How a Water Heater Booster Can Increase Your Hot Water Output

March 19,

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Blog post by Mike Henry, Rheem® Plumber Support Technical Trainer and Master Plumber

There are some ways to get more hot water out of an existing water heater without upgrading its size. You can raise the temperature up from the factory setting of 120° to 140° and then add a mixing valve that mixes the overheated water with cold water to make that stored hot water go further. There are some downsides to that option though so I&#;d recommend a water heater booster in many cases for long-term cost savings and reliability.

What Is a Water Heater Booster?

Working off of Rheem&#;s tankless electric water heater platform comes &#;the Booster.&#; The Water Heater Booster is a Rheem-exclusive tankless electric water heater that is installed directly onto the hot water outlet of a tank-type water heater. This can either be done during a new tank install or installed onto an existing tank. The power needed to energize the Booster is the same power that is already powering the tank. No new power source is required, which is a game-changer!

How It Works

The existing power is routed into the Booster and then from the Booster into the tank. The Booster then acts as a switch, or controller, of this new water heating system. For the most part, the Booster does nothing, except to allow water to flow through itself. However, once the temperature of the water passing through gets down to a pre-set activation temperature, it switches the power &#;off&#; to the tank and simultaneously &#;on&#; to itself. That power is now delivered to the heating element contained in the Booster&#;s heating chamber, which is part of the waterway that the tank water is travelling through.

Most single-element tankless electric water heaters can&#;t produce hot enough water to meet the flow rates created by shower heads or sink faucets because the temperature of the incoming water is too low, or the flow rate is too fast. There&#;s just not enough time to heat the water up from a low inlet temperature to a higher desired outlet temperature.

For instance, to increase your home&#;s incoming water temperature to a comfortable shower temperature (somewhere around 108° to 112°) is almost impossible with a small electric tankless water heater. There&#;s only so much power you can apply to it and it&#;s travelling through the heater&#;s waterways too fast to be able to raise the temperature up to where you want it. The Booster, however, is installed right at the outlet of your tank. Therefore, it&#;s not subjected to those lower inlet temperatures. The water coming out of the tank has already been heated.

Controlling Your Booster

The Booster is fully programmable for when you would like it to come on (activation temperature) and what temperature you&#;d like it to produce (outlet temperature). Let&#;s say for instance we set the activation temperature to 108° and we set the outlet temperature to 120°. Also, we have our tank temperature set at 120°. When someone uses hot water, such as taking a shower, the water coming out of the tank is 120° and being sent to the shower valve. Once there, it&#;s mixed with some cold water to lower it to the optimal 110°, or so, that most of us shower in.

Soon, the water coming out of the tank drops to 119°, and then 118°, and so on. Eventually, if they continue to shower, or they complete their shower and the next shower begins, the temperature of the water coming out of the tank will reach the activation set point of the Booster, which we said was 108°.

As soon as that happens, the inlet thermistor located in the Booster will tell the control board to redirect the incoming power from the tank to the Booster itself and begin heating the water travelling through it. At this point, it only has to make up a temperature differential of 12°. The Booster can do that with little effort. As the showers continue there will come a point that it cannot maintain the outlet set point. By then, more than likely all of the hot water needs have been met.

Once the Booster cannot meet the set point demand, and the water is turned off, it will revert the power back to the tank which will go through its normal reheating/recovery process. The idea is to only have the Booster provide this extra &#;boost&#; of hot water during higher than normal demand. Otherwise, it just sits and does nothing. This causes the Booster to be extremely low maintenance and have a long product life. And as long as it isn&#;t operating, it isn&#;t using any energy and therefore not costing the homeowner anything. This means lifetime operating costs are significantly lower than when using a higher set temperature and a mixing valve.

Increasing Your Hot Water Output

By adding the Booster to an existing tank, it&#;s like increasing the size of that tank by approximately 45%. For example, a 40-gallon tank would be able to deliver the equivalent of nearly a 60-gallon. A 50-gallon would convert to almost a 75-gallon and an 80-gallon would give almost a 120-gallon equivalent! It also makes more sense than adding a second tank, since that would require bringing an additional power source to operate it, not to mention taking up additional space!

Again, the Booster uses the existing power at the tank and never uses that power at the same time as the tank. It&#;s also pretty easy to install, so it&#;s a small investment and a great way to overcome those &#;running out of hot water&#; instances that come up from time to time. Another good use of the Booster is when a 40-gallon tank is required, but there is only room for a 30-gallon tank. By installing the 30-gallon and adding the Booster, the hot water needs are more than met without having to make room for a larger (or second) tank. The Booster also makes a great companion to a low-boy tank, since these are usually put in when there are extreme space issues.

Three Options for Increasing Output

Here&#;s a breakdown of the three ways to increase your hot water output.

1. Increasing the tank temperature will provide more deliverable hot water but the process creates a lot of negative impacts.
2. A mixing valve works great at providing more deliverable hot water without increasing tank size, but essentially leads to a shorter tank life because of the higher set point temperature. It also lends itself to needing more frequent maintenance and repair/replacement.
3. The Rheem Water Heater Booster also works great at providing more deliverable hot water without increasing tank size and does so without negatively impacting the tank with higher set point temperatures. This allows the tank to live to its fullest potential lifespan. It&#;s also an inexpensive and low maintenance product.

Mike Henry is one of Rheem&#;s technical trainers for plumbers. He&#;s a third-generation plumber who managed his own business for many years and enjoyed working in the field. He maintains his Master Plumber licenses in Georgia and Florida.

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Booster

• New Colors
• Old Colors
• Nameless

Tier:

Tank ID:

4

23

Upgrades from:

Upgrades to:

None

Weapon(s):

Cannons (5)

This article is about the original Diep.io Booster. For the Arras.io equivalent, see Booster.

For the Boss based off of this tank, see Fallen Booster.

The Booster is a Tier 4 tank in Diep.io. It upgrades from the Tri-Angle at level 45.

Design

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It has a total of five Barrels. Four of them are at the back with two pairs close together made for the accelerators which shoot weak Bullets and one Barrel in front of the tank which does moderate damage. The angles between Booster Barrels clockwise from the front cannon are: 135º, 15º, 60º, 15º, & 135º.

The only visible feature that differs from the Tri-Angle is that it has two more Barrels on the back, and is, therefore, faster, because of recoil.

Technical

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Base Stats

Health Regen

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Max Health

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Body Damage

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Bullet Speed

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&#;

Bullet Penetration

&#;

Bullet Damage

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Reload

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Movement Speed

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Recoil

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Upon upgrading, this tank adds two barrels at the back, further increasing its recoil and by extension, while shooting, Movement Speed. The Barrels at the back shoot weaker and faster Bullets that last only for 1.5 seconds instead of 3 seconds. This tank has recoil that speeds the tank up while going forward when shooting but has a horrendous backward Movement Speed while firing because the Booster&#;s back barrels work against the tank&#;s reverse thrust.

Strategy

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• Strong Against: Low DPS/RoF tanks, Slow Smashers/Melee Tanks if they have low health, unprepared Drone classes
• Weak Against: High DPS, Skilled Drone Players, High RoF tanks (such as the Twin tree, Gunners, Auto Gunners, Fighters, Trappers, Destroyer branch), Smasher branch (when they have full health).

As the Booster

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• Because of this tank&#;s speed, the Booster can be one of the hardest tanks to kill, depending on the attacker&#;s skill/Stats and the target&#;s maneuverability/skill/Stats. It is also one of the few tanks that can go up against an Overlord, Overseer, Manager, Necromancer, Battleship, or Factory as its speed allows it to outmaneuver the enemy&#;s Drones.
• A commonly used strategy with this tank is to dive in, deal damage, dodge Bullets and retreat before the enemy can kill the player. This tank is well known for its ramming capabilities, as it can use its fast speed to crash into enemies easily. This is particularly useful against tanks with slow Reload and Bullet Speed, as the player can circle them and easily avoid the Bullets.
• However, this strategy usually doesn&#;t work against high DPS (Twin classes especially and Machine Gun classes) tanks, as it is difficult to push through their rapid-fire Bullets to make contact with them. If the player gets too close, they can simply push the player back and destroy the player with their Bullets. However, sneaking up to these tanks vertically and running into them before they can react may work.
• Another option is a bullet spamming Booster. With maxed Bullet Damage, Bullet Penetration, Bullet Speed, and Reload, the player becomes a threat due to double concentrated fire on the back, with a head cannon to clear the way. However, this makes the player very vulnerable, as the player lacks defense&#;if the opponent lands some hits, the player can quickly die. The Fighter, however, is a more appropriate choice for this strategy.
• A third option as a Booster is to get high Bullet Damage, Bullet Penetration (but not Bullet Speed), Movement Speed, and medium/high Max Health and Health Regeneration and attack low-level tanks. Players can chase them down and kill them with their Bullets. They will probably assume the player is using a Body Damage build and try to avoid the Booster itself instead of its Bullets. This strategy can work well against Level 45 tanks, since the player&#;s high Damage and Penetration can easily deal damage and kill them.
• One very important reminder: avoid Octo Tanks and Triple Twins. When players see them, they should quickly evacuate, as touching the Octo Tank/Triple Twin with high Body Damage will certainly kill the player. Octo Tanks/Triple Twins without Body Damage usually focus on Bullet Damage, meaning that the player would probably die even before reaching them. However, the Octo Tank has 8 small gaps where a Booster can ram them from, so by simply running to those gaps, the player can avoid a lot of Bullets, while also getting a chance at destroying the Octo Tank. A Triple Twin has far larger gaps, making it easier to kill one. Nevertheless, only skilled players should attempt this.
• Players could use a rammer build in Domination and camp by enemy Dominators; using high speed, players could ram the enemy guards. But be careful with enemy tanks in the Destroyer or Smasher branch (especially Spikes), they are very dangerous to Boosters. This also works very well for Tag.
• In Team Game Modes players can use their superior speed to chase an enemy and place themselves between the enemy and their base, cutting off their escape route.
• Note: The Bullets fired from the back Barrels shoot Bullets that are five times weaker than the Bullets fired from the front Barrel but have high recoil in return, so don&#;t rely on them to damage enemies.

Against the Booster

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• The most effective counter against the Booster is by using Traps to lock down an area, or using a high DPS tank.
• Another effective counter (unless they are a bullet build) is to simply bait them as a Necromancer and then kill them. However, skilled players may not fall for the bait and could even kill the player.
• If the player is not going down the Trapper route, then the second-best way to deal with Boosters is through raw Bullet damage output. Using the Destroyer, Annihilator or the Hybrid's massive Bullet will instantly kill any non-Body Damage based tank, and even these ramming builds lose over half of their health. However, since most Destroyer bullet builds don&#;t max out Bullet Damage, it may only take down a third of a rammer&#;s health and a quarter of a Smasher&#;s health, this means that the Booster has another chance to escape, like all rammers.
• If the player is skilled, an Overseer is an effective counter. Players should keep their Drones very close, slowly moving the Drones towards the Booster to surround it. Players will often survive and with minimum losses. However, it is of paramount importance that the player not let the Booster come between their body and their drones; otherwise, the Booster can get to them before the Drones can and kill the player. If this happens, then you have a chance of dodging them, then have your drones return, however.
• Tanks in the Twin branch (not including the Auto 5 or Battleship) or the Sprayer could spam plenty of bullets at a Booster most likely overwhelming the Booster even if it has extreme Body Damage and Max Health. This especially works for a Triplet since high Reload and Bullet Damage quickly adds up.
• Tanks in the Gunner branch (except for Streamliner and Gunner Trapper) are very effective against Boosters. Despite the tiny bullets being weaker than a Machine Gun&#;s, the Gunner has a very high Reload and Bullet Speed, which could drain a rammer&#;s health in just 10 seconds.
• Always approach Boosters by the side, blasting it with bullets using high reload. The same cannot be done against Fighters because they have cannons on side. If you don't have high reload, use Movement Speed and run around the booster in a wide circle, shooting while at it. Tip: In Team Modes, have more teammates join the Assault. Boosters cant handle multiple rammers as the rammers will run into both sides, with one rammer each side. A class that could prove useful is the Trapper class with Trap Speed and Movement Speed maximized. You can create multiple barriers and have a teammate shoot the Booster.
• The last, and by far the simplest way to deal with them, is to simply avoid them. Use the Sniper branch&#;s high field of view to avoid them. If the player just spawned/respawned next to a hungry Booster, they should invest as many points as possible into Reload and Movement Speed and get out of there. If the player is a low-level Tri-Angle, the player should use their Movement Speed to evacuate (or ram the Booster if it has lost at least 1/4 HP).

Trivia

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• The Booster is faster than Fighter and Tri-Angle tanks of the same level.
• The recoil from the back cannons were likely to be an inspiration to its name.
• Along with the Fighter, it is one of two names submitted by fans to be given to a tank in-game.
• The Booster, along with the Tri-Angle, and the Sprayer are the best Classes at avoiding the Arena Closer.
• The rear barrels of the Booster (alongside the Tri-Angle and the Fighter) has one of the lowest base Bullet Damage in the game. Each projectile fired is as durable as one of the Streamliner.
• A ram-build Booster (With full Body Damage, Health Regeneration, and Max Health) has about 1/4 the health of an Alpha Pentagon.
• The Booster, along with the Overlord, are the only two tanks to have Bosses named after them (the Fallen Overlord and Fallen Booster).
• A Booster with maxed out reload and movement speed is the second fastest level 45 tank. The fastest is the Annihilator, which is barely faster than the Booster. Source

Gallery

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1st Place With Booster (Red team)

Two Boosters fighting each other in Sandbox. Notice the yellow names.

A Booster being chased by a Booster in Sandbox.

The Booster using its recoil to gain speed.

A booster in a base.

...in new colors, nameless

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