Electric water heater for outdoor shop, supply with garden hose. Any concerns?

Submitted by syncopator t3_ykn5pl in DIY

Hey smart folk,

I snagged a 50 gal residential water heater at the local Habitat For Humanity thrift store. Planning to use rarely in my uninsulated and unheated shop for a few winter chores that are made so much nicer with running hot water.

No plumbing to shop, planning to use nearby frost free spigot to supply and another garden hose from outlet. I can handle the wiring easy enough. Just have a few silly questions.

Say I fire it up and at the end of the day have a tankful of hot water I want to use the next day but I can't leave the supply hooked up cuz it's gonna freeze. Assuming it doesn't leak, can I just unhook the supply hose and plug the inlet with no concerns?

Anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks all!

26

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

jewishforthejokes t1_iuumxyz wrote

If you or anyone else ever turns it on without water it will rapidly overheat and self-destruct. Maybe to be safe you could add a solenoid which disables power when there isn't water pressure? Wells have to have a switch which activates when pressure is low, hook it up to a standard $25 open-frame 30A relay.

17

brock_lee t1_iuu2ih2 wrote

You will get so tired of connecting and disconnecting a hose everyday, that you won't do it, and that one day it's going to freeze, and you're going to have a nasty flood. Just don't do it. There are so many issues here, like why do you need a hot water heater in your shop, versus running a hot water line out to the shop? But the problem there is regardless of what you do, you're going to go a while without using the hot water, or the hot water heater in the shop, and it's going to freeze, and it's going to break, and it's going to leak and cause a flood. Just don't do it.

If I were considering this, what I would do is I would run a hot water line to a frost-free spigot on your house, and then if I want hot water in the garage or shop I would run a hose out there, and when I turn on the hose in a few minutes I'm going to have hot water. When I turn off the hose and disconnect it, everything's fine. If I turn off the hose and forget to disconnect it, the frost-free spigot is still going to save my ass.

14

syncopator OP t1_iuu6aci wrote

I can totally understand your concerns here, but I'm not going to forget to disconnect.

I'm talking about using it like three or four times a year, primarily for things like my upcoming pig butchering and hopefully deer processing. Flipping on the breaker and filling the tank, then shutting it down when I'm done will be no different than the same process I use at a friend's cabin.

The shop is too far from the house to reasonably use a frost-free from there, not to mention that forgetting to disconnect that hose would absolutely cause a problem if it's cold enough to freeze. A closed hose hooked to a frost free spigot will break that spigot like it had never heard the words "frost free". Ask me how I know that...

The water heater will be in a place where even if it did flood, there will be zero consequences. Also, I wouldn't even be planning to do this had I not found a working water heater for $25.

14

5degreenegativerake t1_iuu6ad6 wrote

Amen.

Prier makes a really nice hot and cold combined spigot. I have one. Any temperature water you want on your garden hose with all the ease of a normal spigot.

3

syncopator OP t1_iuu9nfg wrote

All for it, except the location I want the water is about 300' from the house. I'd be 4x in garden hoses and new spigots than the $25 I paid for the water heater.

5

whabt t1_iuusqe1 wrote

I mean the cheap water heater is great and that solves the heating water problem. Moving the water to a different building is an entirely different task and if you cheap out there you'll be sad about it later, guaranteed.

Trench and run a proper line to your shop. The water heater (even if you bought brand new) was never going to be the most expensive part of this endeavor.

If it really is only a few times a year, then hoses could work but you'll never want to trust them.

Maybe a hard line to the shop wall and connect the hose outside of the building?

1

syncopator OP t1_iuuvx1b wrote

I’ve got power in the shop, so the water heater will be at the location where I need the hot water. There’s a frost free hydrant near the shop so getting water to the heater is easy.

Of course the “right” way to do it is trench and plumb to the shop but in order to make that work I need to also finish and heat an insulated area as well as bust up concrete to get water lines from trench to water heater. Maybe one day but for the 3 or 4 times a year I’ll use it that’s a lot more project than is called for.

3

dominus_aranearum t1_iuusq07 wrote

I did this at my shop to have a temporary outdoor shower. 10 gallon water heater worked well. However, I learned that standard garden hoses are not meant for hot water. Make sure you get one rated for hot water.

Do you plan to empty the tank in between uses? While my shop is unheated, it never gets cold enough inside to freeze water, let alone in an insulated tank. Might not be a bad idea to look for a 10-20 gal tank in the future. Heating 50 gallons takes a bit.

9

syncopator OP t1_iuuw4rv wrote

Yep, I’ll empty it unless I’m going to use it the next day again. I think it’s gonna work just fine.

2

its8up t1_iuv3xas wrote

Dunno why nobody has mentioned pex. White or red pex are fine for use with hot water and it is almost as simple as a garden hose. In fact, you could get a garden hose fitting to connect it directly to your hose bib, or put male hose threads on your pex and connect to the hose bib via a short washing machine hose.

Shouldn't take too much to bury it deep enough to prevent freezing where there's dirt. It'll lose some strength if it freezes, so best to insulate any exposed pipe and into the ground a few inches. You'd just need a few fittings and a pex crimping tool. There's 2 kinds of clamps -- the solid ring type is the most reliable, but either will do.

Going the washing machine hose route could cause issues if someone disconnects the hose to use the hose bib. Could nix that potential problem all together by installing a tee where the spigot is. Only a lawnmower incident or other stupidity could cause issue at that point.

5

syncopator OP t1_iuwd176 wrote

Now this is the sort of common sense stuff I should have already considered! Of course pex. I even have some.

I’ll still disconnect since it will rarely be used but pex solves the suitability issue with garden hose.

Thanks!

1

Cylon_Skin_Job_2_10 t1_iuz1rvd wrote

If you have an air compressor, with a few fittings, you could blow out the pex line when done. Between burying it and blowing it clear, should be minimal likelihood of freezing solid.

2

Solid-Guest1442 t1_iuuabmu wrote

You are gonna spend so much heating it

3

syncopator OP t1_iux34hv wrote

That's why I want to have it off and disconnected almost all the time.

1

SixtyTwoNorth t1_iuuax15 wrote

Not sure if you considered this, but if you unhook the supply line, you will need to have a pump in the shed to actually use the hot water, or just gravity feed from the drain.

3

syncopator OP t1_iuuba60 wrote

Yep, I'm just wondering about unhooking the supply like overnight when it's not in use but I would want to still have a tank of hot water the next day without having to refill or reheat. I'll wrap the tank with a bunch of insulation anyway so maybe I'll just experiment with unhooking the supply and killing the power.

0

SixtyTwoNorth t1_iuucozh wrote

I can't see how it would be an issue to unhook the inlet, just plumb in a shutoff valve on the inlet. It should be fine to keep the power on to keep the water hot over night. Just make sure the relief valve works... :)

6

syncopator OP t1_iuud4by wrote

> Just make sure the relief valve works... :)

Fo sho. I'll also make sure there's nothing important directly above it!

4

SixtyTwoNorth t1_iuxnn56 wrote

Buddy of mine had the relief valve seize and his water heater. It literally exploded. Took out half the wall of the little closet it was it!

I check mine periodically now :)

2

syncopator OP t1_iuyggrj wrote

Theoretically the tanks are supposed to go vertical when that happens.

Rumor is that a fun redneck game is to take one out to a field, block the TPR valve, crank the thermostat and let her fly.

1

SixtyTwoNorth t1_iuzg1hk wrote

lol! I must be showing my true colours, but that actually sounds like fun!

2

jeffreagan t1_iuv5y82 wrote

There could be an issue if you fill it cold, seal it up, and then heat it. You need to allow for expansion of the water. The relief valve should take care of that for you.

3

SnakeJG t1_iuv0h3u wrote

Make sure you get a drinking water certified hose. Others can leach lead or other nasties into the water and that doesn't make for good eats.

2

eightfingeredtypist t1_iuvkamd wrote

Hog butchering time brings back fond memories of spending time at my grandparent's house when I was a child.

My grandparents had a large cast iron kettle that had been passed down through the family for generations. On hog butchering day we would haul it out of the barn, hang it from a tripod, and build a fire under it. The kid's job was to fill it with 100 gallons of water, and feed the fire with slab wood from the saw mill.

The uncles would kill the pig and hoist it on the hog hoist to collect the blood. The aunts would start processing parts. Us kids would run away in terror. That night there would be a big dinner for everyone with t e best parts of the hog, plenty for everyone.

My suggestion is to get busy and have a lot of children by any means in order to have help hauling and heating the water.

2

[deleted] t1_iuu8947 wrote

[deleted]

1

syncopator OP t1_iuu9gwn wrote

Primarily because for the very infrequent use it will get that's more time and $$ than the project deserves. So far I'm into this $25 for the water heater and I have everything else I need.

Of course the longer term solution which I intend to do eventually is trench and run water to the shop and insulate a small room.

1

PurePetrol t1_iuvh2wn wrote

Asks for concerns, gets defensive when the replies are full of concerns lol. You know what you want to do will work but these are all valid concerns.

1

syncopator OP t1_iuwdlsz wrote

Sorry if I came off as defensive, sure didn’t mean to. Just seemed that folks weren’t catching that I’m not trying to do a permanent install and I’m not trying to do it “right”.

1

Walker59420 t1_iuwkdf2 wrote

They do make portable hot water heaters for camping and such. Uses propane. Can hook and unhook easy and don’t need to heat 50 gal. Can get 1.5+ gpm of hot water.

1

rededelk t1_iuwvtbr wrote

Depends where you are. My water and sewer lines are 7 feet deep, ya, cold country

1

Objective-Land-6420 t1_iuxll64 wrote

A super easy solution is an immersion hot water bucket heater. Less than 25 bucks you can heat a good sized bucket of water up to boiling. It doesn’t take long either. This gal uses mine all the time! It’s handy for outdoor chores.

1