High Efficency Water Heater Recomendations

[heehaw]

Alan L.: are you using propane "just" for hot water? around here, right now propane is cheaper than natural gas: according to the NG company, its cost is @ $1.40 a gallon, or thats what they were advertising year before last, when propane was running close to $3: now propane is $1.39 an maybe a little less: i need to do a little measuring an see how much 1/2 gallon per minute actually amounts to out the faucet: it may be more than i want to "have" to run to get hot water. I do like the way the on demand units are made, better than normal gas water heaters, they appear to last longer.
heehaw

 

[kenmac]

GE doesn't make water heaters... It is a Rheem with a G E label

 

[whistlepig]

My next water heater will be a Rheem. An all fiberglass tank with a life time warranty. For sure the heating elements aren't going to last a lifetime. It's easier to go down the steps to replace an element than hauling an entire water heater up the steps to replace it. A Rheem fiberglass water heater is expensive. About $1,000. For a lifetime that's not such a bad price.

 

[Alan L.]

We do use propane only for hot water, although I have a connection for lighting the wood fireplace which we haven't used, and for an outside gas grill which I also have not hooked up to a grill.

I was under the impression that propane was considerably more expensive than NG but that might not be the case now.

Using hindsight, it probably was not worth the trouble to get a tank and plumb for the propane just for the water heater. But my plumbing sold me a bill of goods on how energy efficient it would be. Yea, it only heats up when you actuall use the hot water, but it uses ALOT during the time you are using it.

 

[Scooby074]

GE doesn't make water heaters... It is a Rheem with a G E label

Whats your opinion of the quality of the GE rebadged Rheems? Does GE make a rebadged Marithon?

 

[heehaw]

Alan L.: that just sounds like a lot of propane for just heating water: we just got our NG bill an it is $28.56: for 15CCF, don't know how that compares to gallons of propane? we use NG to heat water, dryer, cook stove, plus heat, but there hasn't been any heat used in a couple months: we have a cheapo 40 gallon NG water heater: have you checked for leaks?
heehaw

 

[kenmac]

Whats your opinion of the quality of the GE rebadged Rheems?

Does GE make a rebadged Marithon?

The GE's come off the same assy. line as the rheems..Same quality... mabe less tank warranty depending on the model... The GE is just a rebage for lowe's



Not that I'am aware of

 

[heehaw]

Lowes had an electric water heater that said lifetime warranty on it: when i questioned the folks in the plumbing dept about it, they said it amounted to @14 years: it was not a true "life time" warranty: of course they couldn't explain their reasoning, but that is what they said:
10CCF appears to be equal to 10.917 gallons of propane, if i am interpreting the conversion chart correctly: so my NG bill was 28.56 for 15CCF and it would have been 22.92 for propane, without taxes and figuring propane at 1.40 a gallon as it is right now. with taxes @22.75 so propane would be a little cheaper now.
heehaw

 

[Alan L.]

Thats the way Lowes does business. They also have a price matching policy that they don't honor. And, we bought $3000 of levelor blinds at Lowes that have a 3-year warranty. As they started failing within 1 year, Lowes ordered and replaced two of them. As more of them continue to fail (they are total crap) Lowes now refuses to replace them, we instead have to take them to Lowes and they send them off for WEEKS to be repaired, while we have no window covering during that period.

 

[Alan L.]

I've not had reason to believe we have a leak, but I guess I need somebody to check it. Does seem like a lot JUST for hot water.

 

[BobRip]

I've not had reason to believe we have a leak, but I guess I need somebody to check it. Does seem like a lot JUST for hot water.

Take a small container( 1/2 quart or so), put some dish washing soap and water in it, stir it up with a paint brush, and go around dabbing the fittings with the paint brush and solution. If bubbles form, you have a leak. You may have some initial bubbles, but they will grown and burst if their is a leak. This is probably all the pro would do.

 

[whistlepig]

Lowes had an electric water heater that said lifetime warranty on it: when i questioned the folks in the plumbing dept about it, they said it amounted to @14 years: it was not a true "life time" warranty: of course they couldn't explain their reasoning, but that is what they said:
10CCF appears to be equal to 10.917 gallons of propane, if i am interpreting the conversion chart correctly: so my NG bill was 28.56 for 15CCF and it would have been 22.92 for propane, without taxes and figuring propane at 1.40 a gallon as it is right now. with taxes @22.75 so propane would be a little cheaper now.
heehaw

A bit more on how Lowes does business. When we moved here less than two years ago we bought all new kitchen appliances from Lowes. We also bought the extended warranty on these kitchen appliances from Lowes. Lowes doesn't do their own repair. This is contracted out to Sears repairmen. Our oven filament burned out. We called Lowes and they said it would be a week before a serviceman could come. After a week the serviceman came out and said the the oven filament was burned out. Duh! The serviceman said he would have to order a filament. It would take a week for the filament to come to our house. He said to call him when the filament came. So the filament came and we called. He said it would be another week before he could come out and put it in. It took three weeks to get the oven filament replaced. Something I could have done in 15 minutes. There is something not quite right here. I spent money to be a caboose on a stupid train.

 

[kenmac]

Take a small container( 1/2 quart or so), put some dish washing soap and water in it, stir it up with a paint brush, and go around dabbing the fittings with the paint brush and solution. If bubbles form, you have a leak. You may have some initial bubbles, but they will grown and burst if their is a leak. This is probably all the pro would do.

I do an air pressure test... If the gauge leaks down. I then use soap to locate

 

[heehaw]

i do the same thing: am putting new NG lines in a house an had a leak in the last set of @ 12 connections or so: had to air it up an go with the bubbles to locate it: i made the mistake of using my small pipe wrench to put those last joint together, got out the big one an made a couple more turns on a couple joints, it doesn't leak down now.
heehaw