What isn’t WiFi or Bluetooth these days

[Fordtech86]

So I ran into a mouse issue the past week,to make a long story short I finally figured out where they getting into the house at and I need to pull my water heater out to seal off where they are getting in. The water heater is 10 years old so I figured if I got to take it out I might as well put a new one in because who knows how much longer it will last. This is my first house I’ve owned, had an experience in a rent house where the water heater burst while we were at work and didn’t want to go through that. So I went to shopping tonight and was only focused on what I can get in town tomorrow(online shopping). Was looking at rheem in particular, Home Depot had the base model (6 yr warranty) and the higher end series (12 year warranty) in stock. I bought the high end series because I’d rather buy once,cry once, but aside from all that it is a WiFi water heater! Wtf lol. I am from the WiFi/ Bluetooth age but a water heater? It will tell me if it thinks it’s leaking and control the temp from my phone. I can’t wait for a fridge that can Bluetooth me a beer lol.

 

[dlsmith]

Just my $.02 worth, but do we really need a water heater with WiFi? Really?

Having been involved with computers and tech for almost 40 years, I'm no Luddite, but the current trend of making every doodad and thingamabob web enabled, just makes it more expensive, more complicated to set or use, collects data about your use of the product and sends it back to the manufacturer to sell to advertisers or whomever wants to buy it. Most all the current crop of IOT devices and susceptible to hacking, mostly because they have really crappy built in security leaving them open to be hacked.
Nothing like getting up in the morning and not having any hot water because some hacker in Bulgaria found your water heater was still using the factory default user name and password and decided to turn it off, or even worse disable the safety features and set the temperature so high that it popped the relief valve and flooded your basement.

Don't get me started on Alexa.

Just say no to IOTs.

 

[armylifer]

Just a short word of advice if you do decide to hook up your water heater to the wifi. Put it on your guest network and create a strong password for that network. All household IOT appliances should be on a different network than your computers and smart phones. Also check your router settings to ensure that none of the devices can see each other. Then even if someone does hack your IOT appliances, including door bells, cameras, tv, speakers, etcettera they will not be able to access the main network where your computers and smart phones are. That should provide enough security against the casual hacker.

 

[Fordtech86]

I don’t intend on hooking it up to WiFi,I didn’t even buy the extra module to connect it. I was just thinking the same thing as you guys, does the water heater really need WiFi lol. I only bought it because it was the only rheem professional series they had in stock in the size I needed.

 

[John T]

It’s called the The Internet of “Things”

Look it up.

There is great concern about all the stuff in your house being hooked up to the Internet/Smart speakers etc.

Security is lacking to put it mildly.




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[skeets]

One thing I really dont need, is a fridge that can take pictures of me getting something to drink in the middle of the night... I think it would be a most unpleasant picture, or very funny, depending on your point of view

 

[SidecarFlip]

What isn't WiFi?

My kubota's, heck they have no electronics on them, all analog and mechanical, my water heater isn't neither is my furnace.

Don't need no stinking WIFI.

The trick to having any water heater (WIFI or not) last a long time is, drain it regularly to remove sediment. I drain mine monthly. By drain, I don't mean empty it, I mean flush it via the drain valve located at the bottom on the side nets the burner shield.

You flush the collected sediment out, it will last a long time. Have my drain valve replaced with a short nipple and a WOG ball valve so it's easier to drain/flush. The standard drain valves are useless plastic crap. I actually plumbed my drain into a plastic pipe that runs to the floor drain so no mess, just crack the valve for about 15 seconds and you are done.

 

[Daren Todd]

We have a bluetooth/ wifi connected vacuum [emoji14] Actually I picked my wife up one of those roombas for Christmas.

So far the little robot has worked out like most of those slacker kids out there [emoji14] Can't get it to work and earn it's keep unless you supervise it.

Yesterday was the first day on the schedule. Supposed to vacuum the house while we were at work. Well the little guy bulldozed itself into the corner between the fridge and kitchen counter. Got its bumper stuck. I get an alert on my phone that it was stuck. 2 minutes in

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[John T]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone draining their hot water heater in their house
Let alone on a monthly basis

That’s right up there with having your oil analyzed every single time you change it.

That’s either OCD or horsesh*t


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[D2Cat]

I drain water heaters, but not on a real regular basis. Why does that seem so odd, and I sure don't get controlled by OCD?

 

[John T]

Just poking a stick at The old flippster


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[Lil Foot]

People constantly ask me why my water heaters last 2 or 3 time longer than theirs.
I ask them if they drain/flush their water heaters on a (somewhat) regular basis.
They say "No, thats stupid!"
Aha.

 

[armylifer]

It’s called the The Internet of “Things”

Look it up.

There is great concern about all the stuff in your house being hooked up to the Internet/Smart speakers etc.

Security is lacking to put it mildly.




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Yes, you are correct. In the tech industry we refer to the Internet of Things with the acronym IoT.

 

[shootem604]

There is a sacrificial anode in the tank. If you check and replace that from time to time (maybe 10 years, depending on your water) the burner or gas valve will fail long before the integrity of the tank.

 

[bucktail]

One thing I really dont need, is a fridge that can take pictures of me getting something to drink in the middle of the night... I think it would be a most unpleasant picture, or very funny, depending on your point of view

I'm gonna hack your smart toilet and flush it while you're in the shower...

 

[armylifer]

I'm gonna hack your smart toilet and flush it while you're in the shower...

Now that would be hilarious.

 

[SidecarFlip]

There is a sacrificial anode in the tank. If you check and replace that from time to time (maybe 10 years, depending on your water) the burner or gas valve will fail long before the integrity of the tank.

Unless of course you are like us out here with well water and sediment issues. We pre filter our raw water with a 5 micron blow down cellulose commercial (20" long cartridge and then further run it through an activated carbon filter but you still get a certain amount of sediment and we have high calcium content (as most folks around here and the calcium precipitates out of the water when it's heated in the HWH.

I've been through numerous HWH's in the 35 years we have lived out here, all from my lax maintenance and not blowing off the sediment in the tank and having the tank spring a leak, always in the bottom.

Now, every time I change filters and add H2O2 to the perastaltic injection pump, I blow off the HWH in my house and my rentals.

Last one I replaced, the drained tank still weighed over 150 pounds and most of that weight was calcified calcium in the bottom.

 

[Daren Todd]

Now that would be hilarious.

We were setting up the WiFi on the roomba so I could use the app. I was having a hard time figuring it out, so my son in law was helping me. Daughter has one so I was using her phone as a reference on what I needed to do and what it looked like. I almost set ours up on her phone then thought better of it. Figured she would punk us and send it on a cleaning cycle at 2am

 

[armylifer]

We were setting up the WiFi on the roomba so I could use the app. I was having a hard time figuring it out, so my son in law was helping me. Daughter has one so I was using her phone as a reference on what I needed to do and what it looked like. I almost set ours up on her phone then thought better of it. Figured she would punk us and send it on a cleaning cycle at 2am

If I were a kid again and knew what I know now I would definitely punk my parents. My dad once took a computer class so that he could start to do some things on my mom's computer but he never did even use email until the day that he died. He was not afraid of computers and he did learn how to do rudimentary functions with it but he said he preferred printed paper for news and did not care for email at all. I do think it would have been funny to mess with appliances if they had any though.

 

[torch]

Flushing sediment may be a factor for some, depending on water quality and conditions. More universal service is changing the anode every 4-5 years. The anode is designed to corrode instead of the tank itself. As such, it's a consumable item. Look for a large hex "plug" in the top of the tank. Hanging from that is (was?) a ~3' long aluminium or zinc rod. Once it's gone, no more protection and the tank starts corroding.

Come to think of it, if you have a lot of sediment, it may be the remains of the anode.