Hot water heaters.....

LOL...I've wondered the same thing.

This was actually the same exact question I had when I first encountered the HVAC industry. I actually edited "hot water heater" to "water heater" from some of our technical papers. Then I found out that the term "hot water heater" has been used in the industry way before I was there and therefore have to use the same term. I suppose there are other technical terms that do not make sense grammatically or are just simply redundant. However, these terms are well understood and accepted by the technical people in that specific industry. Using a term that is grammatically correct could be technically wrong.

May be they want to be double sure of it's function.lol

Oh My Gosh! And here I was thinking I was the only one who got annoyed when I hear that. I too have noticed a lot of people do that when talking about their water heater. Sometimes I just laugh and keep my mouth shut but at other times I just blurt it out...It's not a "hot" water heater. It's heat the water so it will be hot". I once heard a plumber say that and I could hardly believe my ears. Have a fun and safe New Year

Guess it is just another example of an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp or military intelligence. I think that people have become used to the term hot water heaters. They are retailed as water heaters. So maybe it is just us.

I agree with you. It's not what it's meant to be. It's funny and absurd. Well, in my opinion, they just coin those words to give empahasis to the word hot. It suggests how good the water heaters are.