I changed out both elements in my electrc water back in late August. Had to change the bottom one out again today.

  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    That’s why you should have a gas water heater if you have hard water. Electric units get wrecked by scale, regardless of a water softener.

    • HollandJim@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      But it’s a greenhouse gases contributor - electric is better. Check that anode commented below.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Electric ain’t better if you have to replace it constantly. Think of the emissions to produce these parts.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          10 hours ago

          The emissions to produce a single heating element off a factory line are probably a lot smaller than keeping a jug of water in your house hot by burning natural gas off and on all day every day forever

          • DempstersBox@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            Cool, when those heating elements are shipped over here via bunker fuel. I’ll bet a boatload of those coming over is more emissions than running a NG burner for a decade

            • protist@mander.xyz
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              11 minutes ago

              Except it’s not a boat transporting one heating element, but thousands upon thousands of other things. To accurately quantify emissions you’ll need to divide the ship’s total emissions by the # of products on board, likely making transport emissions from a single heating element negligible and easily surpassed by burning methane in your house constantly every day forever

          • thejml@lemm.ee
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            10 hours ago

            And that’s why you get an on demand unit. In either case, heating water in a jug over and over just so it might be hot hen you need it is not a great idea.

            • Tayb@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              I agree. I use very little gas to heat my water for my hydronic system and the tap. I replaced an old oil hydronic heater and traditional electric water heater with a natural gas combi boiler that does both home heat and hot water. My utility bills went through the floor, and over the whole year I put a fraction of the CO2 into the atmosphere than I did in just a winter of the old oil furnace.

          • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            And so we come to the eventual argument. An electric water heater is going to keep a jug of water in your house hot by running off and on all day forever. Where did that electricity come from?

            • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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              45 minutes ago

              Where did that electricity come from?

              Please stop the climate denier arguments. Even if it was a gas power plant, it would be still more efficient than your little home gas heater and this gap gets wider and wider when we add more and more renewables to the energy mix.

            • protist@mander.xyz
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              9 hours ago

              In my case, a mix of fossil fuel and renewable resources that on the whole are significantly less carbon-intensive per unit of energy than straight up burning methane in my house

              • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                I wish we had European style water heaters at the tap. But that’s not safe. You should see what I find in hospital infrastructure.

                • protist@mander.xyz
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                  8 hours ago

                  Oh I used to work at a hospital that was built in the 60s and know full well what sort of asbestos-laden Frankenstein’s monster they become over time

      • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Maybe with that attitude. You are willing to swap a heating element but not running a gas line? It ain’t shit but playing with black pipe and dope like a white girl with daddy issues.

        • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          Those are two different skill sets, just because you think swapping a heating element is hard doesn’t mean everyone else does

          • DempstersBox@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            I think you completely misunderstood their response.

            Swapping a heating element is easy.

            Running some pipe is also easy.

            Whether the OP has gas running to the house is a whole other question