Converting from solar hot water to a traditional hot water system

I installed a solar hot water system in my last house with no hope of ever recouping the cost (a hobby).

Today, I would just install a heat pump water heater, with a 50 gallon tank that would more than suffice for any two people

The jury is still out on the expected life cycle of HPWHs.

But we know that traditional water heaters today are not expected to last more than 7 years so what exactly are we afraid of regarding heat pump water heaters?

Hi, I must be the number two fan of solar thermal, having started installing in in 1978. 😊 It isn't hard to get fifty years from a glass lined tank if you check the anodes periodically. I prefer to have two magnesium anodes in a tank, and then check them every six years or so, though this depends on the quality and conductivity of your water. Installing a powered anode eliminates that bit of maintenance. If you have copper waterways in your solar collectors and the water is not hard or aggressive, the collectors could still be in good shape. And, what do you mean by furnace as a backup heater? Is it a boiler that heats water? One more approach, if you decide to keep the solar is to use a Marathon tank, made by Rheem. It's plastic, with very good insulation and a lifetime warranty… no anodes to check. 😉

Yours, Larry

How many plumbing chatrooms do you follow?

Experience from actual everyday installers is a good place to start. Or ask the counter personal at plumbing wholesalers. A drive around the back of any plumbing wholesaler give you some idea of what works and what fails.

Or call Rheem, A.O. Smith, etc and ask how many HPWH compressors they have warrantied. I'm sure they will share that info with you :)

That being said, I suspect a good portion are mis-installed, put in a small closet where the previous electric of gas tank resided.

The fact that installation manuals have added a section about calculating the room volume seems to indicate more guidance was needed.

Also the outdoor air adapters are more commonly seen with the tank sales info. The vent adapters were not talked about when HPWH became mainstream. Now Home Depot sells them.

https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/attaching-ducts-heat-pump-water-heater

You'd rather hear it from online armchair experts then than actual installers and service folks? :) I'll stick with the boots on the ground on this question.

If components were not failing, troubleshooters counter talk would revolve around what is failing I suspect. The fact that they are at the counter tells that they are repairing or installer plumbing components.

I do training for a few companies like this in my area , Any Hour has 150 trucks on the road in my area,100% service, no new construction. They have a wholesaler branch VMI vendor managed inventory within their building, just for their trucks, the counter manager can tell me exactly how may XX they sell or warranty per month.

I always ask the group of technicians, what is working and what isn't. See where maybe Caleffi can help with components, or new product potential. So I feel I have good eyes and ears on the going on's.

I suspect the same brand compressor shows up in many different brands, so maybe just a "bad batch" 😲

I like the concept of properly applied HPWH, I think they are still on an equipment, or quality control learning curve, however.

AI knows 😀 which runs in line with what the service techs in trainings are experiencing.

Actual data comes from actual people doing the actual warranty repairs. What lacks is an independent group compiling the data and making it available. YET! Bits and pieces of the failure numbers is out there when you ask around.

Larger, progressive companies track product failure rates in their software. That info often gets shared throughout users of the same software. The last thing they want to do is sell a product with a high % failure rate.

I rather doubt the big manufacturers that have compressor failure data will openly share that. Or the compressor manufacturers themselves?

No different than a steam boiler model with high failure rates, word gets around. Very quickly in this day and age.

i guess paul's expansive experience in all things shall triumph over and one w real world experiences . Ok sounds good as the posts of pro become quieter and quieter so i guess anybody can be a pro .Huh maybe thats a good thing remember buyer beware . personally i would always listen to some one like hot rod, guys got mega experiences over many decades and upon meeting he s a smart guy but hey maybe ai or pauls ideas are the right way to go . Not all things in life are a debate and not all view points are valid . Think of it this way has anyone company built better products over the last 20 years who's lifespan exceeds what was made in the past . no now adays to keep the money going every thing has to break down and nothing is designed to last plain and simple . heat pump water heaters are crap built to throw away no one in business is going to replace a compressor on one by the time ya get done it will cost double of replacement . lets get w reality please . heat pump water heater are the latest and greatest waste . oh yeah when it goes you gonna reclaim the refrigerant for free please louise and how many lic plumber do any work on refrigeration own a reclaimer 'gauges not many i know oh yeah gonna need another lic to work on that and tools 'insurance and surety bonds omg lions tigers and bears oh my ? Oh yeah your price seems high gotta lol .Reason to retire the laughability is absurd its like asking a man on the street about his expertise w a surgeons scalpe performing brain surgery but there's alway a first . lets get w a little bit of reality . But hey if the public utilities are giving me it for free i'm in sound familiar while the rest of us will pay . got love this crazy world ying and yang baby

Hi, I'll just chime in that as an industry, we need new ideas and ways forward. We need people who are not bound by tradition or habit. Way too often, however, products have been brought to market without adequate field testing, and often this has caused pain for the installers. This is a reason us old guys lean conservative. That said, we need to bring in new blood and train them in tomorrow's technology, so they can take good care of their clients and themselves. It's not a simple path.🤔

Yours, Larry