What size do you have in your barn/is it adequate? Without some modifications I may be limited to a 6 gallon and I’m worried it may be too small. Mostly looking to have warm water at the sink and wash rack for two horses.
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How much hosing / bathing will you need to do in cool weather when warm water will be needed for that?
If we cut 6 gallons of hot water 50/50 with cold water to make warm water then we have 12 gallons of warm water.
If you are a relatively conservative water user when bathing and not needing to do two horses back to back you should be ok.
If you think you will regularly need to bathe both horses for a winter show (for example) then a 6 gallon heater may not meet that need.
I have a 40g in my barn. To keep the plumbing simple it’s only hooked up to the sink. Unless you’re going to do a lot of bathing in one day 6g should be ok.
I have a tankless so unlimited hot water before that I had a 20 something gallon and never ran out of hot water.
My water heater is 16 or 18 gallons and has been sufficient. I had wanted to have gas heat and a gas water heater, but venting = $$$ so I ended up with electric for both. My electric supply was taken off the 200 amps for the house, so I didn’t think everything electric was going to work, but it has.
The heaviest usage I predict would be summer if I’m using the sink a lot plus bathing/rinsing. But this is in South Carolina where I just need enough hot water to keep the bathing water from being freezing, and even then likely only in the mornings. The occasional winter bath is definitely possible but not a common need.
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I would love tankless but that would require significant electrical work to safely support
Its pricey but the trutankless smaller options only takes a single circuit breaker and you might not have to do much electrical rework.
Otherwise you would be fine with a small hot water heater in SC. It doesn’t take much there to heat water even in the winter.
I suspect you’ll be fine then!
I would guess you will be fine most of the time.
More than the six gallon capacity, the recovery rate will make a difference. A really slow recovery rate will be your limiting factor.
