REFLECTIVE FOILHOT WATER TANK HEATER INSULATION JACKET DIY 'PREMIUM' KIT: ENERGY SAVING REFLECTIVE FOIL FITS 50 & 60 GALLON WATER TANKS. MANUFACTURER OF THIS KIT FOR 27 YEARS. EXCLUSIVELY SOLD BY 'JR GLOBAL SALES'

First, a description of what the item is. It is a "water heater blanket". It is supposed to slow down cooling of the water in the water heater due to heat leaking out. This particular blanket is reflective at both sides. The idea is that if you create a thin gap between the blanket and the water heater, then heat will both have great difficulty flowing through the layer of air in between (stagnant air conducts heat very poorly), and it cannot significantly radiate through the gap either because the radiation is reflected by the reflective surface of the blanket. A similar idea is used in thermos bottles. To me, a big benefit of this blanket was that there is no nasty fiberglass to deal with. And that it is quite thin, as I have little space around my heater.Second, some clarifications about what you get may be helpful. When I ordered, I was completely confused by conflicting data on the Amazon page about how many pieces of insulation blanket I would get, and their sizes. It turned out to be a single 6 ft by 7 ft piece. Besides this insulation, the package also contained a page of instructions, a length of foil tape, and a knife convenient to cut both insulation and tape. It also contained a small package containing a second piece of foil tape, a second knife, and a tape smoother. Apparently the seller had, rightly, concluded that the first piece of foil tape was not long enough, and shoved in the additional package. There were also 20 "spacers" to stick on the water heater to ensure that there is a small gap between water heater and blanket.Third, some notes about the installation. Since my tall Rheem 40 gallon water heater is 5 ft high and also about 5 ft in circumference, after covering the cylindrical part, I had plenty insulation left to cover the 19 inch diameter top and then some. Using rubber pipe insulation from Home Depot and Lowes, I also covered the hot-water-out line, as far as I could reach, and the initial parts of the cold-water-in and emergency-drain lines, **making sure not to cover or interfere in any way with the emergency drain valve**. I also put left-over foil tape around the pipe insulation since it cannot hurt to reduce any radiative heat loss from the black rubber. And it looks better.See the picture of my blanket as installed. Note that my water heater is squeezed inside a narrow storage room with a door that is normally closed. Despite the awkward, limited, access I had to the water heater, installation was not particularly challenging. It should be really easy if you can actually get to all sides.Fourth, why install a blanket? Obviously, first paying for electricity to heat water and then having this heat leak out again is a waste of money. (Do note that this waste is a lot less for twenty-first century water heaters than it was for typical twentieth century ones.) However, while saving money cannot hurt, I had a more motivating reason to install the blanket. I wanted to keep the water in my water heater warm as long as possible the next time that a hurricane or tropical storm hits or gets close to my home town. I hate cold showers. Cold water is OK for soaping myself in, but I need water at a decent temperature to flush myself off.Fifth, some warnings about installing a blanket. Installing a blanket may invalidate your warranty. Rheem does not go that far, (they sell blankets), but Rheem notes that insulation blankets "are not necessary". They do not define "necessary". Rheem also says "DO NOT cover the operating or warning labels [the long list of warnings that we all read very carefully] attached to the water heater or attempt to relocate them on the exterior of insulation blanket." Oops, too late! I took a picture of it and put it in the plastic documentation bag on the door. Rheem also says "DO NOT apply insulation to the top of the water heater. This could interfere with the safe operation of the electrical junction box." Oops. The blanket has quite a large (but somehow random) electrical resistance per unit length, but the foil tape does *not*. One can only hope that whoever opens my junction box next is smart enough to first pull the fuse or at least throw the off switch in the timer box. The final warning of Rheem is "DO NOT cover the jacket access panel(s) to the thermostat(s) and heating element(s), or pressure and temperature relief valve". As you can see, in this case I did neither. I did give some thought to covering the two grey access panels to thermostats and heating elements. But these panels are relatively well insulated already by a thick wad of foam and do not leak much heat (at least not if the heating elements are not active, like after a hurricane). Also, there was a sticker on the water heater saying, "WARNING: Thermostat settings over 125 F may cause wiring to melt if access covers are not exposed." (The heating elements that are behind the covers could conceivably be significantly hotter than the set water temperature.) While I left the temperature at the 120 F factory setting, (the EPA compromise for keeping bacteria down and not having water so hot that it is an accident waiting to happen), someone else might not.Sixth, the bottom line. How well does the blanket work? Well, all over the web you find people who tell you something like: "Touch the surface of your water heater. If it does not feel warm, you do not need a blanket." The same people typically tell you to put insulation on the hot pipes attached to the heater. Sorry, but the way you measure temperature of a surface is not by putting your hand on it! Metal is going to feel colder than it is. Instead you stick on some small pieces of masking tape and use a laser thermometer. When I did that, I found that the surface near the top of the heater (where the hottest water is) was about 9 F hotter than ambient (measured outside the closet on an adjacent wall), near the middle 8 F, and near the bottom (where cold water accumulates) 2 F. The pipes, at about 110 F at their hottest end (maximum possible 120 F), were about 35 F above ambient, which is a lot more. But it is the product of temperature *and* area that is relevant, and the effective area of the water heater is roughly 25 or 50 times bigger than that of the pipes. Since 8 x 25 = 200 is a lot bigger than 35, it appears that even for modern water heaters (mine was bought in 2021), blankets are critical in keeping in heat. (There is also a heat conduction coefficient involved, but I can give you apparently very good reasons why one would be bigger than the other and vice versa, so what?)Anyway, after installation of the blanket, the same three temperature differences are 4, 4, and 2 F, so the heat flowing out of the water heater will surely at least have been roughly halved. It might be a lot more; if I compare temperature differences with the inside wall of the store room instead of the nearby outside wall, it goes from about 6 F to about 1.5 F, a factor four improvement. However, the inside wall temperatures, while probably more relevant, are harder to measure acurately, because I must open the door of the store room to do so. (There is also the additional fact that radiative losses will be a lot smaller than the temperature difference suggests because the reflective surface will not radiate well; however, radiative losses are probably negligible here in any case.) More importantly, my installation was far from perfect, because of the cramped quarters and water lines pressing against the water heater. Despite that, heat loss has clearly been significantly reduced.

I liked everything about this. Instructions are easy to follow. Anyone with any mechanical ability can install. I covered a 60 gallon water heater and the package was more than enough to cover it top to bottom.

Perfect amount of insulation, excellent tape, follow the instructions for a perfect fit!

The hot water heater insulating jacket does a good job of providing needed insulation for our older model gas hot water heater (purchased in 1998). Be sure to check the manual and installation instructions to see if your hot water heater should be insulated with this kit. I have read where the newer hot water heaters don't require any external insulation and may void the warranty on the device. All materials supplied with this kit will fit a 50 gallon hot water heater provided you follow the installation instructions carefully. Unfortunately, I did not read all of the instructions before installing the larger 48 inch aluminum foil sheet. I cut this sheet incorrectly, but managed to completely cover the hot water tank with the help of the 24 inch sheet. This caused me to use every bit of the aluminum foil tape provided to seal the seams (With proper installation there is more than enough foil tape to seal the seams.). In addition, I later inadvertently blew out the pilot light, and this required removal of some of the insulation and tape around the pilot light box to reignite the pilot. I contacted the seller, JR Global Sales, and they offered to send me additional foil tape at no additional charge. They were both expedient and most helpful in this request. I am very please with their offer to help in a quick and professional manner.

Durable, well made. It gets the job done. I would buy it again if I ever need something like this again.

After wrapping my water heater and its outlet pipe hot water reaches my back bathroom sooner than before.

Easy to install and clean to work with. Discarded my old water heater tank and old fiberglass hot water jacket. My new hot water tank is energy efficient, however when I turn down the temperature on weekends and go to our cabin upon returning and putting the temperature back up it takes several hours to reach desired temperature. I installed the foil jacket and found that even when I turned down the temperature and returned 3-4 days later the water was still rather warm. Within an hour the Tank is back up to the higher temperature. New tanks are more energy efficient but there is still a good amount of heat loss. Just ordered another foil jacket for our cabin as well.

My hot water tank exterior was significantly warmer at the top than at the bottom. Have a solar heater and the heat elements only turn on late in the day to top off the temperature, if needed. The heater stays off at night and does have some heat loss until next day's sun. Decided this product may be worthwhile to hold the temp. It was very easy to install and my tank actually looks brand new. Hard to tell what the operating results are because there are lot of variables. But the top and bottom exterior of the tank are the same temperature now.