hot water heater: oil vs. electric?

[mookie]

Hi, I live in PA (hard water provided by the municipality) and my oil hot water heater just broke. The house has a home warranty through HSA so replacing it should be covered. Should I get oil or electric? The repairman gave me the following information:
Pros for oil: cheaper to run (approximately half the cost as electric)
Cons for oil: not as common; needs to be maintained/cleaned by a professional every year due to the hard water that is present in PA
Pros for electric: cheaper to replace (most heaters last about 10 years)

Any opinions on which to choose? Thanks!

[Valuethinker]

Hi, I live in PA (hard water provided by the municipality) and my oil hot water heater just broke. The house has a home warranty through HSA so replacing it should be covered. Should I get oil or electric? The repairman gave me the following information:
Pros for oil: cheaper to run (approximately half the cost as electric)
Cons for oil: not as common; needs to be maintained/cleaned by a professional every year due to the hard water that is present in PA
Pros for electric: cheaper to replace (most heaters last about 10 years)

Any opinions on which to choose? Thanks!

Is there a time of day rate available for the electric hot water heater? This might reduce the cost. There are heat pump electric water heaters which are much more efficient.

Oil is messy and could prove an issue when you sell (depends if this is common in your local RE market, or not).

For the next 2-3 years at least oil is likely to remain cheaper than electricity. It might then start to catch up, but it's not something that anyone has a good record forecasting.

[just frank]

Just get a heat pump water heater, or HPWH. They cost a little more than a conventional electric up front (but there are often rebates from your local utility co), and they cost half as much to run as a typical electric. And zero maintenance.

I ripped out an oil boiler a few years back to put in a HPWH, and figured it saved me $1000/yr in fuel and maintenance costs. Oil prices are obviously down, and might stay that way for at least another year or two...but domestic heating oil usage rates are trending down fast. I think an oil fired system will be a white elephant at future resale. The old boiler also gassed my family with CO once when the flue clogged despite regular maintenace (we're fine, but it was scary).

Two issues....HPWH need to be in a larger, conditioned air space like a basement, not a closet. And they can be slightly noisy (like a 50s refirgerator), not an issue if they are in a basement. Some online reviews cite durability concerns, but industry stats show the products hold up. If worried, get an extended warranty from a big box store.

A third issue is slower recovery time...if you have a big family or use tons of HW, you should go for a bigger unit than you would have otherwise...or put in low-flow showerheads (they have gotten a lot better in the last few years).

[Epsilon Delta]

You didn't mention which fuel you use to heat the house. Most of the advantages of getting rid of oil are only realized by having no oil fired appliances in the house. If you're using oil for heating and expect that boiler or furnace to last another 10 years I'd be tempted to stick with oil water heating.

[Freddy]

We moved into our home 27 years ago and it had electric hot water. We have hard water too. In the first ten years we replaced the water heater three times. We already had oil heat, so we did the conversion to an oil fired water heater. We are now on our second oil fired heater. My suggestion is that the electric water heaters are a lot cheaper, but seem to go "boom" sooner. The oil fired water heater is more costly initially, but recovers hot water more quickly if you use a lot of it, and it should last longer in hard water.

[just frank]

If your water eats HW tanks, you can look at tanks with replaceable anode rods (swapping them every so many years on a schedule) or getting a plastic tank (look at Marathon brand).

[Freddy]

If your water eats HW tanks, you can look at tanks with replaceable anode rods (swapping them every so many years on a schedule) or getting a plastic tank (look at Marathon brand).

Our oil fired water heater has anodes, but the electric ones didn't. The electrodes would not last long and if not changed soon enough would leak, and once blew out completely. We also did have high water pressure which was corrected with a regulator when we had the last heater installed.

[just frank]

I was under the impression that all steel HW tanks had anodes, its just in the cheapest ones they are not replaceable. The nicest ones, like my HPWH have a 'powered anode' that runs a small current to prevent corrosion, rather than using a hunk of sacrificial metal that dissolves into your water.

[Freddy]

I was under the impression that all steel HW tanks had anodes, its just in the cheapest ones they are not replaceable. The nicest ones, like my HPWH have a 'powered anode' that runs a small current to prevent corrosion, rather than using a hunk of sacrificial metal that dissolves into your water.

In the electric water heaters it was the heating element that seemed sacrificial. I've had the threads corrode on the element and shoot them out.

[dm200]

I was under the impression that there were not "standalone" oil fired water heaters, but rather were usually accessory to an oil fired boiler home heating systems.

Are there such standalone oil fired water heaters?

[mookie]

I was under the impression that there were not "standalone" oil fired water heaters, but rather were usually accessory to an oil fired boiler home heating systems.

Are there such standalone oil fired water heaters?

I am the OP, thanks for your replies. I have an oil furnace and an oil water heater. I'm leaning towards replacing the oil water heater with electric, because of the maintenance that oil requires (I was told that it needs to be professionally cleaned annually, and not many people clean them because they are so uncommon).

According to a local water heater company as well as Lowe's customer reviews, hybrid/heat pump water heaters are not very reliable. There's a nice rebate from the utility company for hybrid water heaters, but I don't want to risk the hassle of future repairs.

[pshonore]

I was under the impression that there were not "standalone" oil fired water heaters, but rather were usually accessory to an oil fired boiler home heating systems.

Are there such standalone oil fired water heaters?

At one time I rented one from the oil company. It was a true standalone with its own burner gun which was serviced at the same time as the oil furnace.. They were not cheap back then and install was free. Think the rent was $100/yr. Of course it kind of locked you into the oil dealer. After about 10 or 12 years, the dealer became wary of the liability for a leaking one so they "gave" them all to the homeowners.

OP has one other option and that is an indirect water heater. That's usually a super insulated tank that is lined inside with a large copper coil that is really an additional zone on a conventional oil HW system. We've had one for the last 8 years with no problems and plenty of hot water. Not sure about hard water though.

[just frank]

To the OP: do yo have an oil furnace, which heats air using an oil flame, and blows it through ducts, or an oil boiler, that heats water with a flame, and circulates it through radiators around the house? If you have a boiler, you can as mentioned above, use an indirect. If a furnace, not.

[mookie]

To the OP: do yo have an oil furnace, which heats air using an oil flame, and blows it through ducts, or an oil boiler, that heats water with a flame, and circulates it through radiators around the house? If you have a boiler, you can as mentioned above, use an indirect. If a furnace, not.

I have an oil furnace.

[just frank]

According to a local water heater company as well as Lowe's customer reviews, hybrid/heat pump water heaters are not very reliable. There's a nice rebate from the utility company for hybrid water heaters, but I don't want to risk the hassle of future repairs.

The HPWH reviews are indeed terrible, and half the plumbers I called refused to install one, telling me that it was a big mistake that I would regret forever. The online reviews all over are bad enough to scare away pretty much anyone.

Its a big mystery to me, since I have heard few complaints from folks that actually have one, mostly happy customers saving a bundle (on different forums). I can believe that some early units several years ago were defective, but GE is not a fly by night operation, and is shipping these things by the millions, with a great parts warranty, and the box stores will sell you a $100 extended (including all labor too) warranty. The tech is not complex....the compressor is about the same as a refrigerator compressor, and those last for decades.

I am not prone to conspiracy theories, but I think the online reviews are either highly skewed negative (like many online reviews), paid sock-puppets trying to block the technology, or both.

I put one in 3.5 yrs ago. I figure it is $300/yr cheaper than an electric tank, and in my case cost after rebate $1000 more than a conventional electric tank (I went for a high end AO Smith unit). Only problem I had was a HUGE power surge in my house, that toasted several electronic things...a couple months later the control board on the HPWH died. I called the company, they fedexed me a new board (free), and I put it in myself in 30 mins.

I've got a 10 years parts warranty, and full unit replacement if it leaks. I've made back my investment already, and if it lasts the warranty period, I'll net more than $2000.

[iflyjetzzz]

If your water eats HW tanks, you can look at tanks with replaceable anode rods (swapping them every so many years on a schedule) or getting a plastic tank (look at Marathon brand).

Our oil fired water heater has anodes, but the electric ones didn't. The electrodes would not last long and if not changed soon enough would leak, and once blew out completely. We also did have high water pressure which was corrected with a regulator when we had the last heater installed.

Freddy, I find it hard to believe that one can find a full size electric hot water heater today without a replaceable sacrificial anode. We moved into our house last year and the hot water heater failed shortly after moving in ... no one bothered to change the sacrificial anode.
I bought the cheapest 50 gal electric model at Home Depot and it has a replaceable sacrificial anode.

I am considering installing a second sacrificial anode at the hot water outlet when I replace the sacrificial anode in my tank = probably a year or so from now. If one replaces the sacrificial anode every couple of years, a hot water heater should last 20 years.

[NHRATA01]

I would think the best way to do this would be to use an indirect fired water heater that just runs off a zone on the furnace/boiler. This is how my house is set up. You lose some minor efficiency, and the furnace runs in the middle of summer to make hot water which isn't ideal. But it's easier to deal with a single fuel line and single exhaust, as well as a cinch to replace the tank if it fails since there is little to it.

[Freddy]

If your water eats HW tanks, you can look at tanks with replaceable anode rods (swapping them every so many years on a schedule) or getting a plastic tank (look at Marathon brand).

Our oil fired water heater has anodes, but the electric ones didn't. The electrodes would not last long and if not changed soon enough would leak, and once blew out completely. We also did have high water pressure which was corrected with a regulator when we had the last heater installed.

Freddy, I find it hard to believe that one can find a full size electric hot water heater today without a replaceable sacrificial anode. We moved into our house last year and the hot water heater failed shortly after moving in ... no one bothered to change the sacrificial anode.
I bought the cheapest 50 gal electric model at Home Depot and it has a replaceable sacrificial anode.

I am considering installing a second sacrificial anode at the hot water outlet when I replace the sacrificial anode in my tank = probably a year or so from now. If one replaces the sacrificial anode every couple of years, a hot water heater should last 20 years.

I don't remember any anodes with the electric water heaters. They may have been there and I just never noticed.

[just frank]

I would think the best way to do this would be to use an indirect fired water heater that just runs off a zone on the furnace/boiler. This is how my house is set up. You lose some minor efficiency, and the furnace runs in the middle of summer to make hot water which isn't ideal. But it's easier to deal with a single fuel line and single exhaust, as well as a cinch to replace the tank if it fails since there is little to it.

While this works with a hot water boiler, it is not an option with a hot air furnace.