which Rheem water heater???
I’ve been looking at water heaters for a while now and have settled in on a rheem. I can have it ordered in at Home Depot for nothing and I like their prices.
I’m not sure which one to get though. I e-mail them (around Christmas) and they haven’t gotten back to me. I called them yesterday and the person took forever to come back with the answer of call back Wednesday.
Here’s our household situation. We have three full baths. We have two kitchens. One has a dishwasher but the other just has a sink. The third bath and second kitchen will be rented out in the future as we are in a college town. No whirlpool baths or anything else.
I do plan to put a circulation loop on in the future since two bathrooms and the second kitchen is on the other side of the house. I have good access to install the loop.
I have gas at the water heater spot with venting through the roof. I would like to buy a water heater that has 2″ of insulation and is high effiency rated. We live at a high elevation. Ft Collins is at 5,000 feet.
Any recommendations?
Replies
Rheem's are high quality water heaters.
What do you mean by high efficiency, tank water heaters average between .55 & .69 when it comes to efficiency.
I would wrap the water heater with after market insulation if it's not in a conditioned space----- I did not wrap mine, cause I use it as partial radiant heat system for my garage.
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
I've posted about this before and I think you straightened me out on high efficiency.
No problem. I would like to install the highest quality conventional water heater I can.
When I go to the Bradford White sizing page I get three water heaters that come up. On their page I can't factor in that I have a second kitchen and it might be a renter. This is the page. http://rightspec.bradfordwhite.com/Sizing/Residential.aspx
If you look at the one on the right M-2-XR504T6FBN it has two inches of insulation from the factory. It has a higher numbers for output.
Do they just put in a bigger burner? Is it one stage or two stage like my furnace?
The Rheem person I talked to said I needed an 80 gal but Bradford white says 50.
I did put in three and a half bathrooms into the equation on the B&W sizing page and it still came up with the same three.
If you were going to pick a Rheem which one for me? If you look at this Rheem page the two at the top get the highest rating. Should I just get the 42XR50-40F?
http://waterheating.rheem.com/content/resources/documents/specsheets/Residential%20Gas/RHGasImperial.pdf
Cost isn't a real big factor in this. If B&W is more money but is just better all around, I'd like The B&W.
Edited 12/29/2007 4:23 pm ET by popawheelie
Edited 12/29/2007 4:30 pm ET by popawheelie
Edited 12/29/2007 4:33 pm ET by popawheelie
I'm off to a party, if i don't answer when I get back I'll post a reply in the morning.
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
Now yer askin me to pit Rheem against Bradford White---- ;-)
I have had better luck with BW's over the years, I still think they are both quality items--- I can't answer about customer service, I don't deal in the retail world.
Sizing is a two fold item, one is take into account all fixtures that are connected & two is to take in how many people will be using said items.
The future renters is what makes this kind of tricky, do you size it for max use now & waste hot water sitting idle until you get renters, or do you size it with what you have now with room for expansion.
I have a 50 gal BW gas fired in my house, family of 4, the only time we run out of hot water is if my 13yr old stays in the shower til it's out of hot water ;-)
I don't know how many people you have now, but a 50 gallon is the common size 1 kitchen 1 laundry & 3 bathrooms, since the second kitchen does not have a dw, then it's demand is just another sink, so that's not much.
What's going to get ya is the renter equation---- how much & how often are they going to shower.
One option is to put in the 50 G BW M-I-504S6FBN now with room to add a 40 G BW later---- piped in parallel if everyone uses hot water at the same time, or piped in series if everyone uses hot water one after the other.
If you don't have the room for two you can crank up the temp & install a mixing valve on the outlet.
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
Thanks Plumbbill. I'll call around tomorrow for a B&W.
Tagachi K-3.
I just came back into town after being gone for 8 days. It didn't fire up once over that time.
How much more efficient do you want?
From Papa in post # 5
"No problem. I would like to install the highest quality conventional water heater I can. "
As tankless are efficient in not wasting gas in heating water that is not being used they lack in being able to produce a large amount of hot water in a short time ( I am speaking of resi units, not the overly large commercial ones I install) .
Popa's situation is that he's going to have renters, which could require a large amount of gpm's.
Don't get me wrong I like tankless, but not for every situation, my cabin will be switched over to tankless when the tanked one goes bad, but in my house a tankless would cost me more in gas usage than my 50 gal tank, cause with a family of 4 & 1 to 2 showers per day by all, 2 loads through the dw, & the mounds of laundry, my tank never sits idle--- that's where the tankless beat the tanks is no idle loss, but I have no idle time ;-)
"Why do you hurt me when I do bad things to you?" My youngest son to his older brother
I didn't see the renters part. No question.
A.O. Smith - http://www.hotwater.com/products/residential/gas.html
Jeff
Edited 12/30/2007 10:52 pm ET by Jeff_Clarke
Thanks Jeff. I like the vertex but I'm not sure if they will sell me one. The closest distributer is in Denver over an hour away. I'll see If it will work.
The website didn't have dealers in Ft Collins. They did list three installers though.
This is what I was talking about in a earlier post. If they make it to hard for me to buy their product I'll buy elsewhere. It's just a water heater for cry'n out loud.
I've always installed my own water heaters.
State also has the Vertex, but they have a different name on it.State is owned by AO SMith.http://www.statewaterheaters.com/premier/index.htmlDon't know what there distribution is.I see some one is selling a Vertex on Ebay, BuyNow for $2300..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
It seems like I start to get close to figuring out which one and you guys throw more options my way.
The Vertex and the other one are kind of in-between a conventional water heater and the http://www.htproducts.com/phoenix.html phoenix.
The phoenix has a stainless steel tank. The vertex doesn't. So I'm spending how much more $? on a vertex only to have the tank rust out.
The ebay guy has the Vertex or the other one I can get for 1,890.00 plus shipping. I'm not sure I want to get one off ebay. I'd like to have local support.
The phoenix is somewhere around 5,000.00. I never did nail it down because of the sticker shock.
The B&W M2 XR504T6FBN http://www.bradfordwhite.com/images/shared/pdfs/specsheets/109.pdf
I can get locally for $ 659.00
I see you've experienced Rheems excellent customer service!
I am done with Rheem. I have had problems with four of the last ten or so that we have installed in our new homes.
The last straw was Friday before Christmas. My own personal tank stopped working. I called Rheem and they were going to send someone out. I never heard from anyone. So Saturday I had my plumber take it out and put in a State. I talked to my supplier after Christmas and they say I'm the only one having all these problems. They agreed to take the tank back and give full credit. Good bye Rheem.
The problems were:
1. tank leaked within a week of install. Supplier finally sent someoneout to look at it. He went to drain the tank and the spigot fell off in his hand it was rusted through within two weeks.
2. the ceramic around the ignitor was cracked and so it would't light, this was after about a year.
3. same problem as 2 but it happened within a month of install
4. I had to replace the pressure switch on my tank on day one because it wouldn't fire up. Then I had this last problem. Not sure what the final cause was this time.
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Edited 12/29/2007 3:10 pm ET by EJCinc
Sorry to hear about your problems with Rheem. How about Bradford White? They seem to be a top notch company. The reason I shied away from them is that I have to go through a dealer. Unless dealers treat me right I don't like to go in.
Maybe I need to find someone within the plumbing/Bradford White outlet that I like and just talk to them.
I'll call them and talk to someone.
Out of my personal experience with Rheem Water Heater it performs really well. https://www.waterheaters.reviews/rheem-water-heater/
I don't know how did I stumble upon such an old thread, but I can vouch for Rheem too.
Rinnai is also a reliable brand.
Check out my guide on tankless water heaters here:
https://tankless.review