Off topic - Tankless Water Heater

[CowFish]

I have a small leak in my natural gas water heater and want to get someone out here to look at it right away before it bursts.

Before my husband passed away he said the water heater would need replacing someday and we would probably get a tankless. The one we have now is a tall one and is 40 or 80 gallons, I can't remember which. My husband said we would have the new heater mounted on the outside of the house next to the bathrooms. On the other end of the house is the kitchen and he said we would put a very small (one gallon?) heater under the kitchen sink. Is that a good plan?

Can you give me advice on a tankless heater?

I have a plumbing company that has done some good work for me. They are high but all the plumbers seem to be. Should I get two quotes or just go with the one I am familiar with?

Thank you.

[Debijo]

Tankless are nice, we had an electric one in the house we built. You will never ever run out of hot water. And you arent using any power to keep the water in the tank hot. Having two, one for the kitchen would be amazing I think! It will take some getting used to as adjusting is a bit different than with a regular hot water heater.

It wouldn't hurt to get two opinions, maybe giving some preference for the company you know and trust. At least that way you will know just how expensive they are, and it may be that they aren't that expensive at all. A bargain is not always a bargain.

[caffeinatedcfo]

We did this two years ago and we love it. We just did one unit - a Rheem.

Helped lower the gas bills too!

[6PtStar]

My daughter just talked to a plumber about going tankless. He told her the new ones do not have to be mounted outside the house or even be vented any more just mounted in a well ventilated spot like the garage. Hers could be mounted in the same spot as her tank model and save a lot of extra pluming. Indicated one unit would carry the whole house and save money at that.

Jerry

[jdm2857]

My daughter just talked to a plumber about going tankless.

What a difference 3 letters make.

And one big question: Gas or electric?

[RogerSC]

One of the reasons that we didn't go with tankless, aside from needing an expensive one to get the flow rate that we needed, was that we would have to enlarge the exhaust flue from the one currently used by the conventional gas water heater that goes through the roof. I didn't want to mess with the roof. Electric was out of the question, due to the lack of wiring capacity, we would have to put in a larger electrical box/panel, and probably raise our electrical service entry capacity. Next time, we'll revisit the expenses in relation to the currently available technology, and utility supply costs. Our last water heater was put in about 10 years ago. So we'll be needing some kind of new water heater in the not too far future as well.

[mgaggie]

In Australia we call them instant or constant hot water systems. As long as you have electric/gas and water flowing you'll never run out. Oh if you are on bottled gas, keep an eye on the level, having a nice hot shower suddenly go icy in the middle of winter is not nice (yes it happened to me)

[StuUnderPressure]

I am currently looking into possibly replacing two 22+ year old gas hot water heaters (in attic) with a tankless water heater.

If your current hot water heater is already on gas, that is what I would stick with in a tankless water heater. If you have an electric tankless water heater, you will NOT have ANY hot water if you lose electrical power.

If you do go with a tankless water heater, you do not need more than one.
Just make sure it is adequate to supply the entire house.

Consumer Reports does have a report on tankless water heaters, but you do have to be a subscriber to access it. Anyway, it basically only says that the additional cost may not be worth it.

Tankless water heaters are very expensive (much more than your current hot water heater) - but I believe the convenience is worth it.

[hrc54]

Hi-

My wife & I own a tankless water heater & love it. We have ours located on the outside wall inside our garage. Ours is a 8.4 gpm.
That refers to the output that our unit is capable of. We live in Seattle. The water temperature is colder.Where you live in the country
will dictate what capacity unit one should buy.

Ours is natural gas- however, if we lose electricity we're out of luck. There's a pilot light that needs electricity.

A tankless unit needs air, gas & water. In our case, most of the cost (more than the unit itself) was in the piping. We replaced a 75 gallon
tank unit. After 7 years, the 75 gallon tank unit was effectively 50 gallons. These tank units SHOULD be drained every year. I didn't do it.
Sediment builds up over the years reducing the amount of water that your tank is heating.

Cowfish was referring to installing a very small- 5-10 gallon unit under a sink. The one big negative is the the tankless units provide unlimited
but, not instant hot water. Our master bedroom is the other end of the house. It takes 90-100 seconds to get hot water up to the master bedroom.
We were given the choice of installing a small electrically-powered 10 gallon tank under our sink in the master bedroom. We opted not to.

Tankless units are rated by gpm (gallons per minute). That's the difference between the tank & tankless units. If you have a tank you can turn on
any number of faucets & shower heads at the same time & you'll get hot water FASTER. The limit is the capacity of your tank- generally, 75 gallons.
By contrast, tankless units will provide UNLIMITED hot water as long as the demands (faucets & showerheads) that are on at the same time are lower than the
capacity of the unit.

Would I make the investment again?? in a heartbeat.

Bob

[Goofproof]

I am currently looking into possibly replacing two 22+ year old gas hot water heaters (in attic) with a tankless water heater.

If your current hot water heater is already on gas, that is what I would stick with in a tankless water heater. If you have an electric tankless water heater, you will NOT have ANY hot water if you lose electrical power.

If you do go with a tankless water heater, you do not need more than one.
Just make sure it is adequate to supply the entire house.

Consumer Reports does have a report on tankless water heaters, but you do have to be a subscriber to access it. Anyway, it basically only says that the additional cost may not be worth it.

Tankless water heaters are very expensive (much more than your current hot water heater) - but I believe the convenience is worth it.

Finally some sanity, I want one but due to the overpriced product, voted it down asnot cost effective over time. We have hard water here as do most places, tank electrics start burning elements after two years, the tankless would probably act the same, at 4 times the cost, it would be insane to switch. Jim

[StuUnderPressure]

Finally some sanity, I want one but due to the overpriced product, voted it down as not cost effective over time. We have hard water here as do most places, tank electrics start burning elements after two years, the tankless would probably act the same, at 4 times the cost, it would be insane to switch. Jim

Yes, if I would look only at the cost I would not be buying one either.

But, when I factor in the convenience & the ability to supply "hot" water to many users all at the same time, "I" will probably buy one.

1st - I would otherwise have to replace two (2) tanks so the price difference gets a little bit closer.

2nd - All of my children live all over the USA.
But at holidays & other occassions, they have a tendency to return to the roost.

With the added wives, husband, & grandchildren, they don't all stay at our house - but quite a few do.

Now some of them will take night time showers & baths, but the majority of us prefer morning showers & baths. That is a lot of demand for hot water at the same time.

Even though we have 2 tanks at the moment, only 1 of the bathrooms is on the 2nd tank along with the clothes washer & kitchen (including a dishwasher).

The rest of the bathrooms share the same tank & the hot water runs out pretty quickly.

Also, keeping the water hot in 2 gas hot water heaters burns a lot of gas when no hot water is needed. Same for when we leave for the day or a few days.
The gas saved by using a tankless will also offset some of the additional cost.

I have no delusions that I can save enough money to offset all of the additional cost of a tankless. But, what I don't save I consider the cost of the "convenience" factor (i.e. not having to schedule the use of the showers, baths, clothes washer, & dishwasher).

It also helps that I do NOT have hard water, so I am hoping the tankless will last a little bit longer.

I am not rushing into this anyway as I 1st have to replace my 22 year old Central A/C & Heating (a much more expensive endeavor, by the way).

[jencat824]

I think its a great idea to go tankless. The only ones in my area yet are electric & with the electric bill I have, I will wait for the gas. For some reason in my area elec is more expensive that gas to operate. I have a $400+ monthly bill in the summer & still only $250-300 in the winter,. My gas bill runs around $40-50 bucks year round, so its gas for me!

You may want to take that into account as you make that decision about gas or elec - what is your current water heating method & is one cheaper than the other in your home/region.

Good luck.

Jen

[BlackSpinner]

My grandparents had one in The Netherlands in the 60's - that was some hot water! They converted a closet to have a shower and sink.

I had an oil fired one about 20 years ago as part of the furnace. It was great for showers but hot baths in the winter - not so much - the incoming water was too cold.

[Eddie Fasolino]

By contrast, tankless units will provide UNLIMITED hot water as long as the demands (faucets & showerheads) that are on at the same time are lower than the
capacity of the unit.

So the widely ballyhooed, "you will never run out of hot water with a tankless" is not true if the unit is not properly sized for flow.

You could actually say, "you will never run out of hot water with a properly sized tank unit."

We have a 120-gallon tank gas fired and have never run out of hot water. Our house has six baths. Even when the power was off for four days in a cold winter we had hot water all the way through. With a tankless we would have lost hot water as soon as the power went out.

I had considered the next unit would be a tankless but now with this thought I will reconsider replacing with another tank.

The only significant advantage I see of the tankless is when I go away for some time the unit is not keeping a tank full of water hot. I wish people would be objective and say this rather than acting like their tankless is nirvana.

Also, I see some of the installers are recommending cleaning of jets and installing a new jet kit every two years. That is probably $200 and my tank heater has not been touched in 18 years.

[BlackSpinner]

We have a 120-gallon tank gas fired and have never run out of hot water. Our house has six baths. Even when the power was off for four days in a cold winter we had hot water all the way through. With a tankless we would have lost hot water as soon as the power went out.

but the water in there is constantly getting heated and not used.

I had considered the next unit would be a tankless but now with this thought I will reconsider replacing with another tank.

The only significant advantage I see of the tankless is when I go away for some time the unit is not keeping a tank full of water hot. I wish people would be objective and say this rather than acting like their tankless is nirvana.

Also, I see some of the installers are recommending cleaning of jets and installing a new jet kit every two years. That is probably $200 and my tank heater has not been touched in 18 years.

You could probably get a batter back up for that issue.

And un touched for 18 years probably means it is running at an incredibly in efficient rate.