Does anyone have any advice about buying HydroSil heaters? I'm looking for a way to lower my propane heating costs at my fishing cabin in Missouri. Thanks.
By jim from Bellevue, NE
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Since '04 our primary home is heated solely by hydro-sil heaters. We have found that they have saved us a minimum of 30 and during some months up to 40-ish % over the old TPI non silicone filled 20 year old electric baseboard heaters which we replaced.
I've read some comments about hydro-sil's being noisy. this can be the case if you are pushing too many amps through your existing thermostat. we had this problem with [2] 8 foot silicone units in our master bedroom. we replaced the old Honeywell thermostat with hydro-sils digital programmable one which handles up to 4000 watts and All of the noise went away. The upstairs now runs as quite as our great room.
I find it odd that folks will spend big bucks for these heaters, but cheap out on the thermostat. Count the wattage, figure your amperage and check your existing thermostat which today only handle 22 amps.
chances are you have a mismatch and you are slowly burning up the points in your old thermostat. By all means go digital, far better control over the vague "comfort zone" marked ones of the old days.
I also read lots of hoo-haa about USA made ones being quieter than their Chinese counterparts. If hydro-sil has USA made units in stock, you can request them. "As much as I vastly prefer products made in the states to perceived china crap, all save for one of the hydro-sils in our primary residence are Chinese made and they are all noiseless. We've had zero problems whatsoever!
I'll sum it up like this... my wife and I believe so strongly in hydro-sil, that we looked long and hard for a large lot of nice used ones for our cottage. I stress the word USED as we didn't want to spend heavily for new ones during this economic downturn, but realized fully our old baseboard heaters in the cottage were bleeding us financially each month.
I found/purchased a lot of 11 very clean used silicone filled USA built hydro-sils with 5 hydro-sil digital thermostats for $900 this week! So don't let the word used scare you as hydro-sils are built to last. Do some looking on the net because as we found there are at times folks that bought one too many and have brand new ones in the box for substantially less. Granted warranty does not transfer, but there is always a trade off when you wanna saving money.
I should also add, that there is a cousin to the hydro-sil brand called Qmark. I am told that Marley manufacturers both namesakes and that they are identical. However, be warned that hydro-sil has a lifetime warranty and Qmark a 1 year warranty. Qmark is considerably cheaper than hydro-sil but you are losing length of warranty. it appears as though they distinguish the 2 lines by different lengths of the heater as well. Do some checking into both and make your decision on what is important, price or warranty.
I have had several 110 hydro soil heaters over the years. I cannot measure any real difference in my electric bill when they are on. We kept one room almost 80 degrees for an aged person.
I've used them in apartment building they saved me a lot of money
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