Antique Old hot water tank question

itzasean

Hello we have an oil burner that we thought fed the hot water to an old holding tank . We noticed some water on floor  (tank is from 1964) so called a plumber to replace . He said it’s an electric water heater ? I notice the oil burner shut off has a wire that goes to a switch on the holding tank . I figured that was just to shut off the pump.  Anyway the plumber said he would replace with a 54 gallon 10 year electric water heater and make it so the oil burner would help in the winter keeping the water hot but have it shut down in the summer to save oil . I have read that some boilers aren’t meant to cool down and I am worried having it sit in the summer will damage the oil burner . By the pictures I attach can you tell if this is an electric water heater or just a holding tank, And can this boiler be safely shut down in the summers etc? Thank you!

Larry Weingarten

Hi, Could you get a photo of the lower area of the tank with the insulation pulled back? Assume there is 240 volts there, so do be careful!! If there is a thermostat and element down there, we’ll know it’s an electric heater. Ford made stone lined tanks, so it will be heavy.

Yours, Larry

itzasean

itzasean

I am not home but had my nephew send this. Hope this helps?

Larry Weingarten

Hi, It’s interesting that the spot where the element would go has a cover welded in place. So the thermostat is just to get the temperature, so the boiler knows what to do. Essentially it’s an indirect storage tank. Others here know the boiler side of things very well and can answer your question about whether the boiler must be kept on year round.

Yours, Larry

Ps. If you go with an electric heater, do consider using a heat pump. It could scavenge waste heat and heat water for about 1/3 the cost of electric resistance heating.

Jamie Hall

Yes. It's an electric. And, sadly, it does look as though it's leaking... or something is, anyway, right in that area.

It likely won't hurt your boiler to be shut down completely all summer, so that is a good option to save oil. Although... in some areas, it may actually be cheaper to keep the oil burner boosting the water heater, and not buy so much electricity... it depends on your electric rates.

itzasean

Wow I didn’t even know they had electric water heaters back then . Do you think the boiler would need to have anything changed on it rather than just a flick of a switch in the off season ? Also the plumber mentioned a mixing valve ? Not sure what that would be for !

Jamie Hall

Just a flick of a switch will do it...

And "way back when"? Ah... that's positively recent!

Mixing valve. The point of a mixing valve -- in fact, a thermostatic mixing valve which holds (or tries to!) a constant output temperature is that it allows you to run the hot water heater much hotter, which does two things: you get more hot water out of a given size tank, since you are mixing some of it with cold, and you eliminate any possibility of unfortunate bacteria living in the tank -- such as legionella.

But, if you do that, the water (hold at 140 F) is too hot to be really safe, so you need to mix it down to perhaps 110 (or even less, if there are old folks or little children involved) which won't scald you.

STEVEusaPA

I'd go with a small indirect on it's own zone.

And please have a competent tech fix the flue pipe on the boiler, it's wrong and against code. If they don't know why it's wrong, find someone who does please.

itzasean

What’s the benefit of the indirect and also what’s wrong with the flu? 

HVACNUT

What you have is known as an Aquabooster. Its 120v and the lower thermostat energizes the 006 circulator to reheat the tank. If you opt for a new 220v electric water heater, you lose the booster. Agree with @STEVEusaPA to go with an indirect. Then the Hydrostat can be used properly with economy settings. 

pecmsg

When was all this installed?
Better question When was the last time someone worked on this "System"?

itzasean

You know isn’t it kind of a mix of an indirect water heater and an electric hot water heater? Why not have a replacement in rather than a pricy indirect system ? Also I don’t see a mixing valve but why isn’t the hot water scorching since it’s getting heated from the boiler ?