Looking at buying a condo. The hot water for all 16 units is supplied from a "central commercial gas-fired, 120 gallon, high-output, quick-recovery water heater with circulating pump." A 120 gallon tank sounds unbelievably small for a building with 16 bathrooms, washers, dishwashers, and other hot water needs. Am I misunderstanding how hot water heaters work, or would it be accurate to say that when everyone gets up in the morning to take their showers, most of them will be cold within about 3 minutes?
Asking the residents would be a good idea, except it is a new building, no units have been sold yet.
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Hey, short and sweet as possible. Don’t let that stop you from buying the condo if you really like it. I know what you are thinking b/c its only 120 gallons in 16 units and you probably had a 50gal. or more in your last house. But the thing is with the recirculating pump the hot water is constantly flowing threw the entire building, just like in a hotel the water is beening reheated over and over. The pipes have hot water all the time, not just when you have the hot water on. So buy the time you take a shower you probably only used what was in the pipes, so really that is the only water that needs to be reheated. And with the way you described that water, it should do the job. Nothing beats gas. Plus buildings like that have what is called regulation values, this controls the temp. before it gets it to your condo buy mixing it with cold water. If it didn’t have them your water would burn you when it came out the faucet, in hotels the water in the rooms cannot be more than 110 deg. f. Over 111 degrees it can burn you. The water heater maintains the water in the pipes around 160 to 200 degrees depending how many stories. There are alot more factors as well. So when a small amount of water mixes with all that hot water like that of a few showers, theres not much heating needs to be done. If you are still nervous, the last Marriott I just got finished with in South Carolina, was 132 rooms, 6 floors high, It only had two of the similar tanks you are describing. Think all those ppl taking showers in the mornings and evenings. Happy home owning!
Go to Home Depot or Lowes and ask them what size water heater you would need to supply the building. Their advise is priceless….and free.
The circulating pump means the hot water is being continually cycled through the system – ie. if you are on the top floor, you don’t need to wait for the hot water to come up from the basement – it’s already there. In a quick recovery system it seems like 120 gallons should be fine. I owned a 62 unit hotel with just 3 100 gallon heaters – so I had less capacity per unit than you have – and we had no issues with it. Just to make sure, why don’t you ask a couple of people who are already occupying the building – that would be a good idea in any case to determine if there may be other problems you have not considered or to simply meet the neighbors.
120 gallon sounds small but the words high-output, quick-recovery make up for it. They have some newheaters out now that a house hold can run on a 30 gallon tank because of the quick recovery and because the gas heats quicker than electricity. Have there been any complaints that you know of? If it has been working then it must be okay. Remember it is a commercial unit also, not a household unit.
Quick recovery heaters typically have smaller tanks than regular storage heaters Also the circulating pump lets the circulating water count as part of the storage capacity.
Howeve, this one does sound a little on the light side for 16 units. Are you sure there is only one?
I would certainly question the condo management and real estate broker about that and get their reply in writing. Make it part of the sales contract. Don’t forget that the broker is working for the owner, not you, and may be not altogether forthcoming.
"high output, quick recovery" is the key phrase. Some newer systems actually heat water ON DEMAND and don’t use a tank at all. If the heater can match the demand in real time, the tank is not needed. The purpose of the tank is to supply preheated water to make up when momentary demand exceeds the heaters capacity. Without more information regarding the gallons per minute the system can handle, we can’t determine the size of tank needed, or even if a tank is needed at all.