Is A 50 Gallon Water Heater Enough For A Family Of 4?

Of all the appliances in a home, the water heater may be the most underappreciated. Having hot water whenever you want it is a convenience that many of us take for granted. But when your water heater stops performing, you can be left wanting.

Part of the issue is having a water heater that is the right size for your home. For a family of four, is a 50-gallon water heater enough? For the average household with three to four people, a 50- to 60-gallon water heater should be sufficient. Any more people and you would want to upgrade to a 60- to 80-gallon water heater.

If you find that your water heater is currently underperforming, there are a few factors to keep in mind. For one, it could be the wrong size. If you are using a small water heater for a home with four to six people in it, the water heater will have to work that much harder to do the job.

Another issue is the lifespan of the water heater. At some point, your water heater will simply become too old to operate efficiently. The older the unit, the harder it has to work to do the job. Eventually, it will just stop working properly and will need replacing.

There are, of course, different water heater sizes out there to choose from. They are referred to in two ways: a generic size name and the gallon capacity. Typically speaking, when talking about a water heater, you would refer to it by the gallon capacity.

Water heaters come in a wide range of sizes. The smallest options out there are typically about 30 gallons. Your medium-sized water heaters are going to be in the 40- to 60-gallon range. Finally, your large water heaters are going to be 60- to 80-gallon varieties or even larger.

Determining the right water heater size comes down to the number of people in your home and the usage habits of those in the home. Even if you have fewer people in your home, extended usage may shorten the lifespan of your water heater in the long term.

Generally speaking, there are designated water heater sizes based on the number of people within a home. As mentioned above, that can vary based on usage habits, but this is a good rule of thumb to follow.

For one- to two-person households, a 30-gallon water heater should be more than sufficient. Households with three to four people would do fine with the 40-gallon water heater that has become the industry standard. For those households that have five or more people, upgrading to a water heater with at least 60 gallons of capacity may be the best option.

The term used to calculate how long it takes for the water heater to fill up with hot water again is the recovery time. Recovery time varies based on a few different factors, primarily the type and age of the water heater.

For instance, electric water heaters take twice as long to recover as gas water heaters. Tankless water heaters have no recovery time because they only heat water when it is needed. The typical recovery time for a 40-gallon gas water heater is around 30 to 40 minutes. The older the model, the longer the recovery time will be as well.

The average 40-gallon hot water heater should be able to supply two average-length showers per hour. That is because water heaters with a tank need time to replenish the hot water supply before you can use it again.

Showers that go above the 15-minute range will dilute the hot water in the tank. The more work the water heater has to do to restore hot water in the tank, the longer you will have to go between showers. In a home with one or two people, that might not be an issue. But for homes with four or more people, that may facilitate the need to spread out showers.

It may sound simple but it is a factor that many ignore. The more water-using appliances that run at the same time, the greater the toll it takes on the water heater. So, if you have a 40-gallon water heater, it will deplete much more quickly if you are running the shower, dishwasher, and washing machine all at the same time.

For homes with one or two people, you can get away with running multiple appliances at one time. It is not an advisable thing, but sometimes you have no choice. For homes with three or more people, it is worth scheduling showers around those appliance runtimes. Otherwise, you could be facing the proposition of a cold shower.

The average dishwasher uses about six gallons of water per cycle. That depends on the model that you have as some of the newer models are efficient by at least half. If you decide to do laundry that day, you can add the average of seven gallons to your total.

The good news is that most people aren’t running their dishwasher or washing machine on a daily basis. So, you can plan to run your dishwasher one day and your washing machine the next if you don’t want to risk running out of hot water.

So, knowing all that we know about water heaters and the average household water usage, what size water heater does a family of four need? In the worst-case scenario, using the dishwasher, washing machine, and everyone taking a shower would equate to 53 gallons used in a single day.

Most families can get away with using a 50-gallon water heater for everything in one day. But to avoid the risk of a cold shower, for instance, consider spacing out certain activities to another day.