# Electric Water Heater

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 2, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264 "2003-01-02T20:52:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Goober\_McFly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@Goober\_McFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goober_McFly)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264/21 "2003-01-03T16:08:47Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Czarcasm \*  
> \*\*I understand now- I misunderstood what you mistyped. 🙂  
> I believe that **racer72** misunderstood the same way _I_ did, but his response is still not appropriate for this forum. \*\*

Yet another reason to proof read your pots.

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**Author:** ![Goober\_McFly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@Goober\_McFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goober_McFly)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264/22 "2003-01-03T16:09:55Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Goober McFly \*  
> \*\*Yet another reason to proof read your pots. \*\*

::unplugs computer from the internet::

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**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264/23 "2003-01-03T16:46:49Z")

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**reprise** - I’m not sure I understand you correctly - here in the U.S., we don’t buy hot water, we buy water and heat it ourselves. Do you get hot water from an outside source?

StG

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**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264/24 "2003-01-03T18:37:27Z")

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Silly person,  
REPRISE was refering to the ELECTRIC peak rates and when would be the best (cheapest) time to have his heater come on.

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264/25 "2003-01-03T18:42:58Z")

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**Sailor** , In my building we have had water heaters break over time. The guy who makes his living replacing them says they eventually do this because they are glass lined and eventually the (something- lining?) gets brittle or old or weak or yadda yadda.

Then he goes on to say the problem is often made worse if people shut off their heaters frequently. This made sense to me, what with the expantion/contraction cycle that the whole thing endures every time water goes from cold to hot and back to cold.

Do you think this guy is BS’ing me? Wouldn’t it be better (structurally) for the tank to stay at a constant temperature? **Bare’s** $20 monthly saving is impressive, but if this shortens the lifespan of the tank and eventually causes it to burst, might not be worth it.

2nd problem I have: If putting the water heater on a timer would result in such wonderful savings, why doesn’t the manufacturer build them into the device? The consumer could set the duty cycle to suit their lifestyle.

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**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-water-heater/146264/26 "2003-01-04T19:04:17Z")

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In most cases people don`t want their heater off EVER. Many homes have children and people with abnormal schedules. Also the inconvenience of altering your schedule to line up with the hot water supply, and or always changing the timer to line up with your schedules is a bit of a hassle. Many people won`t care about the relatively small savings. A timer would add to the cost of the heater.

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