Hot water heater

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Mars80
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Hot water heater

Postby Mars80 » 2015-08-31, 20:53

Why is this term so common? It makes no sense. You don't heat hot water. If the water was hot already, it wouldn't need to be heated. I've heard this term frequently, even by plumbers.

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linguoboy
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Re: Hot water heater

Postby linguoboy » 2015-09-01, 17:51

Could be a munging of "water heater" with "hot water tank", since the most common type of water heater seems to be the storage water heater, which consists mainly of a large tank.

At the end of the day, it's just a name. It doesn't have to "make sense".
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Re: Hot water heater

Postby dEhiN » 2015-09-14, 20:44

I always have thought of it as "(hot) water heater", meaning the main noun phrase is "water heater". So in this case, to me, it's a water heater that makes the water hot.
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