Need Hot Water

I need to replace my electric hot water tank but I have not idea what kind/model/brand to replaces it with. We are a family of five with three teens. Any ideas?

Several guys on here favor certain brands. I buy according to gallons, physical size, and price. I also look for efficiency rating and warranty.
You would do well to get a 50 gallon water heater. If electric it's nice to have one with two 4500 heating elements. That's enough heat to give it a pretty good recovery time so you aren't waiting all day for the water to heat up again after a bath or load of clothes. If you get a 30 gal with only one 3500 watt heating element you will be taking alot of cold showers. For the little bit of difference in price it is well worth getting a good big one. The only other consideration is making sure it will fit in the space where the old one is....measuring tapes help figure that out. I would also recommend getting the flexible supply lines to hook it up with... it will make installation so much easier and professional looking.

Terry has an excellent guide on water heaters linked from the home page of this site.

Where do you live? May be time to think about switching to gas. If you are staying electric and you called my company, we would be talking 80 gallon. ESPECIALLY with young teens.

For my family of 4, a 50 gallon gas works. But the recovery on electric is way slower.

The real starting point is this: What is the size/wattage on your current unit, and does it meet your needs?

If those teens are female then you might need two 80 gallon heaters! If they're boys you can pretty much just hose them off in the yard.

Randyj said:

If those teens are female then you might need two 80 gallon heaters! If they're boys you can pretty much just hose them off in the yard.

Click to expand...

What he said!