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02-15-2010, 04:52 PM
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424 posts, read 2,277,676 times
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This is a photo of the view from my kitchen  The doorknob you see on the left goes to our spare bathroom, and to the right of the photo is a door way to an entryway with a coat closet, door to the garage and door to the master bedroom. Needless to say, we walk thru and look at this area a LOT. Not to mention I have 3 kids and use the laundry machine a lot too.
The water heater needs replaced, it is too small and also noisy/weird. The laundry machines also could stand to be replaced, obviously.
We've heard mixed things about tankless water heaters but have been curious about them just for the space issue... could we mount it up higher or put it elsewhere, then use the space the tank is taking up to put a normal washer and dryer set up there side by side? I actually already have machines for this, so the $$ we spend on a tankless set up, we'd save on buying a W/D set
OR.... we replace the water heater with a normal one and enclose it somehow? (need ideas for that) and spend some good $$ on a stackable front loader W/D set.
Water heater is natural gas, btw
What do you think? |
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02-15-2010, 05:50 PM
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Location: San Antonio, Texas
3,496 posts, read 19,171,691 times
Reputation: 2743
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Do you have space to take the wall on the right into the garage or entry space? Open the walll and make the room bigger. A bigger water heater will take more space and leave no room for a stack washer/dryer in the space you have avaiable.. Move the washer/dryer to the garage? It may be cheaper and easier to add a water outlet and drain in the garage. I don't know enough about tankless water heaters, except they are expensive. maybe someone else has the info on the tankless.
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02-15-2010, 06:09 PM
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424 posts, read 2,277,676 times
Reputation: 154
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShaneSA
Do you have space to take the wall on the right into the garage or entry space? Open the walll and make the room bigger. A bigger water heater will take more space and leave no room for a stack washer/dryer in the space you have avaiable.. Move the washer/dryer to the garage? It may be cheaper and easier to add a water outlet and drain in the garage. I don't know enough about tankless water heaters, except they are expensive. maybe someone else has the info on the tankless.
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No, we don't have room for that. Plus there is a cement footing at the base of the wall, probalby hard to move anyway. The entryway is the size of the doors on each end prettymuch.
And the "garage" is actually merely a carport so I can't put the washer and dryer out there. our freezer is already out there because there's no room for it in the house.
Our only other hope is maybe getting a hot-water-heat setup where the boiler would also be the water heater, and putting that in a closet or the attic or something. Not probably cheap or easy, but we don't have a lot to work with here, we need to be creative and purposeful.... |
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02-15-2010, 11:46 PM
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Location: Jacksonville, FL
10,232 posts, read 9,769,432 times
Reputation: 8665
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Tankless. Tankless. Tankless.
As you can see, I like the idea of the tankless water heater 
Unfortunately, unless it is just because of the angle of the pic, I don't think you'll have enough room for a washer/dryer side by side in that area. Measure it, if it's over 60 inches wall to wall a conventional w/d set should fit. If it's under, they probably won't.
You can set the tankless water heater up higher if the space is wide enough for the w/d, there won't be any problem with it being higher.
As for price, be prepared to pay more for a tankless than you would for a conventional water heater. Quite a bit more... On the plus side, the natural gas used by the tankless is far less than what is used by a conventional trying to keep 40+ gallons at 120 degrees plus. |
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02-15-2010, 11:59 PM
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Location: The Ranch in Olam Haba
23,713 posts, read 29,120,481 times
Reputation: 9985
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Quote:
Tankless. Tankless. Tankless.
As you can see, I like the idea of the tankless water heater
Unfortunately, unless it is just because of the angle of the pic, I don't think you'll have enough room for a washer/dryer side by side in that area. Measure it, if it's over 60 inches wall to wall a conventional w/d set should fit. If it's under, they probably won't.
You can set the tankless water heater up higher if the space is wide enough for the w/d, there won't be any problem with it being higher.
As for price, be prepared to pay more for a tankless than you would for a conventional water heater. Quite a bit more... On the plus side, the natural gas used by the tankless is far less than what is used by a conventional trying to keep 40+ gallons at 120 degrees plus.
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I agree. Also the vent pipe on the rear of the w/d should be solid. It should go straight up and then right angle to the hole. I'd probably frame it and install a bi-fold door (sorry for that width its custom). |
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02-16-2010, 12:10 AM
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48,504 posts, read 93,327,773 times
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What I would suggest is that you pour a slab on the outside for a closest to house the water heater and maybe a freezer or other things. then repipe the waterlines to it. Because eventaully your going to have a water problem having the waterheater in the house.I helped a friend build a 4X 8 closet just for that propose on the back of his house and he was gld a few eyars later when he came home and the heater tank had busted and the water had drained onto the concrete slab and out the door onto the ground.
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02-16-2010, 10:21 AM
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Location: Johns Creek, GA
16,626 posts, read 61,366,605 times
Reputation: 21704
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The space is obviously not 65" or wider. So, side-by-side units aren't going to help.
You can get a larger W/H that will fit the space- they are referred to as "tall units". You can get a 50gal. that has a footprint of about 22". Which is probably about the same size as the current one.
Other things to note- don't store/place items on top of the W/H, especially close to the vent- they could melt or burn. In a conditioned space, like this laundry room- the vent pipe should be completely double wall, and there should be an eschusion at the ceiling. As mentioned above about the dryer vent- yes, it should be solid pipe. The longer the flex hose the more resistance for air flow- the greater the chance for a clogged vent. But try not to use right angles- they add 5 feet to the total run. Try and keep angles less than 45degrees.The overflow for the TPRV (temperture,pressure, relief valve)needs to be routed outside. The new unit should be placed inside a drip pan, and the pan should have a drain line attached and routed outside also. And depending on the local code you maybe required to have an expansion tank- I recommend one regardless. It will extend the life of the supply system.
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02-19-2010, 01:37 PM
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424 posts, read 2,277,676 times
Reputation: 154
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Thanks everybody, this is all very interesting. Guess I wished I knew all this before I bought the house 
the space is 58", but there's a little cement thing at the bottom that knocks it down another couple inches. So maybe I have to buy a new washer/dryer set up after all? Then I probably can't afford the tankless water heater too. Someone told us we can repair our current tank pretty easy, so maybe we'll just do that instead of replacing it. But we still need to make some sort of closet or door to cover it somehow. Plus redo the dryer vent like you're saying.....
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02-19-2010, 05:01 PM
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Location: Johns Creek, GA
16,626 posts, read 61,366,605 times
Reputation: 21704
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The only possible scenario I see is a set of bi-fold doors. You can get a set for a 5' (60") opening- but you'd have to rip a 1/2" off each side of each door to get to 58".
But I don't know if that will work because of the light switch. And why is it behind the door?
The only other option maybe some type of curtain- like light cotton duck with just a pocket on a spring rod.
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02-21-2010, 04:47 PM
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424 posts, read 2,277,676 times
Reputation: 154
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Well I checked and the regular washer I have is 25.5 inches wide. I can get a dryer that's 27 inches. Won't those fit side by side in there?
K'ledge--- the lightswitch is going to be moved if possible. I don't know why it's behind the door. It's very annoying and we've already had an electrician out to give us an estimate for moving it. I don't know if curtains are allowed near water heaters because of the pilot light. And I'd prefer something more permanent looking anyway. We'll know more tomorrow, when the plumber comes, because....
In case you hadn't seen from my other posts, this issue is now immediate in nature instead of a later project. The water heater died on us this weekend. Set the CO monitor off. It needs something, and since we wanted to replace it anyway (it's 12 years old and sounds like there's rocks in it and doesn't keep up with our water usage), well I guess now we have our chance to do that, a tad sooner than we were ready to. Any input?
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