Hot water heater question

Anyone have any experience with hot water heaters? My mom's went out and she would like to go from gas to electric. She also lives alone and is interested in the low boys but not sure how they would handle when she has company over.

Any brands to stay away from or any other helpful tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Well I'm not a plumber but I have pretended to be one plenty of times. I have no clue what a "low boy" is supposed to be but the gas will heat faster & cheaper than electric. You will also need to add a 10/2 with ground to the area and be able to hook it to the electric panel. Some places now require an expansion tank on top of the water heaters. (If you live in a city that has codes)

The reason we want to switch is because she can't get down on the floor to light the pilot.

You would probably have to have an electrician run power for Electric power.

Gas it is at least 4 times cheaper to run and much better.

Once a water heater is lit it should not go out.

The cost of electricity is not that much extra. Just go to Home Depot and buy what you like. Have them install it.

If the pilot goes out often, something is wrong.

Based on my experience with our dad, she may feel safer with an electric. We swapped his for that reason at his request.

Now as for as electric heater and hot water supply are concerned, the shape of the tank is not important.
A 30 gallon tank hold 30 gallons. A 40 gallon tank hold 40 gallons. The recovery, how fast it will heat water, depends on the wattage of the element.

If I remember correctly, a 5500 watt element heater will produce about 17 gallons of hot watter an hour. A3800 watt element will produce about 12 gallons an hour.
A gas water heater will produce about twice as much hot water per hour as an electric.

An average top loading clothes washer hold 17 gallons of ar largest load.

Hope this helps you make a decision. As mention above, you must have room in the electric panel for another 240 volt breaker.

I have had gas water heaters for 40+ years and I can't recall the last time I had to relight one.

I would try and discourage her from going to electric as they cost lots more money to run and running heavy gauge wire from the sub panel to the heater closet will be expensive.

Her house is about 6ft above ground and she turns the hot water heater off and drains the pips during the winter if she is going to be gone for any length of time. The old heater had a bad pilot igniter switch so we would have to light it directly.

I think we are just going to get her a replacement for what she has and she shouldn't have any issues.

Thanks for the information guys.

It's not hard to change as long as you can get to the breaker box and you have the space for the extra double pole breaker. I changed out my gas water heater to electric because I don't like the thought of blowing up.

I like bradford whites. The anode rod is different in the brands when I replaced mine it appeared the anode rod in the bradford white was better suited for my particular water quality. Make sure you replace the pan and if it's got a gate valve go ahead and change that to a 1/4 turn ball valve when the water is off. The pilot light on the new bradford white is just a push button I would bet any new gas unit would have a similar style.

Never had anything but an electric doubt I would want a gas. Had to put new heating elements and t-stats in our water heater last year. Completely drained it flushed out all the sediment, new pressure valve, refilled it drained the air and in 30 min I had hot water and its a 60 gal tank. Ive ran 6 people through the showers and never had a shortage of hot water.

Water heaters are soon to get a lot more expensive as a result of a new law that will eliminate the manufacture of traditional type models. The newer models mandated by federal guidelines will be a lot more expensive.

Some have even considered buying and stocking one for future use.

I did that with light bulbs, but no thanks, with water heaters.

uhhh, this is mostly a bunk rumor.
I researched this recently - the 'new law' essentially requires 1 more inch of (internal)foam insulation; not going to increase prices by very much.
What might get expensive, is if a new water-heater no longer fits in the space you have (because of bigger diameter) due to more insulation.
Previous laws from before also called for bump in insulation - didn't affect prices that much.

They went up about 15% on average.

Bradford White is gonna to come out with like a 48 gallon water heater that is same size as previous 50 gallon.

Right now the bigger dimension are not causing much issues, just usually the vent pipe to be adjusted.

TANKLESS TANKLESS TANKLESS

Gas in the house and electric in the shop. Electric pulls a bunch of juice but it s not used much. Both types throw a bunch of hot water out!!

Just had a new 50 gal electric water heater put in at the farm. Manufacture date on it says May 25, 2015 which is after law went into effect in April 2015.

The Richmond water heater(made by Rheem) is narrower and considerably taller than the 50 gal it replaced.

^^^^^THis

Get on on demand tankless. They work extremely well.

Tankless has a lot of draw back.

When mine went out a few years ago, I got on Home Depot and Lowes website and looked at the different makes and models. You can read the reviews and then choose a model from that information. You can get one somewhere other than those two places, but you can get the information about them and what people think about them on those sites. Like was said before, make sure there is room in the breaker box for a 220 (double pole) breaker or else you will have to install a sub panel.

Such as Red Ranger? Other than the price of course