Tankless hot water heaters

[nkjzmom]

We came home from WDW to find our hot water heater had been leaking and needs replacing. DH is considering the tankless version. We have a big family and go through alot of hot water...showers/baths/laundry/dishes. Does anyone have experience with a tankless heater? Will it keep up with our use and does it really save us money in the long run?

TIA!!!

sorry to post and run...gotta go to parent/teacher conferences.....

 

[jenny2]

We have a tankless and haven't run out of hot water. We're not on town water (we have a well) and we don't have enough water pressure to do 2 things at once ( like shower and run the washing machine ) so I can't comment on that. But I know DH wouldn't go back to a tank water heater!

 

[Ava83]

We are interested in this for the new house, is this like the instant hot water thing?

Edited...maybe they are not...

I have heard its great.

 

[Cindyluwho]

I saw these for the first time when I traveled to Belarus. And no, you don't ever run out of hot water because it heats it right as it's headed for the sink/shower. Also, you're not wasting money having the water in your water heater staying heated all the time. I'd love one in my house but alas, our home has a new gas water heater so it won't be anytime soon.

 

[jenny2]

We are interested in this for the new house, is this like the instant hot water thing?

Edited...maybe they are not...

I have heard its great.

No... it actually takes a little longer to get the hot water because it only gets heated when you need it. So yes, there's not a big tank of water continuously getting heated. Ours is in our furnace (it's a Peerless brand) - there are coils of tubing running through the furnace that heat the water when you need it.

 

[Cindyluwho]

No... it actually takes a little longer to get the hot water because it only gets heated when you need it. So yes, there's not a big tank of water continuously getting heated. Ours is in our furnace (it's a Peerless brand) - there are coils of tubing running through the furnace that heat the water when you need it.

That's interesting. The ones I saw were completely instant. There was a gas flame right that you turned up or down depending on how hot you wanted it. The rig was about 15" across and maybe 24" high.

 

[Tiggeroo]

they are pretty much instant. Maybe you need to run your water for a minute but I don't think so. DH and I have an hvac business. He thinks these are great.

 

[Denine]

Has anyone done a cost analysis? I would love to know how much the savings would be per month. Our house is only 1 year old, so it won't be for some time, but DH is interested.

 

[Towncrier]

The only ones that I've ever seen are the ones they have here at work that run on 220V rather than natural gas. When they are working, the hot water is there instantly.

The bigger advantage for new homes is that you only have to run a single supply line for cold water rather than separate hot/cold lines. That being said, I do not have any firsthand experience with anything other than the ones installed at work.

 

[Tess]

We installed a Rinnai system about a year ago. We had a huge tank type water heater (gas) and it decided to die after only 9 years of use. I have shoes older than that!

We love our system--never, ever runs out of water because it's on demand AND water pressure is no different than when we had the tank. We can run showers, do laundry, run the dishwasher, etc. and everyone has hot water. We have had extended family members visit (11 in total) and the only thing we ran short on was towels!

I haven't run a cost analysis, but I do know that the gas bill is certainly less over the past year. I'm not sure I buy into all of the claims that the system makes about the economy of its use, but its cost was only a couple of hundred more than replacing the "tank" we had owned.

 

[Tiggeroo]

If you go to the manufacturers web site you should be able to get a payoff analysis. But I've seen these for alot of equipt. over the years. They payoff time is generally quite long. Unless you are unhappy with what you have or you are dealing with aging equpt. I don't think it's going to pay for itself for awhile. In a home only one year old I doubt I'd do it unless I had insufficient hot water and was going to make some sort of change. Then it's useful to look at the payback time for two different types of equipment to decide if one is worth the higher cost.

 

[Brianne]

We got ours close to a year ago (our gas company offers a payment plan, which helps a lot because they can be very pricey). It's installed on the outside of our house, which was nice because it freed up space in the garage where the heater was.

One of the main reasons we switched was because we were constantly running out of hot water. I don't have a huge bathtub, but it is one of your standard garden tubs (not a jacuzzi type though), and our old water heater couldn't fill it up with more than lukewarm water. It wasn't a small heater either!

I can't say we've seen a huge cost savings, but we are able to run two showers at the same time, or a shower & the washing mashine (or dishwasher) without running out of hot water. Considering I hate cold showers, it was worth it to me.

 

[nkjzmom]

Thanks for all the info! It sounds like a good option for us....we've never struggled with water pressure or running a few things at a time, but our oldest son has started taking morning showers and after our 3 showers we're out of hot water. And it will save some space.

 

[QT Pooh]

I've had both the tankless and the tank. The only problem we experienced with the tankless was if you have 'hard' water, the coil tends to corrode more quickly than it should - it was a $400+ replacement. Only stayed in that house for a few years so I don't know how old the system was or if the new owners have had any trouble.

 

[malibuconlee]

One question to ask is what is the quality of water in your town? If it's good you'll be OK, but if it's really hard, nasty water, do without.

We lived in SD and the water was really hard (same thing in my in-laws town here in Iowa - they go thru hot water heaters every few years) one of the plumbers on our project said it wouldn't be worth the extra cost considering they're more expensive if you have to change it out every few years.

I have a friend who has one in their new house. They have had some problems with it. The last time we stayed there she kept having to re-set it because the water never did get cold. They also have the warm water that runs thru the pipes in the floors for heating I believe.

Yes it will take a couple of minutes for the cold water to flush out of the pipes and the warm water to get to it unless the insta-hot is right there at the faucet (I've seen this in a gas station restroom recently).