Size of water heater needed

[A.Milton]

I am converting a bay into 2 dog washing bays....what size water heater is necessary with 5 s/s bays and 2 dog wash stations?
Any ideas? Or should I have separate units one for car, one for dog washing? I was also looking into on demand style for dog wash only....I've had a few people shake their head at that idea but really said nothing more then that. I thought an on demand would work great as an addition for dog wash only. Just wondering what your feed back is....thanks in advance

 

[A.Milton]

I realize this is an open ended kind of question it has some variables involved if I wanted an answer in a normal circumstance. How busy is the self serve part of wash and how busy is/will dog wash be...I bought this old carwash 18months ago, run down, water main break, the last owner picked up in foreclosure. He bought 2 car washes in that deal and the other carwash was brand spanking new...had 2 new automatics and 3 large sized self serve bays and this "historical" 6 bay self serve... If I were in his shoes I would of focused my attention on the new one too. Long story short this old one sat another 2 years and I bought it because I wanted to open dog washes. I found out they put them in var washes...so it has taken me 18 months to familiarize myself enough with the carwash end to start on the dog wash. The size of the hot water heater and air compressor were purchased just to have it running to sell. It is barely sufficient to serve the carwash end and now I am adding the dog wash and dogs are a little more temperature sensitive than cars. I have spoke with many plumbers, big box stores and have gotten so many different answers I am now confused. I liked the on demand system for dogwash but have had , a few in the business say not a good idea but don't have a suggestion so I'm not sure as to why an on demand for dog wash only isn't feasible in their eyes. Yesterday had a plumber in that told me I needed to quadruple the size of my present water heater system and I would be fine...are there any car/dogwash business owners that have ample hot water supply for both aspects that could offer a little insight into what is working for them?

 

[wash4me]

I would just buy an electric 50 gallon water heater (because that's the largest common size for a low price) and install it for the dog wash only. If it doesn't keep up then feed the cold side of the electric water heater with hot from the carwash water heater and that will boost it. You really don't even know if you'll have much dog wash business. This is relatively cheap and will definitely work..... if you're determined to part with some money get a 199,000 gas tank type water heater and it will likely do both.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

water heaters are sized by the # of degrees you want to raise the temp of the water, combined with the # of gallons per hour you need. So to size it you really need to estimate your usage, otherwise nobody can really answer your question in a satisfactory way.

Otherwise what wash4me suggests is a decent suggestion - its a cheap & easy solution that should work until you have some history behind you and can more accurately estimate your needs. Except that electric is the most expensive way to heat water, that would bug me every day

 

[wash4me]

Same idea could be done with a gas water heater but the heater is more and install is more so unless there's substantial use it won't pay. The hybrid idea is to feed the cold side with the hot water heater from the wash then you are just looking at the increase in temp needed as far as electric usage and the standby losses (which are a lot less with electric...)

 

[A.Milton]

Thank you for responding...I think it will take people awhile to catch on to the idea of the dogwash. Both your suggestions make more sense to me. I will start by feeding the hot into the cold line, squeeze as much out of my present unit and when The need arises I will add a separate unit for dogwash. There have been so many setbacks to getting it open, had planned to open in November...still waiting on glass enclosure for entrance. This guy said you have all these people waiting the worst thing that could happen is they finally get in and you don't have enough hot water they aren't coming back...I understand what he is saying but his solution was overkill.

 

[Dcalhoun]

We use an on demand heater dedicated to the dog wash. So far so good - 7 years and counting.