Tankless hot water heaters...???

[GPW]

My old home water heater (tank) started leaking ... Gotta' replace it .... I was thinking of going with a tankless model ... Anybody have or use one ???

[CARS]

I have a friend that has one under the sink in his second level bathroom. Works great. I know it takes forever in the morning for me to get hot water to my up-stairs bath.

Haven't heard too much about the whole house tankless ones yet. I have a guy that stops in for "break" every day who is a plumber and he is still installing tank heaters. (hard to teach an old dog new tricks...)

Just a guess, but I don't think it would ever keep up to my kids and their 1/2 hour long showers

[Bigwoods]

Not to be negative, but we have three at our office. At any one time only one will be working and the maintance men have not idea how to fix or even set the temp. on them. They are 6 years old but only worked for 2 years.

I am use to washing hand in a Dr. office with cold water, many times a day.

[sid]

We had a Noritz (751) installed a couple of years ago. It is a gas unit and is mounted outside. We love it... Freed up space in the utility room where we used to heat 50 gallons of water all the time, in the middle of the house, where like yours, it leaked.

It is continuous hot water, and we never run out.

We would definitely do it again.

I don't know about electric units, which are usually the ones mounted under sinks for single use. That could be what Bigwoods is referencing....

Oh yeah... we save a lot of money on the gas bill, too...

[GPW]

Thanks for the info !!!! The plumber is on the way .... guess he'll have to make the call ultimately ... and I just got a hint that he didn't care for the tankless...

[robfisher]

There are advantages to each system.

Tankless is perfect for small households. If you want to be able to have a couple showers, the laundry and a dishwasher going all at the same time it takes a huge unit with large gas piping and they are not quiet and NOT cheap. A large electric unit will require special wiring considerations. A tank will probably make more sense in that case.

On the other hand, if there are only a couple people living in the house and you don't routinely do all those things at once, tankless begins to look good. As an added bonus if you happen to travel a lot and use no hot water for days or weeks at a time and you are a small family, tankless wins hands down.

Don't listen to the sales pitch if the seller hasn't got a good understanding of your hot water usage patterns. That info is key to the best system for you.

[GPW]

Rob, Thanks ... after consulting the plumber , I had him replace the existing WH with the same model unit .... It worked out MUCH cheaper than installing a Tankless unit , that and he reported some "problems" with units he'd installed in the past ... Again , it was a situation of Good and Bad for the tankless...

Given this extra time (and keeping the wife Happy) I'd like to experiment with Solar ... maybe starting with a simple unit for one of my trailers ...

[toypusher]

My old home water heater (tank) started leaking ... Gotta' replace it .... I was thinking of going with a tankless model ... Anybody have or use one ???

We have had a Rinnai for a couple years now and really like it. We have 2 bathrooms and the longest run for the pipe is about 20 feet so the hot water gets there pretty quick for that and quicker for the closer bathroom and the kitchen is the closest. It is designed to use 3/4" pipe and our old house only have 1/2" so it takes a bit longer than if you redo the pipes.

Ours is gas btw and so was our old 40gal tank water heater. Way less on the gas bill now.

Oh, yeah. We paid about $1800 installed a couple years ago.

[Mark & Andrea Jones]

Hubby installs AND services the Rinnai's, but there are a couple of things that you've got to watch out for on tankless water heaters.

1. The best ones are gas-fired (natural gas or propane) and need to be installed by a certified installer that understands the gas loads involved (ie. sizes the gas piping properly). Electric tankless waterheaters for the whole house are not worth the money - but may be worth it for camping. We install and service the Rinnai because they are the best quality and the most efficient - and no, they're NOT cheap.

2. Finicky. Yes, they can be finicky - if they are installed on well/spring/munipal water that is UNTREATED and has hardness/iron/etc in excess of the manufacturer's recommendations. (Yes, there ARE manufacturer recommendations for water hardness.) Have your water tested to find out what is going thru your pipes. Replacing a heat exchanger is expensive when it clogs up with lime - and may not be covered under the warranty. You will also have problems if your installer does not properly size the gas piping.

3. Understand that if you have long runs of pipe in your house, you will need to install a hot water recirculating loop. You will likely have delays in getting hot water.

4. Get to know who is the service provider in your area as you may be calling him/her to service the unit annually or bi-annually. Our recommendation is to flush the units annually with vinegar so that it dissolves any calcium / lime.

On the flip side, these are extremely efficient units and can be well worth the price in cost savings.

AJ
www.clearcreekwaterworks.com

[halfdome, Danny]

Thanks AJ for the honesty on the electric units. We have considered one for several years but were told by a friend our water has too many minerals in it and it would plug up.
Gas is not an option unless we want to foot the bill of hooking up to a gas line that's behind our property and across a street. We would have to replace the dryer and oven to gas to appease the gas company .
Danny

[Wolffarmer]

" Tankless hot water heaters "

GPW, why do you want to heat your hot water? Going to run a steam engine?

Sorry, just a little something I can't resist to bring to peoples attention. My youngest sister still has not forgiven me. She says that now it just jumps right out at her when she sees it



I have seen major authors do the same thing. Steven King comes to mind

Randy

[GPW]

Wolf .... Got me on that one ...

[rowerwet]

I put in a Paloma Tankless 4 years ago. only had problems once and they shipped me the circuit board it needed and covered the cost of the repair for free (Paloma is Rheem). It is nice to have plenty of hot water as I have three girls and a wife who love hot showers. the Rheem units come with a remote thermostat that allows you to set the water temp and never have to turn on the cold water faucet.
A woman I work with got a Noritz but when the electronics failed she couldn't find anyone to fix it, even with the part right there! one plumber unplugged the unit while working on it and it froze up solid (most tankless heaters have electric freeze protection built into them) and burst. Noritz is a good unit but not supported in many areas of the US. My Rheem was worked on by a trained tech from my gas company as there isn't an installer for them nearer than new york.
The latest thing to look for with tankless water heaters is condensing type, they have a second heat exchanger in them that preheats the cold water, the exhaust from them is vented with PVC pipe as it is about 85*F, the exhaust from my propain heater is over 180* and requires a stainless vent pipe to stand the heat. The Rinnai is a condensing unit.
the Bosch ones I saw have a pilot light which seems to work against the savings of a tankless.

[GPW]

Row , what I'm getting on this end is a lot of plumbers have little experience/confidence with these , although I can remember my Grandma having a gas tankless unit ... some time ago ... They do seem to require a more technical minded plumber.. one who has gone well beyond the 3 basic rules of plumbing ...
If I were doing a new construction , I might have to really consider something like tankless.... as an addition to a Solar unit ... more a rainy day solution ...

I wonder how all this applies to TDs ... would be nice to have a tiny tankless unit to supply a reasonable amount of hot water... Probably have to run shore power , and it still might be too many amps ...

[caseydog]

I had to replace my water heater a few months ago, and the cost of going tankless was mind boggling -- at least where I live.

I got three competing estimates, ranging from $4,200 to $5,500.

I could get a top-of-the-line tank heater installed for $1,200.

I found a web site that would calculate the annual savings on my gas bill, and it was about $75 per year. It would take me 40 years to recover the additional investment for tankless, at that rate. I'll be 90 years old in 40 years, if I am still around. And, I doubt that any water heater will last 40 years.

CD