gas or electric water heater

[ctechbob]

Rental that you own and are renting out to someone else? Electric all day every day. Much less to go wrong that you have to go out and fix. And they're cheap to replace.

This coming from somone who is solidly in the heat pump water heater camp...for my own use.

 

[alarmguy]

Into the 5th year now. City. I do yearly preventive maintenance on it (flush for 45 minutes, clean all filters, etc.).

Yeah, seems like the flush is part of owning a tankless. I was told by my propane guy Amazon sells a kit online.

 

[CarLuver]

Yeah, seems like the flush is part of owning a tankless. I was told by my propane guy Amazon sells a kit online.

i have one i made. a $40 pump , couple of old washing machine hoses and a 5 gallon bucket. 4 gal vinegar and a couple of hours . don't even need to watch it .

 

[dlundblad]

I’ve always understood it goes natural gas, electricity, and propane.

We have an electric hybrid water heater and heat with propane as do my parents. They used to have a propane water heater and when they switched to a hybrid unit, propane consumption went down substantially.

 

[Donald]

Hybrid

 

[JustinH]

I iwIsh I had a tank, our new home has a Rianni tankless.
Since it’s new, it’s irrelevant at this point, but I’m not looking forward to future maintenance of having to clean out the coils as little as every year or as much as every 3 years.

In our last house, our 50 gallon gas water heater needed nothing until it was time to replace at 13 years old.

I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think so as our propane service guy was telling me how I can do it myself.
It seems in the OP statement the reason he wants to go back to a tank is maybe the same.

For a rental, the simplicity of a tank of hot water versus an instantaneous water heater which is more complex and possibly greater maintenance

Once a year I pump white vinegar through the system for 45 minutes.

I invested in a 40 dollar submersible pump, a five gallon bucket, and two washer hoses.

The annual cost is whatever 4 gallons of white vinegar costs ($20).

Not a big deal there are a thousand videos on youtube showing what to do.

 

[alarmguy]

Once a year I pump white vinegar through the system for 45 minutes.

I invested in a 40 dollar submersible pump, a five gallon bucket, and two washer hoses.

The annual cost is whatever 4 gallons of white vinegar costs ($20).

Not a big deal there are a thousand videos on youtube showing what to do.

That’s exactly what the propane guy was telling me, 45 minutes and white vinegar.
He said they sell a kit on Amazon.

I’m no stranger to plumbing and electrical work, so I’m OK with it sounds pretty simple and straightforward.
For the OP, though, it would be more simple in a rental to have a tank.

Appreciate your comment, something tells me it’s not going to be a big deal at all and actually since I like this kind of stuff maybe even fun.

 

[andyd]

Always had propane for HW. The house had a 32 gal when we moved in. Went to a 40 gal when kids came. averaged 5-6 yrs of no maintenance before leaking. The current is ? old, but older than average. IIRC its a 2002, but in '08 I upgraded my shallow well system with a 15$ Whirlpool sediment filter just a foot or so from tank outlet. The ball valves I installed to isolate it to make changing easier cost more

 

[97prizm]

15 years ago i put in a NG tankless water heater into the home i was living in. have since moved and its a rental now. in the last couple of years i have had some little issues with the tankless that i resolved my self.

i think the tankless is on its last legs and since it a rental want to convert it back to a tank just for reliability . so the house is odd in that it originally had an electric and some where along the way the previous owners converted it to NG by installing a direct vent . this is in the garage . i know this because the power box for the electric is still on the wall and hot if i flip the breaker .

so just for the sake of reliability , would you take a electric or NG water heater? i lean towards an electric because i have never had to service one , just replace them when they leak. and since its a rental the energy cost don't concern me.

which one would you choose

I'd definitely go natural gas. They tend to last a long time. Natural Gas tends to be cheaper to run versus electric water heaters depending on natural gas rates.