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4GPM tankless to heat presoak/wax/tirecleaner

H

HCW

Member
As you can see in pictures I am trying to supply presoak, wax, tire cleaner mixing tanks with somewhat hot water. My concern is if the tankless that I purchased will do the job? BTW the tanks do not refill simultaneously, first presoak than tire cleaner then wax. Also this electric tankless water heater is rated @4GPM but I noticed that the outlet have a restricter in it (small hole in the outlet) and i was wondering if it'll have enough gpm/pressure to feed the mixing valve. The electrician and plumer will be here tomorrow to install it. Please advise if I am waisting $ on this project.
 
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Technically yes, but real life experience tells me NO! When the float on the Hydrominder opens it need to flow a certain GPM to properly draw the chemical in to the inductor. Because of the required flow it fills the makeup tank rather quickly, lets say it is 5-8 seconds before the float comes up and shuts off. The water heater needs to sense the minimum flow to turn on and then needs additional time to turn on the heating element and get it up to temperature lets say that takes 2-3 seconds. Now how far is the tankless unit from the makeup tank? The water that is in the pipe needs to flow thru the hydrominder before you get hot water. Even if the tankless unit is very, very close to the copper manifold with the red hoses it will take about 2-3 seconds to move that water. so now you have allowed enough water to flow thru the hydrominder to fill the tank before the hot water even reaches that point.
For a better explanation google "cold water sandwich"
The best way to do what you are trying to do is to use either a 2.5 gallon or 5 gallon electric water heater if you don't already have hot water available at your wash.
What are you trying to accomplish here anyway? I think I see a hot water tank in the background on the 1st pic.
 
Eric H said:
Technically yes, but real life experience tells me NO! When the float on the Hydrominder opens it need to flow a certain GPM to properly draw the chemical in to the inductor. Because of the required flow it fills the makeup tank rather quickly, lets say it is 5-8 seconds before the float comes up and shuts off. The water heater needs to sense the minimum flow to turn on and then needs additional time to turn on the heating element and get it up to temperature lets say that takes 2-3 seconds. Now how far is the tankless unit from the makeup tank? The water that is in the pipe needs to flow thru the hydrominder before you get hot water. Even if the tankless unit is very, very close to the copper manifold with the red hoses it will take about 2-3 seconds to move that water. so now you have allowed enough water to flow thru the hydrominder to fill the tank before the hot water even reaches that point.
For a better explanation google "cold water sandwich"
The best way to do what you are trying to do is to use either a 2.5 gallon or 5 gallon electric water heater if you don't already have hot water available at your wash.
What are you trying to accomplish here anyway? I think I see a hot water tank in the background on the 1st pic.
Click to expand...

You nailed it. Although by the time I read your reply the plumer was installing the tankless :( it didn't have enough gpm to activate the proportion valve.
I went ahead and purchased a 6 gl electric water heater, better than the tankless but still running out of hot water after 2 cars in IBA. All I am using it for is to refill presoak tank for IBA (low pressure presoak).
 
HCW said:
You nailed it. Although by the time I read your reply the plumer was installing the tankless :( it didn't have enough gpm to activate the proportion valve.
I went ahead and purchased a 6 gl electric water heater, better than the tankless but still running out of hot water after 2 cars in IBA. All I am using it for is to refill presoak tank for IBA (low pressure presoak).
Click to expand...

It will keep up if you feed your small electric hot water heater from your main hot water heater. That way all it's doing is heating the gallon or so until the hot from the main tank gets to it and of course standby losses.
 
wash4me said:
It will keep up if you feed your small electric hot water heater from your main hot water heater. That way all it's doing is heating the gallon or so until the hot from the main tank gets to it and of course standby losses.
Click to expand...
No hot water heater on IBA, the water heater in background is antifreeze for IBA track. SS have water boiler. Good idea tho!
 
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