Your water heater is a very important appliance in your home. Hot water heaters come in 2 basic types; tank-type or tank-less, and the heat source can be either electric or gas.

Setting the Temperature

Adjusting the temperature on your hot water heater is much the same no matter which type of heater you have. All have a thermostat that you set to keep the temperature of water at a desired level. The thermostat will commonly be found at the bottom of the tank-type heaters, and somewhere on the outside of the tank-less heaters.

Hot water heaters come with the thermostat commonly set at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of us can turn the thermostat down to about 120 degrees to save money and to prevent burns.

Tank-Type Hot Water Heater

The advantage of a tank-type hot water heater is the availability of water for successive showers or for washing dishes and taking a shower or bath at the same time. Enough hot water is stored in the tank to take care of the demand.

Most hot water heaters in existing homes are tank-type and hold about 40 gallons of water. With this heater, when hot water is demanded by an appliance, cold water is pulled into the tank through a tube, and hot water is pushed up and out of another tube to the point of demand,

The water is heated either by electricity or by gas. In either case, the thermostat maintains the water temperature between 2 settings around your desired temperature. When using hot water from the tank and the lower setting on the thermostat is reached, either the gas or electric heating mechanisms fire, and start heating your water. When the upper setting on the thermostat is reached, the heat source is shut off.

Tank-Less Hot Water Heater

The advantage of a tank-less hot water heater is that it can cost less to heat your water over a month’s time as compared to the tank-type. This is because with the tank-less supply, you only heat water as you need it. You don’t have the loss of heat which is required to store hot water as is true with the tank-type heater. The thermostat determines the temperature of water delivered to where ever you are using it.

In Summary

Whether your hot water heater is tank-type or tank-less, gas or electric, you set the temperature of your water with an external thermostat on the heater. You probably want your temperature to be set at about 120 degrees.

 

For more information, contact Vinny’s Jersey Plumbing, located in Wayne, New Jersey.  We also service other towns in New Jersey, such as Montclair, East Hanover and Verona.