Tankless heater? Better door?
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How can I kill my Hot Water Heater?
My Hot Water Heater is located next to my theater and it is very noisy. (It must have been the boiler for the Titanic!) I would like to place a switch in the thermostat line (if possible) so that I can inhibit its turn on. This monster turns on almost every time someone washes their hands.
Has anyone tried to inhibit this function. It would be similar to placing it on vacation mode during the movies?
Alternatively, I can turn the heat level way down before guests come over. I have already done as much acoustical absorber as I can. The sound is low frequency and comes straight through the wall.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
Has anyone tried to inhibit this function. It would be similar to placing it on vacation mode during the movies?
Alternatively, I can turn the heat level way down before guests come over. I have already done as much acoustical absorber as I can. The sound is low frequency and comes straight through the wall.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
Is this an electric or gas water heater? Electric water heaters only make noise when their heating elements are corroded.
How old is the hot water heater? What's the capacity of the tank?
Water heaters have a pipe that is on the inside of the tank on the supply side that runs to the bottom of the tank. When that pipe gets corroded (or crumbled away if it was a plastic pipe) that will prevent the cold water from reaching the bottom of your water heater where it's supposed to go and then rise to the top as it's heated. If this is the case the cold supply water immediatly hits the top level of the tank, drops the temp of the water at the sensor and the elements kick in. (this is probably the cause if the elements kick in if someone washes their hands).
The only way to check this is to drain your water heater, disconnect the supply and outlet lines and see if the internal pipe is still in one piece. Or after draining remove the bottom element and see if there is a bunch of muck/crap in the bottom of the tank. If there is and a lot of it looks like shredded PVC then the pipe is the problem. I'm not sure of the exact cost, but Home Depot or Lowes sell the replacement pipe for about $10-15.
While you've got the water heater pulled apart, replace the elements and pressure valve, you'll thank me later when the elements die or pressure valve pops and you either have no hot water, or a house full of water. An ounce of prevention....Plus a lot less $$$ if something breaks.
Like mentioned above... You could switch to the tankless water heater, the initial cost is pretty high, but the long term beenfits are great. This is very good if you have natural gas near the water heater area, or already have a gas water heater.
Water heaters have a pipe that is on the inside of the tank on the supply side that runs to the bottom of the tank. When that pipe gets corroded (or crumbled away if it was a plastic pipe) that will prevent the cold water from reaching the bottom of your water heater where it's supposed to go and then rise to the top as it's heated. If this is the case the cold supply water immediatly hits the top level of the tank, drops the temp of the water at the sensor and the elements kick in. (this is probably the cause if the elements kick in if someone washes their hands).
The only way to check this is to drain your water heater, disconnect the supply and outlet lines and see if the internal pipe is still in one piece. Or after draining remove the bottom element and see if there is a bunch of muck/crap in the bottom of the tank. If there is and a lot of it looks like shredded PVC then the pipe is the problem. I'm not sure of the exact cost, but Home Depot or Lowes sell the replacement pipe for about $10-15.
While you've got the water heater pulled apart, replace the elements and pressure valve, you'll thank me later when the elements die or pressure valve pops and you either have no hot water, or a house full of water. An ounce of prevention....Plus a lot less $$$ if something breaks.
Like mentioned above... You could switch to the tankless water heater, the initial cost is pretty high, but the long term beenfits are great. This is very good if you have natural gas near the water heater area, or already have a gas water heater.
Why don't you purchase a new hot water heater that isn't noisy? I assume yours is quite old in the way you described it. New ones are also going to be a great deal more efficient. I have both an electric water heater and a gas one, and both are extremely quiet (well the electric one is silent). You have to put your head next to the gas one to even hear that it's on, it's about as noisy as a gas stove on full blast, which is still pretty damn silent.
I replaced my gas water heater with an electric one. The electric one is dead silent. The gas heater had a 4200 rpm powered exhaust fan - that thing made far more noise than my HVAC equipment.
How old is your water heater? If it is 10-12 years old (and it sounds like it is older than that) then replace it. You don't want to come home to a flood one day. The new one will be much quieter.
You can follow rgroves advice and the water heater will work well but how do you know what condition the tank is in? The tank corrodes and one day will start leaking. Water heaters have a useful life of about 10-12 years. Sure they will work longer but the energy that it takes to operate them increases with age. The new one will use less energy. Also, the heating of the water causes minerals to be extracted from the water and those minerals accumulate at the bottom of the tank. That accumulation of minerals does two things in a gas water heater. First it reduces it's ability to heat the water and second it promotes corrosion. The second also occurs in an electric water heater.
FYI, do you know it's best to connect your ice maker to your hot water instead of your cold water? The reason is because your hot water has less minerals in it that can be deposited in your ice maker.
BTW, it's not called a hot water heater. A hot water heater heats hot water and is normally referred to as a booster. One place you find a booster is on a commercial dishwasher. They take the hot water from the water heater and boost the temperature high enough to kill germs. It's proper name is a water heater.
You can follow rgroves advice and the water heater will work well but how do you know what condition the tank is in? The tank corrodes and one day will start leaking. Water heaters have a useful life of about 10-12 years. Sure they will work longer but the energy that it takes to operate them increases with age. The new one will use less energy. Also, the heating of the water causes minerals to be extracted from the water and those minerals accumulate at the bottom of the tank. That accumulation of minerals does two things in a gas water heater. First it reduces it's ability to heat the water and second it promotes corrosion. The second also occurs in an electric water heater.
FYI, do you know it's best to connect your ice maker to your hot water instead of your cold water? The reason is because your hot water has less minerals in it that can be deposited in your ice maker.
BTW, it's not called a hot water heater. A hot water heater heats hot water and is normally referred to as a booster. One place you find a booster is on a commercial dishwasher. They take the hot water from the water heater and boost the temperature high enough to kill germs. It's proper name is a water heater.
I agree with Greg_63 - If the water heater is over 10 years...REPLACE IT...period. But if it's not, you could at least check the elements and replace if necessary as well as the internal pipe.
Try putting insulation around the pipes and the tank. That should also help retain heat so it runs less frequently.
First...if you post, check back and answer the questions posted.
Second, my house was built in 2004, with a high efficiency Trane unit, with LEDs for temperature, it plugs in for the control power and pilot...and it's louder than hell. It's NG.
BUT
I'm running X10, so you just gave me an idea to X10 the outlet it's plugged into, just would like it to be automatic.
Cause I'll foget on NFL Sundays, drinking for Sunday Night games, then hungover at 6:00AM...the shower water will be ice cold in Nov !....I know from experience.
![]()
Second, my house was built in 2004, with a high efficiency Trane unit, with LEDs for temperature, it plugs in for the control power and pilot...and it's louder than hell. It's NG.
BUT
I'm running X10, so you just gave me an idea to X10 the outlet it's plugged into, just would like it to be automatic.
Cause I'll foget on NFL Sundays, drinking for Sunday Night games, then hungover at 6:00AM...the shower water will be ice cold in Nov !....I know from experience.
Replace that puppy before you wake up and your theater is flooded.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zductive /forum/post/0
My Hot Water Heater is located next to my theater and it is very noisy. (It must have been the boiler for the Titanic!) I would like to place a switch in the thermostat line (if possible) so that I can inhibit its turn on. This monster turns on almost every time someone washes their hands.
Has anyone tried to inhibit this function. It would be similar to placing it on vacation mode during the movies?
Alternatively, I can turn the heat level way down before guests come over. I have already done as much acoustical absorber as I can. The sound is low frequency and comes straight through the wall.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
Replace that puppy before you wake up and your theater is flooded.
Had a hard time getting back to this post. I understand that it is not cool to post and run
!
The water heater is about 2 years old. 100 gallon top of the line home depot brand.
It is gas.
I replaced the previous heater (almost silent) with this one after the original heater flooded the basement. Now, I have a water cop on the heater so that if it leaks the water is turned off. Not a bad $50 investment.
I actually had an installer come back to the house to explain why it was so noisy. He said that all of the fast recovery water heaters make a lot of noise.
I guess that my idea is that I should be able to cut into the thermostat line and disable the thermostat during the movie. That should be cheap and reliable.
!
The water heater is about 2 years old. 100 gallon top of the line home depot brand.
It is gas.
I replaced the previous heater (almost silent) with this one after the original heater flooded the basement. Now, I have a water cop on the heater so that if it leaks the water is turned off. Not a bad $50 investment.
I actually had an installer come back to the house to explain why it was so noisy. He said that all of the fast recovery water heaters make a lot of noise.
I guess that my idea is that I should be able to cut into the thermostat line and disable the thermostat during the movie. That should be cheap and reliable.
Why in the world do you need a 100 gal high recovery gas water heater ??? Bigger isn't always better and many times it's worse as you're finding out. A 40-50 gal gas water heater is plenty big enough with fast enough recovery for almost all homes. A properly sized piece of equipment for a particular need will always be better then an oversized piece of equipment when everything is taken into consideration, including operating costs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zductive /forum/post/0
Had a hard time getting back to this post. I understand that it is not cool to post and run
!
The water heater is about 2 years old. 100 gallon top of the line home depot brand.
It is gas.
I replaced the previous heater (almost silent) with this one after the original heater flooded the basement. Now, I have a water cop on the heater so that if it leaks the water is turned off. Not a bad $50 investment.
I actually had an installer come back to the house to explain why it was so noisy. He said that all of the fast recovery water heaters make a lot of noise.
I guess that my idea is that I should be able to cut into the thermostat line and disable the thermostat during the movie. That should be cheap and reliable.
Why in the world do you need a 100 gal high recovery gas water heater ??? Bigger isn't always better and many times it's worse as you're finding out. A 40-50 gal gas water heater is plenty big enough with fast enough recovery for almost all homes. A properly sized piece of equipment for a particular need will always be better then an oversized piece of equipment when everything is taken into consideration, including operating costs.
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
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