Best 100 Gallon Water Heater For House

[Steve565]

Just did a full remodel on 2 story house in Los Angeles County with all new pipes, copper runs and some PEX, also PEX for circulation line, we installed a huge cast iron tub and have 4 baths with showers and or tub. Thanks for any input

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

Are you looking for gas or electric??
Rheem makes a great Marathon 105 gallon electric with a life time warranty
They also ave a residential 100 gallon gas unit...both are the best you can get

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Steve565]

Sorry, Gas. I had the 105 Gallon Marathon in my last house. My plumber loved how light it was !!! I did not know they made a gas version, will check it out. Is it the same lightweight type in gas? Is it a power vent or just a standard hook up? Would like to make it easy to install. house had a standard 100 gallon before.

 

[hj]

It would be very difficult to make a "plastic water heater" that burned gas. I do not know what you mean by "standard 100 gallon before", but you will ONLY find "light commercial" gas heaters bigger than 50 gallons.

 

[Dana]

HTP's PH1xx-119 Phoenix 119 gallon units would more than cover your loads. The same units are also available under the Westinghouse nameplate, sometimes for less than HTP badged units.

They are not cheap (~$4K for the 119 gallon units at internet pricing), but being all-stainless will outlast most standard units by 2x, and "worth it" if you're planning to live there for awhile ( but not for the 5 year short-termers or house-flippers). It comes with condensing modulating burners with max output ranging from 100,000 BTU/hr ---- 199,000 BTU/hr.

You may even do fine with an 80 gallon Phoenix with one of the bigger burners (the same 4 options), if the gas service can handle a 199K burner, and your biggest tub is less than 80 gallons. The recovery time is pretty damned quick with a 199K condensing burner.

Bigger burners require bigger gas piping, and 199K burners in houses with ridiculously oversized furnaces and commercial cooktop kitchens can blow past the capacity of the meter or regulators, require gas service upgrades. How much "spare" capacity do you have on the meter/regulator of the existing gas service?

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

It would be very difficult to make a "plastic water heater" that burned gas. I do not know what you mean by "standard 100 gallon before", but you will ONLY find "light commercial" gas heaters bigger than 50 gallons.

The Mrarthon only comes in eEctric and they are fiberglass tanks..

they make a METAL STEEL 75 gallon for residential
Rheem makes a 100 gallon residential water heater..
We installed one of them last year for someone who had something like 10 people in the home
perhaps its called a "light commercial" but they do exist if you want to shell out the bucks for them

I got a picture of the 100 gal gas installed somewhere but cannot find it this morning.....

 

[Steve565]

HTP's PH1xx-119 Phoenix 119 gallon units would more than cover your loads. The same units are also available under the Westinghouse nameplate, sometimes for less than HTP badged units.

They are not cheap (~$4K for the 119 gallon units at internet pricing), but being all-stainless will outlast most standard units by 2x, and "worth it" if you're planning to live there for awhile ( but not for the 5 year short-termers or house-flippers). It comes with condensing modulating burners with max output ranging from 100,000 BTU/hr ---- 199,000 BTU/hr.

You may even do fine with an 80 gallon Phoenix with one of the bigger burners (the same 4 options), if the gas service can handle a 199K burner, and your biggest tub is less than 80 gallons. The recovery time is pretty damned quick with a 199K condensing burner.

Bigger burners require bigger gas piping, and 199K burners in houses with ridiculously oversized furnaces and commercial cooktop kitchens can blow past the capacity of the meter or regulators, require gas service upgrades. How much "spare" capacity do you have on the meter/regulator of the existing gas service?

I like that idea, the 80 gallon Phoenix with the 199K Burner,The heater gas line comes right off the 1 1/4 gas main for the house. The water heater is the first fixture served, we also have a 10 pound meter so we have 10 psi of gas pushing through !! Or maybe the Light Duty 75 Gallon from Phoenix will work also

 

[Dana]

The burner size on the Phoenix Light Duty is only 76,000 BTU/hr, and while it has ~2x the output of a typical 50-gallon standard water heater, and enough to support one 2 gpm shower forever, it may not be enough if all 4 baths are using it at once. A 199K burner can support three forever-showers at a time at most CA incoming water temps.

If it's showering performance rather than tub-filling, if it's possible to install a 4" x 48" or 3" x 60" or taller drainwater heat recovery heat exchanger (basically the fattest and tallest that fits is the "right" one), you can roughly double the apparent capacity of the water heater from a showering point of view, but it does nothing for tub fills. They must be mounted vertically replacing a section of drain downstream of the shower(s) to work.
There are a few horizontal-mount versions from one vendor, but they're both less efficient and more expensive.

By returning ~50% or more the heat that's literally going down the drain into the incoming water stream that feeds both the cold side of the shower and the cold inlet to the water heater it's effectively like doubling the burner size (but the heat recovery "burner" uses no fuel.) They're not cheap, but a Phoenix LD + drainwater heat exchanger can be a better option than an 80 gallon Phoenix with a 199K burner if you don't need to fill multiple tubs simultaneously or in rapid succession.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

instead of one 100 gallon heater why not do like this apartment complex
has done with four 40 gallon gas heaters... Is should work fine for you...