Yet another water heater question:

Short version: What temp do you run in the winter? Summer?

Slightly longer version: I have four teenagers and they like to marinate in the shower. I replaced our old 80 gal electric with a newflangled 80gal hybrid Rheem last summer. Running at the recommended 125F, they’d drain it after 2 showers. Raised it up to 135F and things were better until the winter. Now, at 135F, it’s good for just two showers again.

The app (which is pretty much junk) throws ‘scald’ warnings over 125F and when I push it to ‘high demand’ (which means running both compressor and elements) it throws another banner about ‘maximum efficiency’.

So my real question is what temp do YOU run your electric water heater, do you set different temps in summer/winter, and what are the cautions against raising the temp higher than 135F? Quicker to change anodes, etc?

Sidenote: I liked the idea (but not the cost) of the hybrid, thinking it’ll cool the garage somewhat in the summer (not enough to notice, turns out). Had to buy hybrid as I couldn’t get a standard water heater over 50 gal. Overall, it’s been running well, got a tax rebate on it and looks like it’s saving quite a bit of electricity, probably enough to pay for itself in 5-6 years.

Wish I could run an ‘on-demand’ but too many stories about electric ones being garbage and we’re all-electric here. Maybe install an ‘on-demand’ just for the master shower?