I am going to be running new plumbing through my house this spring, and with that I plan on replacing the hot water tanks. (For reference I have a duplex so everything is times 2)
I’d like to know if anyone had a tankless heater installed and how they feel about it. Most importantly I’d like to know what the cost was to install it, or if you installed it yourself and how hard it was.
With the rebates at $350 for the tankless water heaters, they are about half price now.
They are definitely are worth the money there either on or there off so you are not wasting money heating water that may not be used
Make sure you upgrade the gas line feed going into it. My cousin the contractor installs these and he’s had several jobs done by others where people say their tankless sucks because they ran it off of a standard-sized gas line, and because they only kick on when needed and heat a lot faster, they draw a lot more gas at one time.
They use a lot of gas when running. Mine uses a 3/4" propane line. The burner is over 100,000 BTU/hr.
I like mine. My house has one since I have no space for a hot water tank. You can set the temp on a digital display. I used to set it at like 107 so I could shower on full hot. Now I leave it on the max (120) for laundry.
The only downside is it takes 20 seconds or so to get hot water. Thus you need to turn the water on before you piss if you want to wash in warm water. I’ve gotten used to washing my hands in cold water most of the time.
what is yours daily use? how many fixture points?
Its fine if you have low fixture count, but if you have anything that is a major draw a tanked water heater will be more efficient. There are a lot of pro’s and con’s, but if you have a long hot water run you will also save money by installing a recirculation loop.
Fine Homebuilding had a long article on this. As great as it is, they were often not more cost efficient; people take longer showers since the hot water doesn’t run out, so they still end up paying the same lol.
I’m not sure if I’d give a tenant one, around here landlords usually pay water and this would up the charge
however I have one and personally I would never want to go back
Someone told me they did one of those mini hot water heaters in conjunction with one of the tankless ones and it’s great. I guess they liked it because you got instant hot water from the mini tank and the tankless heater refills the mini tank much faster so you never run out. Not sure about their savings if there even were any.
it only takes maybe 50 seconds to heat up the water. I heard it’s almost instant normally, it’s just that I’m on the third floor, and there are 2 bathrooms, laundry, and a dishwasher hooked up to it throughout the house
I have been looking into getting one, but I replaced my tank 5 years ago and it wouldn’t make sense to switch it out unless the tank started going bad.
You can get some of them on Ebay for fairly cheap, some of the brands are weird off brands, but they have good reviews.
Here is the thing with a tankless hot water heater… You need to run a 220 line to them, at least the ones I was looking at you did. This is in addition to the upgraded gas line.
For a duplex or whatever, you are better off just putting a 30 gallon regular gas hot water tank in there, and writing it off on your taxes.
Get a 10 percent coupon off lowes, and you can do it for much cheaper unless you do all the work yourself.
but in your own apt i would def go tankless
The more I read about these the more I think I’ll probably get one when the time comes. My house had an option for dual 55 gallon tanks and the previous owner only got 1. We run out quickly.
If you enjoy a great shower with any of the older shower heads that don’t meet the US 2.5 gpm limit you’ll probably hate a tankless. When the old shower head I had broke the wife and I tried several new ones and hated all of them. We ended up ordering a high flow one from a company in Sweden on eBay and now any time people stay over they mention how great our shower is.
Also keep in mind how cold our incoming tap water gets here during the really cold winter months. These heaters can only bring the temp up so many degrees as the water is flowing through and a common complaint I saw when looking into them was in the cold winter months it was hard to get real good hot water for a shower.
^When I first moved into my new house the shower was TERRIBLE but I just took the little blue piece out of the shower head with needle nose pliers. Voila! tons o water.
I have a front loading washer so it only takes like 2 drops of water to wash clothes BUT my washer is about 60 feet from my HWT so I have to run the hot water in the wash tub for about a minute to get hot water to the washer. So much for saving water.:bloated: My shower is at the other end of the house so it takes time for hot water there as well. The powder room is directly above the HWT so you scald our hands in aboot 2 seconds.
I am not sure what this has to do with tankless but, just remember this whenever you install something. I might actually get another heater.
put in a recirc loop, it will solve that
I did a bunch of research before I replaced my water heater. I went with a tank. You only get the National Fuel discounts and tax breaks if you pay a pro to install it. Well, legally anyway.
But you only get a temperature rise, so as mentioned you might not get hot water in the winter. It takes a long ass time to heat up, so if you have a woman that likes taking baths and adding a little hot water every so often to warm the bath up then she’s going to hate you because she won’t be able to take baths anymore, word is the gas ones are LOUD (hear it throughout the house, piss off the neighbors) because they burn HARD for a short period of time instead of just keeping a tank warm, you’ll probably have to run a 1" line to it, etc etc etc.
I can still see the appeal, but I went with a tank. They’re a bit less efficient, but way better to live with.
My parents just built a 3500 sqft ranch. They used a tankless heater and have zero problems with getting hot water over very long runs. I’ll get one when my current tank shits.
any idea if one would work on an apt builing where the heat provided is hot water/boiler?might have to buy a larger unit or wouldn’t it work at all?
I just got back from Home Depot, and was very impressed with the guy (Bruce) and his knowledge. Here are the pros and cons.
Pros:
Cheaper gas bills. He had one in his house and compared the summer utility bills with the tankless and without. Said it was about a $20 difference between the two, which was a little less than half. (Thats with 2 people: showers daily, washer twice a week).
Takes up less space in basement.
Cons:
Tankless heaters are supposed to last 20 years but he’s been seeing them be replaced in as little as 3 years due to the electronics going bad.
You have to purchase the venting system which is not included and costs $298.
You cannot vent the system to the outside if there is a sidewalk or a driveway on that wall. Reason being, the exhaust is hot and can burn someone if they touch the metal exhaust pipe. So it must be vented to a grassy area away from traffic.
The vent has to be 4 feet away from windows and the electric and gas meters.
We in the Cold Climate areas have to buy the heavy use models (more money) because the temperature of the water coming into the house is so much lower than the typical 60 degrees in the southern parts of the country. The ones that are rated for one major application at a time, will not cut it.
Electronic ignition, no hot water during power outages.
Have to run a larger gas line, at least 3/4" from the meter.
Require a plug in power source.
So with that being said, I think I’m going to go with a tank water heater. Since I am upgrading my furnaces to High Efficient, I will need to figure out if I should get the power vent hot water heaters, or a normal hot water heater and have my chimney lined.
^How old was his tank? That can make a huge difference.
Like when K&N air filters claims to add 10 hp, maybe over an old dirty filter. lol