Booster or gas fired heater

afresq

We have an old oil burner that heats our house with steam heat.  We currently get our hot water only through the coil in the burner.  We get maybe 3 minutes of water in the shower and bathe the kids in 3 inches of water all winter long.  It's terrible.  Our plumber wants to install a separate gas fired water heater but the oil company says a John Wood Aqua booster is the way to go. They could not disagree more on efficiency and effectiveness in providing us the hot water we need.  The plumber says our coil is in bad shape, so the booster won't solve our problem.  The oil man says it makes no difference how well the coil is working if we have 50 gallons in the reserve booster tank.  The prices are comparable, we just want hot showers.  What does everyone recommend?

AMH112181

go gas

Go with the gas water heater.  Shut that oil beast off in the summer.

kcopp

do you have....

gas @ the house already? Nat. or LP?  Mat. makes more sence. For a bit more cash you should look itno a good tankless/flash water heater unit like Noritz or Rinnai...

What shape is the boiler in? Is it time to think about changing that out? Look at ALL options before diving in on one... just be sure that the person know steam.

kpc

afresq

we have

yes, we have a natural gas line already.  And our oil burner is pretty old.  Both the plumber and oil co.  advised against the tankless.  Those are really expensive too, right?

kcopp

well they....

are not cheap. You want inexpensive up front , pipe in a 40 gallon electric.... why did both say no to the Tankless?

afresq

i guess

neither thought we'd get the hot water we want from a "wall hung" as they called it.  But the oil guy said we also won't get enough from the gas-fired water heater, but that doesn't make sense, does it? I know you said not to rush into a decision but it's cold in NY and not having enough hot water really stinks!

Charlie from wmass

Get the tank type gas

water heater. The booster tank will just make the oil company happy. I like tank type heaters as , yes they can run out of hot water. This leads to people paying attention to water usage. A properly sized "wall" hung as they call it will be around 100 kbtu's input for a family while a tank type will be around 45 to 55 kbtu's. This means smaller pipe size for the tank type gas line and less hot water per hour. But still plenty for most families.