We can all agree that having hot water on a daily basis is a must, right? No matter if it’s during the cold winter months or the warm Kansas City summers, we all expect to have hot water when hopping in the shower or turning on a faucet. With that in mind, we can easily come to the conclusion that having a functioning hot water heater is also a must too. After all, what’s most responsible for delivering hot water?
Nonetheless, maintaining an efficient and effective water heater is going to be dependent on a number of different factors. First, you’ll want to make sure that you are taking care of any necessary maintenance, which could include performing an annual flush of the tank or even repairing faulty components in a timely manner. Second, it’s important to pick out a reliable brand when you go to have a water heater installed. If you go with any of the industry leaders, such as Rheem, Bradford White or A.O. Smith, you’ll be in great shape and can rest assured knowing you have the best of the best. Third, we can’t ignore the original installation techniques. While you might be able to get by turning some minor plumbing repairs into a DIY project, a water heater install likely isn’t one of those items. As you can likely imagine, a water heater installation can be a decent-sized investment and as such, you want the unit to last its entire expected lifespan. Having said that, always do your homework prior to hiring a plumber for a more expensive project. Make sure they carry all of the necessary licenses, insurance, etc and definitely check out their digital presence. Look at their Google Reviews and see what their social media feeds look like. Even though nothing’s a guarantee, this will provide some insight into their legitimacy.
And last on our list of items that will impact how many years out of your water heater is making sure it is the correct size. This goes back to the original installation technique, but is still certainly an important topic to discuss. Unsurprisingly, water heaters come in a handful of different sizes in order to meet varying needs. For example, a 3000 sq ft house with 6 people living in it is going to need a larger tank than a 1000 sq ft home with just one occupant. In the section below, we’ll provide some easy-to-follow guidelines to help ensure you get the correctly-sized water heater for your home. Since water heaters are such a popular service for residential plumbing technicians, the local plumber you hire should be able to help steer you in the right direction too!
Common Sizes of Water Heaters
While tankless water heaters are quickly growing in popularity, we’ll primarily be focusing this blog on traditional storage tank water heaters and the various sizes they come in. We’ll provide most of the estimates based on household size, but that doesn’t always result in the perfect size as everyone’s hot water usage habits are different. For example, some people might prefer to have more appliances/fixtures running at the same time than others, thus potentially requiring a bigger tank. Additionally, you’ll want to take note of the water heater’s first-hour rating. Essentially, this is exactly what it sounds like: how much hot water your tank can deliver within its first hour of being used. The first-hour rating is generally listed on one of the labels on the tank’s exterior. It is calculated by taking the tank’s complete capacity (the bolded amounts listed below) multiplied by 0.70 and then adding the tank’s recovery rate. Once you know this, you’ll be able to estimate how much hot water you may need in one hour’s time and determine if that tank will be capable of producing enough. As I mentioned above though, I will also provide some rough estimates based on household size. While the first-hour rating will likely give a more accurate prediction, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the different sizes of storage tank water heaters.
40-Gallon Water Heater – Generally speaking, for the majority of houses, you’ll find they either have a 40-gallon or a 50-gallon water heater installed. For most homes that have 2-3 people living in them, you should be safe with a 40-gallon tank.
50-Gallon Water Heater – If you’re concerned that 40-gallons might be cutting it a little too close, it’s not very difficult to move up a level to a 50-gallon heater. The tank itself isn’t all that much bigger and you’ll have 10 extra gallons. For houses with 3-5 people living in them, a 50-gallon heater should get the job done.
80-Gallon Water Heater – The final common size that we run across in residential settings are the 80-gallon water heater tanks. If your household has 6 or more people, then it might be a wise idea to move up to an 80-gallon to ensure you have plenty of hot water.
Other Water Heater Types/Sizes – We listed three of the more common sizes of water heaters, but that certainly isn’t a comprehensive list by any means. Albeit coming at a higher price tag, tankless water heaters have continued to become more and more popular. There are water heaters with smart capabilities and given how smart fixtures have been a hit in other areas, it wouldn’t be a surprise if those took off too! Depending on the needs you can also find standard heaters with much smaller tanks than those listed above, ones larger than those above and even some homes that use a system comprised of two tanks.
Most Popular Brands – We already briefly mentioned this in the opening section, but I just wanted to reiterate the importance of selecting a water heater made by a reputable manufacturer. As is the case with just about anything else you purchase, this will go a long way in ensuring it withstands the daily wear and tear. For traditional storage tank heaters, you’ll be looking for names like Rheem, Bradford White and A.O. Smith.
Water Heater Installation and Repair Services
Simply put, water heaters are something that our residential and commercial plumbing technicians work with quite frequently throughout the year. To sum it up, it’s one of those plumbing components that we always want to be operating correctly. As evidenced throughout this blog post, there are a handful of factors that will dictate just how many years you get out of your water heater and one of those happens to be making sure you have the right sized water heater. If you get too small of a heater, you’ll likely consistently run out of hot water and probably be forced to swap it out earlier than expected for a bigger tank.
Here at Stine-Nichols Plumbing, our team is not only dedicated to providing reliable plumbing services, but always focused on giving you the best plumbing advice possible. We know having a water heater installed is a significant investment and want to make sure you get a unit that fits your individual needs. Otherwise, even if the installation is flawless, the unit still isn’t able to complete its expected responsibilities. If you’re interested in a free estimate on any water heater repair or installation services in the Kansas City area, don’t hesitate to give us a call at (816) 348-3481.