On Jul 10, 8:21 pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jul 10, 9:25 pm, Alex wrote:

Hi all -

I have a 50 gal gas powervent waterheater, but I run out of hot water
frequently. Can I buy another electric one & feed the hot from my existing
heater into the inlet for the new electric one?

Figure that might be the cheapest way since the electric one will only
really need to maintain the temp, rather than heating it & I won't have to
spend $$$ on another powervent model.

Thanks!

Any chance you just moved in?

When my wife and I moved into a house, BC, we would run out of hot
water from a 40 gallon tank really quick. Imagine 2 newlyweds not
being able to share a long shower!

Anyway, after a little investigation, I found out that the water
heater was piped wrong. It was filling from the top and taking water
from the bottom. The really strange part was that the paperwork said
it was installed 4 years before we moved in and we knew that there
had been 2 adults and 3 teenagers living in the house before us.

How they put up with that for 4 years is beyond me. I can't imagine
how bad their old HW heater must of been if they thought the new one
was working properly,

Quite common. Some heaters don't have a defined cold water inlet.
They have you put in the cold water tube in the hole you want to use.
Also have had the tube come loose so the cold did not go to the bottom
but the hot was still taken from the top. I think that happened when
the tank had been drained and the water was turned on too fast.