Hot water heater recommendations please

[Woodwould]

Our hot water heater died last night. It was a fourteen year-old 135 litre gas Rheem. What's a realistic figure for replacement of like with like? So far I've had quotes varying by almost $1,000 for the same unit!

Should I replace it with a similar unit? We should be moving shortly, so that would presumably rule out solar or other more expensive systems.

[ravna]

WW.....Had the same problem last year....replaced with an Edwards SS solar where the panels are on the roof but the tank is on the ground. I would highly recommend it, one of the better features is the booster elements only heat the top one third of the tank...thereby saving a lot of power not trying to heat the whole 325ltrs.

As to moving...would be a very potent selling point. From memory paid around $4000 for it and got $2000 plus back in rebates.

[tea lady]

We did the solar thing recently too. But if you are moving maybe it would be better save that for the new place, where YOU can get the benefit of the lower bills. (You only get ONE grant. ) We had a "Heat pump" one cos we are in the hills so not enough sun for enough of the year. Hear pumps somehow use the heat differential of the air to heat the water. Kinda like a frig in reverse.

[Mr Brush]

We have one of those heat pump jobbies - Quantum. Looks like a normal water heater with a fan unit sitting on top.

Works like a fridge in reverse, i.e extracting heat from the air and applying it to heat water. Even in a relatively cool climate it is very efficient - we have found the claims to use about 30% of the power of a conventional electric system to be about right.

We didn't have the choice of a gas heater here (no town gas), and solar on the roof wouldn't work well in winter for us, so the air heat pump water heater has worked out well.

[3 toed sloth]

G'day Woodwould,

If you are definitely moving, replace like with like. These units are relatively cheap.

Changing like with like makes it an easy install, 2 hours maximum.

These days plumbers are required to fit a tempering valve which will limit delivery temp. to 50 degrees max. Some plumbers still fit heaters without this valve, which may account for some price discrepancy.

My guess isvery rough)

Callout charge..........................$150.00

Labour-4hrs @$150.00..............$600.00

Tempering valve........................$100.00

Pipe and fittings..........................$75.00

TOTAL...................................$925.00 plus cost of heater of course.

If they relace the control valve(on/off) that's another $30.00

And if you have high water pressure they may need to fit/replace the pressure limiting valve which costs around $80.00

So anything around the $1,000.00 mark seems possible, and a good plumber could certainly do it for less. But anything well over that and I'd be lookig elsewhere.

BTW I ran a plumbing business for 20 years and now teach at TAFE.

Good luck.

[damian]

Assuming they are still in business I would recommend saxon for conventional water heaters. They are queensland made all copper and seem to last forever.

The rheem have an anode in them which rots after about 5 years, then the tanks starts and after about 10 years the thing leaks and fails.

The saxon system is different. It has a non pressurised copper tanks with 2 coils. The heating coil heats the reserviour and the pressurised water goes through teh other coil and picks up heat as it goes. This has a number is important advantages.

The water comming out of your tap, after the first few liters, hasn't been sitting in the tank for ever.

The only part under mains pressure is the coil of pipe.

Mine was in my house 15 years ago when I bought and still going strong. Oddly they are often CHEAPER then the pig awful rheem systems. Maybe because they don't buy TV ads....

2c

[Woodwould]

Thanks for the advice chaps. The new AquaMAX is in and running – and all for $1,100.

[tea lady]

Thanks for the advice chaps. The new AquaMAX is in and running – and all for $1,100.

Cool ........ I mean HOT!.

[Claw Hama]

Must be the season for it, ours died on the Sunday of the long weekend. It was a gas storage heater but I picked up a second hand near new instantanious Rennai off ebay for $150 (usualy about $1200) and put it in on the Tuesday. Other than doing it in the pouring rain it all went well. Got to keep some money to spend at the woodshow