I just struck gold!

Dominus · Mar 15, 2021

So, I was driving and spotted a water heater on the side of the road. Turned the car around. Went to look. It was an 80 gallon. Only 4 years old! Looks almost brand new no rust at all.

I went back to my shop to get the trailer so I could take it before some metal scrapper got to it first. Got it and brought it back to my shop.

Used a voltmeter to test out the heating elements and sure enough the bottom one was out.

I washed out and got a ton of calcium deposits out. Replaced the anode. Replaced both heating elements. Hooked it up to one of my 3 apartment buildings. Worked perfectly.

In other words, I got a $1200 water heater for free. Only cost about $50 for parts to renew it. :gogirl:

Charon · Mar 15, 2021

Good for you.

unloadonme · Mar 15, 2021

You'll be able to give your tenants a rent reduction now.

Dominus · Mar 15, 2021

unloadonme said:
You'll be able to give your tenants a rent reduction now.

Um no LOL.

Knowing what I know now about how water heaters work, I made a few boo boos in the past by throwing out relatively new water heaters just because they stopped working. I treated it like a black box. When in reality they probably only needed a simple replacement of heating element.

Rickrock · Mar 15, 2021

You are a handy man. Not everyone could do that.

ShadowCat · Mar 15, 2021

Rickrock said:
You are a handy man. Not everyone could do that.

Guys that are good with tools are HOT! Even hotter if just in a tool belt fixing things!!!

Dominus · Mar 16, 2021

Rickrock said:
You are a handy man. Not everyone could do that.

I know.

In my line of business, it really helps to know a thing or two about these things. I bought this building not too long ago. Previous landlord installed a 50 gallon water heater for the 3 apartments. Then I went ahead and installed a dishwasher in each of the 3 apartments. So, recently tenants started telling me they don't have hot water long enough for a good shower. So, I have been meaning to upgrade it to an 80 gallon tank. But... an 80 gallon water heater costs about $1200.

If I have to spend premium prices on everything, I wouldn't be in business very long.

And scrapping a 4 year old $1200 water heater is such a waste. After washing out all the calcium buildup inside and replacing the anode rod and both heating elements, I betcha I can get at least another 15 years out of this baby.

Dominus · Mar 18, 2021

A plumber friend of mine told me that I didn't have to install the 80 gal tank alone and that I could put the 80 and 50 together to make the whole setup 130 gal. He and I sat down and we worked out some ways to plumb the pipes and valves so that in the future I have the following options:

(1) Use it in parallel
(2) Use it in series
(3) Use only the 50 gal unit
(4) Use it only the 80 gal unit

The hardest part is the parallel connection. Water will go the route of the least resistance. So, normally with parallel you can only hook up 2 tanks of equal capacity and resistance. The pipes have to be completely equal in length. Otherwise, what ends up happening is water will just be drawn from one unit and the other unit won't do much at all. So, with parallel we just end up with a 50 gallon hot water capacity again.

We eventually solved it and came up with a schematic that is self-balancing if I wanna put it in parallel.

So, I spent all day yesterday plumbing the hell out of it. Got hot water in minutes. Now this apartment building has 130 gal hot water capacity. Why? There are 3 apartments: 3 dishwashers, 8 adults, and a shared laundry room. They all work during the day so in the evening when they get home they all shower at the same time. That's why before with the 50 gallon tank they told me they kept running out of hot water.

Anyway, here is what it looks like. I'm testing this setup out so I left the covers off and stuff. Once everything seems to be working fine, I will put all the covers back on.

Edit.

Here is the plumbing setup. I know it looks like a mess but it really works. Depending on which valves to turn on and off, I have the option to change the system to however I want it to.