Indirect Water Heater Help

Jay Donohoo

I am buying a home in RI where indirect water heaters off of boilers seem to be popular due to their efficiency. The house currently has an older boiler which was recently inspected and stated to be 127k BTU/hr and efficiency 81%. The house also currently has an 80 gallon stone-lined electric water heater which is 30+ years old.

Any thoughts on advantages/disadvantages about indirect water heating systems in general? Is this truly the most effecient / cost effective replacement? Any significant differences between the various manufacturers of indirect water heaters?

Thanks,
Jay

joel_14

indirect

Yes this is the most efficent thing you can do . your choices if you have oil are an electric water heater, an indirect , or a direct oil fired unit.
electric is bad because it costs as much as 4-5Xs as much to run.
direct fired oil is cheaper to run but has higher maintenace costs and ashorter life span than an indirect.

Properly sized and installed an indirect can produce almost unlimited hot water.
they are absolutely NOT all the same. And two different instalers can give you the same brand of tank but how it is installed can greatly affect the output , eff, and lifespan. Basically, don't go with the cheap guy.
Viessmann has the lowest failure rate in the industry. Other good brands would be Crown Megastor, Superstore, and phase3.