elements (approx $50), go to local plumber, borrow the socket you need to unscrew the old elements (sometimes it takes a pipe wrench on aforementioned socket).
Wait a few days for CLR to "muddify" the calciun inside
Remove the drain valve on the bottom, rinse the tank of all the muddified crap inside, replace the drain valve, remove old elements and replace with new elements ... fire it up.
Unless of course I didn't read far enough to discover it's a gas heater.
In which case, all you need to do is clean the thing with CLR
It's a good practice to get new thermostats (for each element) also.
Everything takes time, but the cost is about $75 or 80 instead of 2 or 3 hunnert..
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