Sizing of water heater

[RacinJason]

I am new to the industry and recently took ownership of a car wash with 3 self serve bays, one touchless automatic bay and a self serve pet wash area. The water heater is definitely due to be replaced but seems quite large and expensive to replace like for like, so would like to be sure its what I need. How would I go about estimating or sizing a water heater, and also which applications are you all using hot water for? I also have a boiler for in-floor heating in all the bays as my wash is located in the upper Midwest were we get very cold weather, and may be able to get a holding tank and have boiler heat that. (current water heater is a 81 gallon 365,000 Btu input)

 

[Keno]

Lot of operators switching to tankless for heating their water for the wash, there are a lot of threads on this subject and a very long and thorough one on the experiences of a few operators, probably worth you checking that out. If I recall correctly, there was a massive savings on gas by switching to tankless.

 

[Keno]

Thread 'Another tankless water heater replacing boiler thread'

Oct 24, 2023

We were going to replace the old 399,000 BTU boiler several years ago but never got around to it. We are doing a major remodel of our wash now and want the floor space for more equipment and chemical storage. If we put the 60 gallon stainless storage tank where the boiler is now then we can install a 199K tankless type water heater above it on the wall. The current boiler is overkill (I have been running it in stage one on the gas valve for years) for only three SS bays only using it for wax and soap and I'm sure the boiler is in the 80%-ish efficiency rating. The separate heater, pump and...

• OurTown
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• Forum: Self Serve