(03-09-2020, 12:56 PM)sleepy hollow Wrote: FWIW, I have ample room in my basement utility/storage room, so I added a second water heater about 20 years ago.  The house had a single 88 gal electric HWH.  Replacement cost not cheap for something of that capacity, and it clearly had been there awhile when we moved in.  So, when I found a great deal on a standard 40 gal HWH ($35) at a liquidation sale, I added a second 220V circuit, and plumbed the two tanks to run in series (hot out to cold in) as the normal mode.   I included valves and bypass tubing to allow me to isolate one or the other tank and just run from either one.    

Over the past 20 years I have replaced the original 88 gal, and two more 40 gal tanks, staggered by several years.    So, now there is no emergency when one goes.   I can shop for the best deal and replace at my convenience.  One just went last year (2019) that was about 10 years old (about $250 new then).  The new one cost me about $350 I believe.  The older one is a 2014 install, so it should have a few years to go on that as it does not work as hard being the second one in the series (i.e., downstream of the first one from the well pump).

Anyway, highly recommend it if you have the room and the skills.  Buy the low end (shortest warranty) name brands and never worry about being in crisis mode having to decide same day what to buy and how to get it installed before you go to sleep.  Side benefit is you never run out of hot water but did not pay a lot more for the larger capacity.