Tankless water heater

[Fastrunner]

Both of my water heaters (upstairs and downstairs) need to be replaced and I was thinking of getting those new tankless ones. Has anyone here had any experience with these? I would appreciate any comments, recommendations, brands, sizes, etc.

Many thanks in advance.
:smile:

 

[White92]

I had the same question awhile back and just found my old thread from it. I never got it and kept the same old water heater, but it still might help you a little. http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100808&highlight=water+heater

 

[davidf]

Nick, keep us posted on this please sir. I want one since our water heater is about 16 years old. By the time everyone takes their 30 minute showers at home I'm left with cold water. I may be doing this soon.

 

[adrenaline_nsx]

Nick, we own a plumbing business. we have those tankless water heaters in stock I could get you a good deal on parts and install.lemme know

 

[docjohn]

Before you buy make sure you know what your maximum demand of hot water in Gal/min is so you don't undersize your unit.

 

[cparsons]

They are great. More expensive to install (by quite a bit) but will be worth it by paying itself off after a certain amount of usage. Uses more gas the two hours a day that it's on, but none the other 22 hours of the day.

 

[Briank]

Tank less water heaters have small advantage in energy usage but there much higher cost make recouping the difference in savings nearly impossible.
Stay with a standard style water heater.

 

[enkrypt3d]

Why not just heat your water via solar instead? ITS GREEN!!!

 

[steveny]

Be prepared to put in a larger electric panel if you are thinking of going with an electric on demand. The electric units draw a MASSIVE amount of current and if I remember correctly they need ~100amps of power to operate.

In my other house I have a Propane on demand unit and it works very well. The cost saving if there is any really isn't there. For me I needed massive amounts of hot water to fill the bath tub and didn't want to run multiple tanks to do so. I could put up some pics of the parties I had in that bath tub but I would probably be banned. Six people could fit in there.

Over all I really like the on demand water heaters. You can stay in the shower for ever if you want and NEVER run out of hot water.

To the poster who said he was running out of hot water after a couple of showers you may only have one out of the two elements working in your water tank if it's electric. You could also have a bunch of sediment in the tank as well which reduces the usable amount of storage space for water.

 

[White92]

Be prepared to put in a larger electric panel if you are thinking of going with an electric on demand. The electric units draw a MASSIVE amount of current and if I remember correctly they need ~100amps of power to operate.

In my other house I have a Propane on demand unit and it works very well. The cost saving if there is any really isn't there. For me I needed massive amounts of hot water to fill the bath tub and didn't want to run multiple tanks to do so. I could put up some pics of the parties I had in that bath tub but I would probably be banned. Six people could fit in there.

Over all I really like the on demand water heaters. You can stay in the shower for ever if you want and NEVER run out of hot water.

To the poster who said he was running out of hot water after a couple of showers you may only have one out of the two elements working in your water tank if it's electric. You could also have a bunch of sediment in the tank as well which reduces the usable amount of storage space for water.

How about we ban you for NOT posting them? :biggrin:

 

[NSX-Stalker]

Worthwhile if you have a tub like Steveny's :tongue:

 

[xory72]

We recently built a 4000 sq foot house with three full baths and we batted around the idea of a Tankless. Once we decided we were going tankless, then the decision was gas (propane) or electric. We chose electric.

We got the largest electric one we could find at the time (the brand is Tankless Inc. out of Florida) which needs 3 - 50 amp circuits for it to run it's three heat coils. However, once the water gets hot, it drop off coils as all three are not needed.

So the immediate power draw is big, but then drops off coils once the Tankless senses the hot water. We have no problem with three showers running or dishwasher + 2 showers etc. W also decided to place the Tankless in the middle of the house so the feeds to all taps was the same.

Here is a comparrision to our neighbours in electric bills;

Neighbors have a gas tankless water heater, gas appliences, 2 Zone electric HVAC and a 3000 sq ft house)
Power bill is approx $190.00 / month
Gas bill is approx $85.00 / month

We have electric Tankless, electric appliences, 3 Zone electric HVAC and a 4000 sq ft house.
Power bill is approx $220.00 / Month
Gas Bill is approx $ $4.00 / month (Gas Fireplace)

I think the Tanless is very efficiant. Tankless also had a lifetime warranty on the parts of the unit at the time we bought. I am not sure if that is still avaiable, but we got it and was a big reason for going with this unit and brand.

Visit their website at http://www.hotwaterheater.com/

If any of you have any questions, please PM me anytime.

Good luck!

 

[flaminio]

Tank less water heaters have small advantage in energy usage but there much higher cost make recouping the difference in savings nearly impossible.
Stay with a standard style water heater.

For me it wouldn't be about the cost -- it's the unlimited hot showers that are most enticing about a tankless heater. Every morning is a race to the shower, because whoever's last gets a cold one. But not everyone has two daughters that love their long showers.

I would use that as a deciding criteria -- cost generally seems a wash (so to speak).

 

[Jerry@Mobile]

I have a propane gas tankless heater in my home. I have never run out of hot water. It was expensive. I also have a weekend condo that has an electric tankless heater. At the condo, we would either keep a 40 gallon heater on all the time or turn it on when we arrived and wait a few hours while the water got hot. Since the condo is at the beach, the water in the tank would get a sulphur smell if left in the tank for any period of time. The tankless heater put an end to that. I would not go back to a tank heater. Jerry

 

[Ben]

In Asia, tankless has been the norm for years as many places simply don't have room for a tank. What I like about them as someone else pointed out is that you never run out of hot water.

 

[slamstrom]

In Asia, tankless has been the norm for years as many places simply don't have room for a tank. What I like about them as someone else pointed out is that you never run out of hot water.

Unless my wife and daughters are taking a showers, and the dishwasher and washing machine are running at the same time. The last time I looked into this, the tankless water heaters can only support 2 major appliances and 1 shower at the same time or 2 showers and 1 major appliance. Don't know if that technology has improved.

 

[Ben]

Unless my wife and daughters are taking a showers, and the dishwasher and washing machine are running at the same time. The last time I looked into this, the tankless water heaters can only support 2 major appliances and 1 shower at the same time or 2 showers and 1 major appliance. Don't know if that technology has improved.

You can either get a larger capacity one (many of the ones in Asia are gas powered), or you can install multiple units.

 

[KooLaid]

Oh man, those things are AWESOME! I used one at one of my past gf's parent's home. There were 6 people, with the shower running nonstop for well over an hour. I was the last one and my water was still hot enough to burn.

 

[enkrypt3d]

I don't get why no one is using solar energy to heat their water...... its free energy! The setup might cost a little more but isn't it worth it? If I had a house I would do this in a second...

 

[flaminio]

I don't get why no one is using solar energy to heat their water...... its free energy!

Take some time and price out that "free" energy. You can run for years on the grid for the cost of a solar hookup.

 

[YTRY]

We changed over to a propane tankless water heater about eight months ago, prior to the tankless we could never get the water hot enough in the downstairs Master bath, now it will get scalding if you let it.
We have a fairly large home, approx 5,000 sq ft with 5 bathrooms and we have never had hot water issues when using several showers at once.
We have been saving about $90.00 a month off our propane bill since installing our unit, I would highly recommend them.
The only only thing you may have to consider is, if you live in an area that has very hard water, you will want to install a water softener, tankless water heaters use a smaller heating element that you would not want to get clogged up with hard water build up.

 

[enkrypt3d]

Take some time and price out that "free" energy. You can run for years on the grid for the cost of a solar hookup.

I didn't say it was free to setup - solar energy is free for everyone once you have the equipment.

And no its not that expensive now, you can rent the equipment much like you rent the equipment for a satellite dish... you pay a small fee (much less than your power bill) each month to rent the solar panels and then you get huge tax benefits from the state of CA... its not your father's solar anymore. :biggrin:

So I don't understand why everyone isn't doing this.... to be off the grid is a dream! Just watch PlanetGreen channel on directTV and you'll get some good ideas.

 

[coolnsx]

I have a 3,000 sf two story in SoCal. I am using the tankless water heater as my heat source for the fan coils on each floor that provide the heat. Seems to be working well, much cheaper then heat pumps.

 

[steveny]

I didn't say it was free to setup - solar energy is free for everyone once you have the equipment.

And no its not that expensive now, you can rent the equipment much like you rent the equipment for a satellite dish... you pay a small fee (much less than your power bill) each month to rent the solar panels and then you get huge tax benefits from the state of CA... its not your father's solar anymore. :biggrin:

So I don't understand why everyone isn't doing this.... to be off the grid is a dream! Just watch PlanetGreen channel on directTV and you'll get some good ideas.

Solar suxs.:biggrin:

 

[tceepa]

We have a Rinnai 9 gallon natural gas tankless water heater and we love it. We'll never go back to a regular tank water system.

Over two years ago, we bought our unit on E-bay for just under $1000 and with installation (natural gas, electrical and plumbing) the total cost was only $1500.00. We're located in the freakin cold Canadian weather and it's produced hot water for us on demand. I would recommend it to all.