New Water Heater Failure

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As many as I need. 400 amp panel is pretty close and only at 40%-50% capacity
Being that you said only one light was on at a time.. that leads to believe you have a non simultaneous unit. And at 4500 watt elements 1 30 amp breaker at 220 v. Is plenty .
Try grabbing the outgoing hot line and see if it feels hot. Do you get flow when you turn on a hot at the kitchen sink, maybe you turned the incomming cold shutoff valve off.
 
Brother, you need to calm down. It's not that serious. Why all the negativity? If you don't want to answer questions, then don't. Who cares?

I was not trying to get a new unit from Home Depot. Well aware they don't sell those.

I have a 400 amp panel less than 30 feet away in a clear open basement, so if I need to run an additional 40 amp circuit, I can with about 2-4 hrs work. It sounds like it would be worth it as this is the only water heater in the house with seven people and taking showers and such always runs out of hot water and takes a while to recover.

No I am not a plumber never said I was nor am I trying to be just had questions about my situation that's all if you don't want to answer keep it moving sheesh

It’s not that no one wanted to answer.

The problem is you didn’t like the answer you received and you didn’t have a clue about how a basic water heater operates from Home Depot.


One bathroom house with 7 people and a 400 amp electrical service…..and you’re an “ electrical engineer “

You’re full of ****.
 
It’s not that no one wanted to answer.

The problem is you didn’t like the answer you received and you didn’t have a clue about how a basic water heater operates from Home Depot.


One bathroom house with 7 people and a 400 amp electrical service…..and you’re an “ electrical engineer “

You’re full of ****.
Still... ouch, but I agree !
 
But wait dammit .... "HE's an electrical engineer
I’ll never believe that. That’s what he might call himself.

If a man can be a women and a women can be a man then why can’t he be an electrical engineer ? I think that’s the mentality here….🤣🤡✌️
 
Degree from "I want to be an electrical engineer.com"
Back on subject a little.

Even with simultaneous operating elements electric recovery is slow when you’re feeding it with cold well water.

I’m almost positive we’re talking about a 50 gal water heater here.. With 7 users they’ll still have to space their showers far apart OR other options would be choke the flow down to 3rd world country levels, crank the temp up would to comply with code would also require a mixing valve at the heater.

I’ll do the math and post it on how long it takes to bring 50 gallons of the cold well water the OP stated he has. Then with simultaneous operation you could cut that in half. I don’t think you’ll be too impressed with the recovery time.
 
It’ll take basically an hour to bring 50 gallons of 50 degree water up to 120 degrees with 9,000w of water heater elements firing at once. 4500w each element simultaneously.

With 50 degree cold water mixing with 120 degree hot water that 50 gallons isn’t going to last very long. Most of your water to get to the target temp of 105 degrees will be HOT water. I’ll do the math on that and edit this post to include it.

Approximately 79% of the 105 degree 2.5gpm mixed shower water would be hot water. So approximately 2 gpm will be pure hot water.

You can get about 75% of the tank volume out of a water heater at the thermostat setting temp. Reason is that the cold incoming water to the heater diluted the temp a little. So you don’t get the whole 50 gallons at 120 degree thermostat setting.,,
So a 50 gallon would yield about 39 gallons of 120 degree water.

39 gallons divided by 2 gpm is about 20 minutes of shower time.

Divided by 7 people if they took showers back to back…..each person would get a 2.86 minute long shower.

Or more realistically 2 people would get 10 minute showers then you’d have to wait an hour for the next two showers or 30 minutes for 1 person to take a 10 minute shower. All at 105 degree shower temp. Take that temp up or down and it’ll affect your shower times longer or shorter.
 
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It’ll take basically an hour to bring 50 gallons of 50 degree water up to 120 degrees with 9,000w of water heater elements firing at once. 4500w each element simultaneously.

With 50 degree cold water mixing with 120 degree hot water that 50 gallons isn’t going to last very long. Most of your water to get to the target temp will be HOT water. I’ll do the math on that and edit this post to include it.
I checked mine this morning after a long shower.. I'm guessing I used 25 gallons. (Achy shoulder muscles... felt really good.. and hot) but it took 33 minutes to recover.. at 5500 watts., it really does need a better explanation of " i have no hot water" at all ? After a shower ? When ?
And just normail hand washing or whatever the heck she is doing. .tomake it kick on.. recovery time of 6 minutes.
 
If I was the OP I would consider a natural gas tankless or propane if possible.

If not possible I would do TWO 50 gallon water heaters OR 3 40 gallon heaters.

If needed I could convert these basic tanks to simultaneously operating elements to cut the recovery in half.

I could also upgrade to a higher wattage element.

I could also make all those tanks if non simultaneous operate off ONE 30 amp circuit. Recovery time would be slow slow. 👍

I’ve been attending the School of WORK everyday for the last 40 yrs……I’m a senior. Hopefully one day I’ll become an Alumni.
 
If I was the OP I would consider a natural gas tankless or propane if possible.

If not possible I would do TWO 50 gallon water heaters OR 3 40 gallon heaters.

If needed I could convert these basic tanks to simultaneously operating elements to cut the recovery in half.

I could also upgrade to a higher wattage element.

I could also make all those tanks if non simultaneous operate off ONE 30 amp circuit. Recovery time would be slow slow. 👍

I’ve been attending the School of WORK everyday for the last 40 yrs……I’m a senior. Hopefully one day I’ll become an Alumni.
Plus , he never said when he doesn't have hot water... does he run out, if so, when does he run out, does he have none at all (which I doubt) .. just makesfor an interesting morning.
If I knew the players, maybe I'd go watch golf....
 
HTP makes stainless steel tanks with lifetime warranty. To feed a simultaneous water heater you would need an 8 AWG/50A/240V circuit.
 

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