temper tank?

Hollis

    Temper tanks are supposed to save a lot in water heater cost by preheating water to room ambient temperature before going into a hot water tank. .

           

 We have water from deep well is VERY cold,..in summer we have lots of condensation and dripping of pipes. I suppose hot water takes longer to recover.



Can an old Hot water heater,. stripped of insulation be used as a temper tank to help heat up the water to room temp? If so would you pipe it the same way with the cold inlet from the pump side or would it be better to reverse this?



(Is it difficult to strip the outer shell and remove this insulation? )



I'm guessing a gas heater with its central air flow would be a bit better (?)

bob eck

temp tank

take a look at using a tank made by well mate tanks they make fiberglass tanks mostly used for retention tanks for water treatment. they make 40, 80 and 120 gallon tanks. can be used as a temp tank.

Gordan

Condensation

If you see condensation on pipes, I imagine you'd see it on the outside of the tank, too. You may want to choose a tank that won't corrode from this.

Mark Eatherton

Handling the condensation...

Regardless of your choice of tanks, as others have pointed out, you ARE going to have to deal with the condensation produced. Use a water heater catch pan and gravity drain or pump it to a sewer. Another thing you are going to have to deal with is the slime that is associated with the condensate. Copper sulfate works great for taking care of that.



Stripping the jacket off of a regular water heater is not that hard, but the tank exterior is a mild steel tank, and it WILL rust out in short order due to the oxygen content of the condensate that will be on its surface. I agree with the recommendation of using a spun fiber glass tank.



One good thing about cold well water is that it supresses the growth of Legionairres based bacteria.



ME