# Old Water Heater



## PreparedRifleman73

I'm looking for some ideas on what to do with an old water heater!

I'm getting a tankless natural gas water heater installed on Friday. So here's my two year old 50 gallon electric water heater:







I'm going to try to sell it for around $150.

*Unless,* one of you crafty and creative homesteading preppers has a way cooler idea? Safe to store water or would it rust if it wasn't circulating? Any other ideas?


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## swjohnsey

Good luck on gettin' that for an old waterheater. Take off the outer shell and insulation and you have a steel 50 gallon tank.


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## PreparedRifleman73

swjohnsey said:


> Good luck on gettin' that for an old waterheater.


I'm one of those jerks that thinks everything I sell is gold. I overestimate what I'll get all the time haha.



swjohnsey said:


> Take off the outer shell and insulation and you have a steel 50 gallon tank.


Is steel acceptable for long-term water storage? Maybe the insulation would be good? (no idea here)


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## OldCootHillbilly

Should be glass lined. 

Hook it up inta yer cold water line an ya got fresh store water whenever yall would need it. Water Problems, just valve it off.

Make a solar hot water heater outa it.


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## cowboyhermit

There are certainly uses but if it is in good shape I would try to sell it. Can be used with solar heating, ok for water storage, actually if you left it plumbed in with valves you could keep the water fresh and still have it in an emergency.


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## cowboyhermit

OldCootHillbilly beat me to it, great minds think alike I guess


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## Davarm

OCH and cowboyhermit, beat me but I have a twist on it. Solar collectors for heating water are easy to make, you could make a pre-heater for your tankless water heater and use the the old one for a storage tank. 

If you use the tank for water storage, you will want to make sure you flush it thoroughly, even if it is glass lined, it will have a lot of scale and sediments in the bottom that you would want to get rid of.


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## hiwall

I agree with cowboyhermit. Leave it just like it is(shut-off the electric breaker). Plumb your new one in after this old one. It would be a passive pre-heater(room temp), 50 gallons storage of always fresh water, and a spare water heater if something happened to your new one(just turn the breaker back on).


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## Dakine

it was a 70's prepper thing, but people would turn them into makeshift gun safes. Hiding in plain sight, as it were.

then everyone knew about it so I guess it fell out of favor.

what was old is new again, maybe it work for you! You'd have to figure out how/where to position it though.


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## cnsper

Water trough and/or feed trough for the livestock.


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## PreparedRifleman73

hiwall said:


> It would be a passive pre-heater(room temp)


I never thought of that! With municipal water at 45* that would mean a whopping 36% reduction in the temperature rise I would need, in theory. Good idea.



Dakine said:


> makeshift gun safes


Another kickass idea. But I own two guns and one is always on me. I sure wish I had a stockpile to hide.


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## ChevySS

Hey, that is still a Good Idea, even if you only have 1 gun to hide. But the trick would be is to make your gun easily & quickly accessible without doing any noticeable modifications. Leaving it inline is also a really good idea, because you will preheat you're water which will save on energy and then if you have water problems you will have a back up of water like most people do. And hey if you do that, if shit did hit the fan after you ran out of water you could turn it into a gun safe. Just make sure to get plans on how to do it and save it. But you also have to think if people were running out of water you got to think that everybody would be checking every water heater they saw for water and would actually be sinking them out. But also by leaving it in line you have a back up water heater, that's 4 different uses it can have by leaving it. And you don't have to pay to move it. 
Hey what about using both heaters. The tank set really low so it's used for warm water. Could you save energy by doing that? I bet it's not a question that comes up much because most people have one or the other.


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## ChevySS

Hey you could also use it to grow shrooms in. It shut hits the fan they will be a good trade.


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## fondini

You could fill it with concrete and use it for a counterweight for your home made catapult.


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## kumuainafarm

We have two we use for solar heated water storage. One is strictly for showering and the other is for hot water in the kitchen and shower if need be. Here is a pic of the one that heats our kitchen. This is a work in progress, there are a few things left to do in this photo; paint and tank with a dark colored paint and make a small roof to protect the tank.


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## Gravlore

I am actually looking for a used water heater. I want to make my Mass Rocket Heater for the house.


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## NaeKid

I see that you live in Minnesota ... land of the freezing-rain.

You can use that water-tank as an "in-floor" heating system - for the garage, work-shop or even the home. Just use a small circulating pump, fill the whole-thing with a glycol and have it pump through the tank to warm-up, through the floor (garage, driveway, sidewalk, etc). Leaving the temperature of the tank set to "away" will keep it at a temperature a few degrees above freezing and it won't cost you massive amounts of money to keep the floors warm (driveway) ... 

Summer-time, it would "cool" the floor (driveway) if the pump keeps working.


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## ScubaAl

I've stored water in many things but I've found that if it's metal putting epoxy on the inside makes a lot of sense.


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## RossA

Maybe I'm dreaming, but I was hoping someone would say to make a whiskey still out of it!:beercheer:


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## don04348

I used my electric hot water heater for a back up. Wood stove in the basement with a copper coil inside, connect bottom to a hose in the bottom drain (hot water tank) ,,the top of the coil to a tee in the hot water line and as long as you have water PRESSURE and a fire in the wood stove you have wood heated hot water, problem I had was the stove made to much hot water gotta watch it. However the press/temp release valve in the elec hot water heater protects from over pressure and temp Good luck.


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## PreparedRifleman73

RossA said:


> Maybe I'm dreaming, but I was hoping someone would say to make a whiskey still out of it!:beercheer:


I'm googling it now!


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## hiwall

don04348 said:


> I used my electric hot water heater for a back up. Wood stove in the basement with a copper coil inside, connect bottom to a hose in the bottom drain (hot water tank) ,,the top of the coil to a tee in the hot water line and as long as you have water PRESSURE and a fire in the wood stove you have wood heated hot water, problem I had was the stove made to much hot water gotta watch it. However the press/temp release valve in the elec hot water heater protects from over pressure and temp Good luck.


You could install a tempering valve(it automatically injects some cold water so you can not scald yourself).


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## LincTex

I would sell it as is, as a usable water heater.

We can get junk ones *for free* around here all the time for projects.



Dakine said:


> it was a 70's prepper thing, but people would turn them into makeshift gun safes. Hiding in plain sight, as it were.


Hahaha! Had to search it: 
"water heater gun safe"... 
neat idea!


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## hpb13

hawkmiles said:


> I'm googling it now!


only get about 6 gal. if ya run sugar liquor..can only run it 3/4 full or they "puke"... may check out mothereathnews.com search waste oil heater ....


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## HamiltonFelix

Some people put a tank inline ahead of their actual water heater, as a "tempering tank." The idea is to let the water termperature rise, so less energy is used to heat it. 

The next step is to hook it to a coil of black plastic pipe on a south facing roof, so the sun heats the water and circulates it gradually through the tempering tank. Depending on the weather and time of day, the water heater may have very little work to do to produce the desired hot water. In winter, the wood stove heater loop can stll also be an option. It only takes some plumbing and valves to make both options available.


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