I will be doing some work in the laundry/heater room shortly, including installing a new natural gas hot water heater.At one time I had no problem doing my own plumbing "sweats", but, for now I think I will call a real plumber. I have some additional work that needs done, and a *real* plumber would be oh so helpful.I am in Willow Grove PA in case someone who is reading this wants to volunteer! (give me to spring to move some stuff out of that room prior to)The question I have is when upgrading my 40 gallon unit, I came across this $2000 96% efficient hot water heater by AO Smith called the Vertex 100. Sure it's pricey, but it looks like it could almost take the place of my baseboard heater unit by some of the advertising I have seen on it.A couple of questions, specifically.Are the "guts" of this unit significantly different than a standard hot water heater (we're talking gas here, not electric)? I think so, but, I don't know.The chimney on the unit today is a 3" stack going into an 8-10" chimney also serving the purpose of venting the baseboard hot water heater, or, err, heater. One guy I called, locally, told me that Vertex would have to vent to an outside wall. Period. Huh?And lastly, I made the part up about it replacing my heater-heater, but it does say that it can run some radiant heating systems as well as provide all the hot water I need. Anyone care to state real world results?And, getting back to the original question; hot water heaters come in "residential" and "commercial" but I am having a dickens of a time trying to figure out --- besides warranty and price --- what makes them different.Thanks again...

The exhaust temp is to cold to go up a chimney since its a condensingunit. I have a condensing AO Cyclone I think 90 gal 180000 btu. Ifound online for maybe 500$ cheaper in Kentucky at 1800$. My old AOlasted maybe 25 years commercial use, they are well made to last. Theefficency number is not overall efficency, EF rating is, thats EnergyFactor and AO doesnt like to give that out since it may be around82-85. For that money you can look at a Takagi TH1 that is 94-96 EF.Using a water heater for heating is alot more work on it, you can geta boiler of up to a real 98% at under 140f from Canada but baseboardusualy needs higher temps so at 180f some boilers go to down to about90% efficent. Before you think HW tank to heat the home first look atwhat the boiler is heating the water to right now on these cold days,if you need 180 to be warm forget tankless and a tank, you are stuckwith a boiler. For domestic HW you have alot of choises. Compre EFratings at You will be suprised maybe 95% of...

..and is ransley just a chattering mindless windbag of shit?Poll says 100% without a doubt, YES!Bubba

Hot water heater decision; AO "prosumer" Vertex 100?

Jan 13, 2009 24 Replies

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ransley 17 years ago

He asked for help, not a Bubbaass response, which is just insulting crap.

Alrem.. I bought a US $ 2400.00 Cyclone by shopping online and calling, I saved 600$

Is Bubba an ass, poll says 98% yes....He Haw

Is Bubba impolite, poll says 98% yes

Is Bubba rude , poll says 98% yes

Is Bubba informed poll says ?

Is Bubba a pro poll says ?

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Bubba 17 years ago

..and is ransley just a chattering mindless windbag of s*it? Poll says 100% without a doubt, YES! Bubba

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ng_reader 17 years ago

lotta anger there bubba. it can be a poisen. word to the wise.

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Bubba 17 years ago

Learn to spell there, Einstein. Capitalization can be helpful too. Bubba

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ng_reader 17 years ago

Did you mean Einstein, or Eisenstein? There *is* a difference.

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