Buget buster: Tankless Water Heater?

[ceecee]

Does anyone have a tankless water heater and how do you like it? We were supposed to have our new gas water heater installed and it was too big for the closet. Now DH is considering a tankless...we have had 3 estimates and some plumbers like them others do not. It's about $2000 difference in price, the last plumber said it can half your gas bill (doubt that!). There is also a rebate for the tankless of around $800 so that brings it down a little and Vectren is offering a $200.

 

[PinkRhombus]

We're planning on getting one in the fall.

Gas...for a "2-3 bathroom house"...at Home Depot was just a tad over $1000. You can pay a plumber to install it.

 

[Mickey527]

I got mine last year and love it.
You don't get instant hot water, it takes a few minutes for the water to get up to the faucet but once it gets hot it will stay hot forever. My son's take the longest showers of anyone I know and they have never run out of hot water.
I paid alot more than $1000 at Home Depot but I paid them for installation. They had to get someone to hook up the gas line and run venting outside. It did take them almost 4 hours to do all the work but it was worth it.
I put it on my tax forms last year and even though I do a schedule A it didn't get me any more money back on my taxes. Oh well, still love it.

 

[3boymthr]

DH is a HVAC tech and doesn't like them. We kept running out of Hot Water it couldn't keep up with the demand so he just replaced ours with a tank.

 

[wdwstar]

As a Owner of a HVAC Co., We love them! We have been installing them for over 20 years. We have one, for 18 years so far, never ran out of Hot Water and Im always doing laundry, running the dishwasher, kids taking 45 min. showers.
The only downfall for us, If someone is taking a shower we dont run the hot water somewhere else, cold water at the same time is fine, but again our tankless is 18 years old. There are better quality tankless out there now, you can also get a commerical tankless, then you can run all the showers, sinks, dishwasher, washing machines at the same time

I would never go back to a full tank water heater We sell a lot of tankless both commercial and Home owners.

 

[PinkRhombus]

I got mine last year and love it.
You don't get instant hot water, it takes a few minutes for the water to get up to the faucet but once it gets hot it will stay hot forever. My son's take the longest showers of anyone I know and they have never run out of hot water.
I paid alot more than $1000 at Home Depot but I paid them for installation. They had to get someone to hook up the gas line and run venting outside. It did take them almost 4 hours to do all the work but it was worth it.
I put it on my tax forms last year and even though I do a schedule A it didn't get me any more money back on my taxes. Oh well, still love it.

I'm taking you didn't have a gas water heater before? They said it would be a pretty easy swap out for us.

 

[msmayor]

We briefly considered a tankless when we replaced our original gas tank water heater three months ago.

Until we saw the price tag.

New tank heater installed $1350. Tankless? $5,500.

The big difference is the amount of labor and materials required to re-work both the gas line (too small...tankless requires significant BTU's to work properly which means a bigger flow of gas which means a bigger connection than what we had into the old tank) as well as all the venting required.

The system needs a lot of air to work properly. The would have had to run a vent to the outside running nearly the length of my basement because of how my mechanical area is configured, and the fact that my basement is finished.

I simply couldn't justify the cost.

 

[dis-happy]

I heard that tankless heaters won't work when the power is out. Is that true? We regularly get ice storms here which can cause the power to go out for several days. The one saving grace is a gas hot water heater and the ability to take hot showers during the outage.

 

[msmayor]

I heard that tankless heaters won't work when the power is out. Is that true? We regularly get ice storms here which can cause the power to go out for several days. The one saving grace is a gas hot water heater and the ability to take hot showers during the outage.

If its gas-fired and requires an electronic ignition to start the heat then I would certainly expect that it would NOT work during a power outage.

My stove/oven and dryer are all gas and use electronic ignition. Without power, I need a match to light the stove.

 

[3boymthr]

I heard that tankless heaters won't work when the power is out. Is that true? We regularly get ice storms here which can cause the power to go out for several days. The one saving grace is a gas hot water heater and the ability to take hot showers during the outage.

Actually, I can't think of any hot water system works when the power is out, unless they are powered by solar or wood pilot. Even some solar units may not work. Tankless or not. This is a safety feature to prevent the expulsion of toxic gases/fumes oil into the home.

The difference between tankless and a tank is that the water is heated on demand vs. being heated then stored. With a tank you will have water that's hot for a couple of hours before it starts cools off, eventually if the power stays out long enough you will have cold water. If you have a blanket on your water heater it will take longer to cool off but eventually, if the electricity is out long enough the water will get cold.

I can't tell you how many calls DH gets when the power is out to complain that the water is cold or the heat won't come on. Seriously, I think I've heard the power is out spiel about 1,000 times.

 

[msmayor]

Actually, I can't think of any hot water system works when the power is out, unless they are powered by solar or wood pilot. Even some solar units may not work. Tankless or not. This is a safety feature to prevent the expulsion of toxic gases/fumes oil into the home.

The difference between tankless and a tank is that the water is heated on demand vs. being heated then stored. With a tank you will have water that's hot for a couple of hours before it starts cools off, eventually if the power stays out long enough you will have cold water. If you have a blanket on your water heater it will take longer to cool off but eventually, if the electricity is out long enough the water will get cold.

I can't tell you how many calls DH gets when the power is out to complain that the water is cold or the heat won't come on. Seriously, I think I've heard the power is out spiel about 1,000 times.

My gas hot water heater works fine without power. It works off a gas-powered always-lit pilot light.

Now an electrically-powered water heater tank? Yes, that would in fact not keep the water hot in a power outage.

 

[Disneytwinz]

We are renting and have a tankless hot water heater.
We won't be getting one when we move. It takes at least a minute of running the water every time it is needed. We waste more water waiting for the hot water to start up than it is worth. Once it starts, it's fine but then if we let it sit for a bit, then try to use it again...another minute or so wait!! It's inconvenient waiting for it while cooking and showering and it actually gets on my nerves. It has a battery back up so if the power goes out we can still get hot water. I think we'll stick to the old fashioned hot water heater.

 

[Muushka]

I considered a tankless, but when I do the math, it just doesn't add up for us.

Our gas bill is $15 a month using absolutely nothing (like a minimum charge thing). When we got our new gas hot water heater, it went up to $20. $5 a month for hot water. I'm happy.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

DH is a HVAC tech and doesn't like them. We kept running out of Hot Water it couldn't keep up with the demand so he just replaced ours with a tank.

What she said. We replaced it with a regular tank. It could never come close to keeping up with our hot water demands. Now we have never run out of hot water since we changed to the tank.

 

[redlawyer]

I tried to get an electric tankless heater installed about a week ago. (The gas line stopped a block from our house). Lowe's sells them but doesn't install them. We called our HVAC company and they sent out a guy to give us an estimate to install it. WOW! It was going to be really expensive. It demands 220 volts, which would have required another electrical panel to be installed in house! As my 9 yr, old has just discovered long showers I was really looking forward to unlimited hot water, but without being on a gas line it wasn't going to work for us.

 

[adkkev]

DH is a HVAC tech and doesn't like them. We kept running out of Hot Water it couldn't keep up with the demand so he just replaced ours with a tank.

We have never run out of hot water with our tankless hot water heater ... and that's running the washing machine, dishwasher, and shower at the same time.

Our entire cost was $3100 dollars (tank, installation, and supplies for the hookup). It's gas. The tax rebate came to $940, and came off the total amount of federal income tax that we owed for the last year.

 

[KandiB47]

I love our tankless water heater. Like others have said, it takes a couple of minutes for the water to heat up but the hot water lasts forever. It cost me about $1200 after I bought all the venting and everything. I have a brother-in-law who does heating and cooling work and he installed it for a case of beer It honestly has cut my bill in half.

 

[extremesoccermom]

My brother had one and loved it for the first 15 minutes. It ran out of hot water after that. He upgraded to a bigger waterless tank when he got married. Now he is very happy and recommends it.

 

[seashoreCM]

Tank type gas water heaters without the energy efficient bells and whistles do not need electricity and will keep working during a power failure.

When the incoming water is very cold or when hot water is used in several places at once, a tankless heater will have a harder time keeping the water temperature up. You may be able to install 20 to 40 feet of finned baseboard forced hot water radiator pipe (minus the radiator housing) in the cold water line (now made more circuitous) going to the tankless heater and that will preheat the water. Mount the finned pipe on the basement wall or ceiling but not where someone's head or body may touch the sharp edges of the fins.

 

[minniecarousel]

We had a Noritz tankless last November. We didn't really love it until we had a recirculating pump installed in February. Now we have instant hot water for our showers. We plan to sell our house in a few years & feel that, in our neighborhood, it'll be a good selling point.