We got a gas tankless hot water heater for our house almost 2 years ago, and we absolutely LOVE it. There are a couple of things to consider when choosing to go tankless:
- Where do you live? We live in Texas, where the water temperature rarely goes below 40 F. Tankless water heaters can only heat up the water so many degrees above the existing temperature. If you start with really cold groundwater, you likely won't be happy with a tankless.
- How many hot water "outlets" do you have in your house? My house has 4 bathrooms, plus the washer, kitchen sink, and dishwasher. Most people fail to buy a tankless water heater big enough to handle a "max hot water usage" scenario. They buy a tankless that can't heat enough water at once. For my house, we made sure our heater could handle all four showers running at the same time, plus either the dishwasher or the washer. We've never had a problem getting enough hot water, and I know we've had three showers going plus the washer and dishwasher several times.
- Do you get "instant" hot water now? Before, we had two tank hot water heaters, and we always had to run the water for at least a minute, sometimes a LOT longer, in order to get hot water at any tap in our house. With the tankless, it might take a few extra seconds to get hot water, but now it takes about the same amount of time to get hot water anywhere in the house. If you're used to instant hot water, you might not like tankless.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
