Hot water heater opinions

mustangjoe87

Forum Member
Hey guys looking for some input on induced draft water heaters. My current std tank style is ready to be replaced and I'm looking at my options for a new one. I have a shower in the home that flows a lot more than the average shower (7 shower heads). I would love to go tankless but from my calculations I'd need two units and that's more then I'd care to put into this place. I was looking at these induced draft units though, smaller tank for the same output and not that much more expensive. Does anyone have one in their home? Any feed back would be great I really didn't find a lot online.
 
A conventional (two persons) 45-55 gal with an inline continuous on-demand water heater post of the conventional should keep up with no doubts. *If more than two persons are in the household, you would want to increase the tank size of the conventional unit.
 
I looked at one of those tankless deals at Home Depot a few years ago and the sales guy told me that every one he sold was returned. If you have seven shower heads you have to be running 8-10 gallons per minute, I would be surprised if you could hit 80 degree with a tankless. I have heard of people running two 30 gallon tanks in series to meet high demand systems like that. One runs low and one runs high.

-Geoff
 
To be clear I am not looking to do tankless, for my Gpm I would need multiple to keep up with my shower (17.5gpm). An induced draft is a tank style heater with an electric blower of sorts on top. I'm looking to, see if anyone has one or has installed one that has opinions.
 
My shower has 5 heads. I don't know my what gpm it runs but I have two 50 gal hot water tanks. I just built my house last year the water heater's have do have an electric motor on top, I think they draw in air from outside (not sure). I haven't run out of hot water yet when taking a shower or filling the hot tub.

I would suggest speaking with a higher end plumbing supply place, the big box stores won't support what you're looking to do, Wittock is near you. I like Advance Plumbing but they're in Walled Lake, which maybe a hike for you.
Keep in mind if you do decide to run a tankless set up (I know it's not what you're looking for) they require a huge gas line feed to support their high BTU output.
I have friends that runs two tank-less heaters without issues.
 
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We built our house in 2012 and had an induced draft water heater installed. They are code now, you can not have passive venting anymore (for a new build).

As for the water capacity issue, we ran a larger line up to our master bath shower (6 heads ~ 16gpm) and went with a single 80 gallon unit and have no issues.

--Joe
 
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