In most Lakes Region towns the water heater works hardest in July. In plenty of Campton houses it works hardest in February — a full house, everybody back off the mountain at once, and the coldest water of the year coming in. That’s the hour we size for.
Campton sits at the bottom of the Waterville Valley road. Route 49 runs up along the Mad River to the resort, I-93 heads north toward the rest of the ski country, and Waterville Estates has a ski hill of its own. So a good share of Campton’s second homes and rentals fill up in winter, not only summer. The busiest hour for hot water lands around four on a Saturday afternoon in February.
Which is about the worst hour you could pick. The water feeding the heater is as cold as it gets all year, so every gallon takes longer to bring up to temperature. A tank that’s fine for two people on a July weekend falls over with eight skiers, a washer full of wet base layers, and somebody who wants a bath. Nothing’s broken. It’s just the wrong size for the season the house actually gets used.
Where the water comes from varies across town, too. The Campton Village Precinct runs a small public system serving around six hundred people. Waterville Estates draws from the district’s community wells. Everyone else is on a private well, and no two of those are quite alike. Each does something different to the inside of a tank, so we pull the old anode rod and look before we pick the new heater.
Judge your Campton water heater on a February Saturday, not a July one. If it can’t keep up with a full house after skiing, it’s the wrong size for the way you use the place.
The number on the side of a tank — forty gallons, fifty — isn’t the one that matters. What matters is how much hot water it can deliver in its first hour, and how fast it recovers after. For a ski rental that sleeps ten, we count the showers that’ll run back to back after the lifts close, add the washer and the dishwasher, and work from that. Often the right answer is a bigger tank. Sometimes it’s two smaller ones, so a single failure doesn’t leave a full house cold.
Gas or propane tankless can carry a crowd if it’s sized for winter inlet water — which, in a ski house, is exactly the season you need it. Size it off the brochure and you get three lukewarm showers instead of three hot ones. We don’t install electric tankless at all; at our water temperatures it pulls more current than most houses here can give it. If the house already has a sound boiler, an indirect tank off it is often the best value of the lot.
Then we set it up to last. Drain valve where you can reach it. Room overhead to pull the anode. Expansion tank and the code-required safety fittings in place. And if the house ever closes for part of the year, a unit that drains completely without anyone taking it apart.
In Campton, a standard electric tank installed starts around $2,400; a 65–80 gallon electric runs $5,000–$7,000, and a propane tank $6,000–$9,000. Tankless is $9,000–$13,000 installed, with gas piping and venting inside that quote. An indirect off a boiler you already have is $2,200–$3,400; replacing the boiler itself starts at $16,000. Repairs on a heater worth keeping run $500–$700.
Probably more than you have. What counts is how much hot water the heater can deliver in its first hour, not the gallons printed on the label. Ten people coming off the mountain will run four or five showers back to back. We work out that hour, and often the answer is a larger tank or two smaller ones.
Colder incoming water. The heater has to lift every gallon further in February, so it delivers less hot water at the tap and recovers more slowly. Add a full house and a washer going at the same time and it gives out. It isn’t broken. It’s undersized for the season you use the house.
It can be, in gas or propane, sized for the coldest inlet water you’ll see — and in a ski house that’s the exact season you use it. Undersize it and three showers at once all run lukewarm. We don’t install electric tankless; at our water temperatures it needs more current than most houses here have.
A little. A public system is treated and tested, so it’s more predictable than a private well, but the tank still wants a yearly flush and an anode check. On a well the minerals vary house to house, and the anode can go quickly. Either way, we pull the old rod and look before choosing.
You can, and if it kept up, that’s fine. But if it ran cold every ski Saturday for ten years, the same size will do the same thing for the next ten. Tell us how the house really gets used — how many people, which months — and we’ll tell you honestly whether matching the old one makes sense.
Tell us what’s happening and we’ll give you a straight answer — what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there.
Describe what’s happening and where the property is. We’ll come back with a straight answer on what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there. If it’s an emergency, say so in the first line.
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