weir's Profile

And as for the plumber, there are a lot of great plumbers, and a lot I can't believe can keep a job. A good plumber reads the manuals for the equipment they're installing and should be able to make anything work. Do your research, hire the best, not the cheapest and you'll be a lot happier with the outcome.

Meant to say entertaining and compassionate, either way, Boston's are awesome

I'm a manufacturers agent for a number of heating products including water heaters, and I'm just going to throw it out there that this is bad advice.

The 'knob' you're turning up is an aquastat that controls in the water temperature in your tank. A lot of residential heaters have an aquastat labeled cold, normal, hot, these normally refer to 100°F, 120/130°F and 140°F . I wouldn't ever recommend a temp over 120/130°F unless you're in a large commercial facility with a high water volume, in a home anything above this temperature has two draw backs, you run the risk of scalding and you're costing yourself big money.

As I mentioned, this aquastat controls the water temp in the tank, if it drops below your set point, it will call for the heating source to power (either oil, gas, electric or an indirect source like a boiler), if you keep the temp too high it will constantly be calling for this source to keep the tank up to temperature and you can expect a dramatic increase in your utility bill (and your carbon footprint).

If you're complaining about tepid water when you come home from being away for a few hours, this is the cool water in the pipes your feeling, the aquastat controls the temperature in the tank only, and without circulation (opening a tap or running a pump) the water in the pipes cool down and won't heat up until you open a tap and flush the cool water and replace it with warmer water from the tank.

From a manufacturers standpoint, your two best options are:

1 - Insulate your pipes, this will keep the water in there warmer longer. You can also install a hot water recirculation system (I use this in my house http://www.armstrongpumps.com/astroexpress/) to keep the warm water moving in your house and always at your desired temperature. I can turn on a tap or shower in any room of my house and have the temperature I want in under 5 seconds with this method.

2 - If you have access to natural gas, install an instantaneous hot water heater. This is a more expensive option, but is by far the ultimate in comfort and efficiency.

An added bonus of properly controlling your water temp before it gets to the tap, if you're on metered water, you're going to save a pile of money (not to mention the environment) by not waiting for it to warm up while it just runs down the drain.