Tankless water heaters??

[shellyfive]

Does anyone here have a tankless water heater???
Was wondering how many thousands of dollars I need to have hot water if I shower last!!! I know they still have a rebate until Dec. , but how much was the unit and how much is the install???

 

[lunalibre]

I've got a tankless hot water heater, and I absolutely love it. However, there are some very important factors to consider before buying one of these:

- First off, I live in Texas. The ground never freezes here, and it's very rare for the water temperature to drop below 40F. Tankless water heaters work by heating the water up by X degrees, and realistically, there's a limit to how big a number X is. Some of our yankee friends replaced their (admittedly older model) tankless heater with a tank one because they couldn't get their water hot enough. Unlimited lukewarm water is not what you want.

- Having a tankless hot water heater doesn't mean instant hot water...it just means you never run out. Overall, I'd say it takes us ~30 seconds longer to get hot water at any tap over what it used to take with our old tank water heaters. It's not a big deal to us, but it could be for some people.

- A lot of folks make the mistake of not buying a big enough tankless heater. We have one tankless water heater for our whole house. We have 4 full bathrooms, kitchen sink, dishwasher, and washing machine. When we sized the water heater, we made sure it could support running all 4 showers at once...or 3 showers and either the dishwasher/washing machine. Does that happen often? No. But the people I know who aren't happy with theirs figured "Oh, I'll never be running that many showers/dishes/laundry at once", and yet they don't have enough hot water because they weren't realistic about their usage.

- One thing I have noticed is that if we do have, say, all 4 showers running, then we don't have quite as much water pressure as we did in the same situation with the tank water heaters. However, it's been worth having slightly less water pressure to have enough hot water.

Overall, this is a situation where you want to consult with a plumber who has a lot of experience with tankless water heaters. Ask them about their experiences with the tankless water heaters. If they don't bring up the bad with the good, call another company!!!!

Feel free PM me with any other questions.

 

[KS Dis Mom]

I had a Nortiz Tankless HWH install 2.5 years ago and LOVE IT !!

I use to work for a plumb/HVAC/electrical company. We live in a small town in Kansas with AWFUL Water (very hard).

The cost we quoted to customers was between $3,000 to $4,000 for the tank and install (we did not sell just the tank). The price will depend on where the HWH will be install. The tankless models must have their own dedicated flue run. The closer the unit is installed to an outside wall, the less flue needs to be run. Repiping and Electrical also has to be done when installing this unit and usually took a day.

It is also suggested that you have water softener if you have a tankless HWH.

We figured (for our part of the country) that it will pay for itself (with the tax credit and gas savings) in three years.

I could go on and on about great it is, but I won't.

You will never have a cold shower again!!!

 

[silmarg]

I am in Westchester County NY. I have Oil Heat (steam) that had a coil in it. So in the winter I use that as my hot water source... and I also had a gas fired tank hot water heater - that was used during the non heating season. Just as heating season was going to start (and I would switch from the has water to oil) the tank broke. So I had the luxury of time (until spring) to come up with an alternative to the tank.

I decided to get a Rheem gas fired tankless hot water heater. I bought the largest residential unit they made at the time (I have only 2 full baths, but since my water runs naturally cold... I needed to get the max temperature "rise" that I could get).

Since I had a few months to get it installed, I decided to do it myself. As a previous poster mentioned, you need special flue and the placement of the unit takes a bit of consideration.

All said, I paid approx $1200 for the unit, $300 for the flue components (and I had a very small run... the flue pipe was crazy expensive) and probably another $100-$200 of other supplies (copper pipe, valves, etc).

I read the manual about 50 times, learned to sweat pipe... and after a several weeks - it was successfully installed! That said, there was one afternoon (when I cut into my water lines) that I thought I may have been in over my head!

But it works great.

I did once have a really nasty blackout that blew out a bunch of electronics including a fuse on the mother board of the Rheem.

 

[garydeb]

We are also thinking about getting either a Nortiz or Rheem tankless systems. Is one better then the other. We do know we have to vent in the roof and have to angle the flue pipe because of the valley of the roof is over where are existing hot water tank is located.

Thanks for you help,
Debbie

 

[silmarg]

You dont have to vent all the way to the roof. You can vent thru a wall provided its a certain distance from windows, etc.

Look at the installation manuals for flue placement. The piping is expensive, so try to keep as short a run as possible.

 

[LSUmom4kids]

- Having a tankless hot water heater doesn't mean instant hot water...it just means you never run out. Overall, I'd say it takes us ~30 seconds longer to get hot water at any tap over what it used to take with our old tank water heaters. It's not a big deal to us, but it could be for some people.

I'm glad I read this! We don't have a problem with running out of hot water in our house.

Our master bath is the farthest away from the only water heater and takes a long time to get hot water; especially on cold mornings! I hate having to run the faucet so long and waste all that water! I thought getting a tankless hot water heater would mean we would get hot water faster! I guess I was wrong!

Perhaps we need to have a second hot water heater installed in the attic directly above our master bath. Wonder how that cost compares to the tankless hot water heater? No rebates on those though...

 

[silmarg]

I'm glad I read this! We don't have a problem with running out of hot water in our house.

Our master bath is the farthest away from the only water heater and takes a long time to get hot water; especially on cold mornings! I hate having to run the faucet so long and waste all that water! I thought getting a tankless hot water heater would mean we would get hot water faster! I guess I was wrong!

Perhaps we need to have a second hot water heater installed in the attic directly above our master bath. Wonder how that cost compares to the tankless hot water heater? No rebates on those though...

Hot water must travel from the heat source to the faucet that is open - no matter if its a tank or tankless system.

I have seen a small electric hot water heater that you can install in the farthest demand point. But I have no experience with those...

 

[TLuvsD]

The bathrooms in our house are the furtherest possible distance from the water heater. We have a gas tank heater, DH recently installed a circulating pump on the water heater. It has a timer, which we can set several ways, so now we have instant hot water in the bathrooms in the morning (we shower) and the late evenings (DD showers). It has made a HUGE difference for us, we don't run the shower forever trying to get hot water. It was about $150 or so and Dh installed it in less than one hour. Love it!

 

[wbarkhur]

I may be a little bias because my husband installs tankless water heaters, but I love mine. There are seven of us, myself, DH and our five kids, so there was always someone without hot water, and so we LOVE that it is not an issue anymore. I also love not having to worry about running out of water if i am trying to do laundry and dishes at the same time.

If you are looking into getting one do your home work, all brands are NOT made equally, we researched and studied a bunch of brands when we were looking into selling them, and found quite a difference in the quality of the products and their warrenties.

And also don't forget that tankless water heaters will qualify you for the $1500 tax credit also.

 

[adkkev]

And also don't forget that tankless water heaters will qualify you for the $1500 tax credit also.

The tax credit is UP to $1500 ... it's based upon the total cost of your unit/installation.

We installed a tankless system last year (natural gas), and while we do have to wait a short while for the hot water to reach our shower (we have only one bathroom in our 4 bedroom house - house is 90+ yrs old), we no longer have to worry about running out of hot water. And our gas bill dropped significantly.

Our heater is vented out of the side of our house, from the cellar. Just like our furnace.

 

[pl71]

I'll be the voice of dissent, we have had one for 9 years and I hate it. Ours is a Seisco.

When it works, it's great. We have no problems with demand, water temp is good, water pressure is fine.

Ours has broken 3 times in 9 years. When it was 18 months old, the plastic body developed a pin head leak, which shorted out the circuit board. The parts where under warranty, but they didn't play for labor. We replaced half the body, then the other half developed a leak. The company told us they must have had a bad processing batch. So we replaced the second half of the body. Now it operated but the water temp would randomly fluctuate between lukewarm to scalding then back again within seconds. They decided the leaks must have caused a short in the circuit board and sent us a new one. For all these parts (during our warranty) we had to pay almost $800 in labor costs and went without hot water for over a month as they shipped us parts one at a time to see if they could repair it for their minimal cost.

4 years later, it developed a leak in a different part. Again we had to wait about 2 weeks to get the replacement part and paid about $200 for that repair.

It broke again about 6 months ago. Another 2 weeks to get the part. That one we were able to repair ourselves having seen it done some many times now, but after the repair it started leaking again from one of the gaskets. My non-handy husband was able to repair that on his own with parts from a local hardware store, but I'm not at all confident it'll hold. I turn off our hot water heater now while on vacation, I live in constant fear of leaks.

The big problem is that no one carries parts, you have to contact the company and have them send you what you need. They never answer their phone, and they have no internet ordering option. You have to pay phone tag with them and it takes at least a week to actually speak to customer service. Then they order your part, charge you overnight shipping, and it arrives 3 days later because it comes from Mexico. Since you don't know when it will really arrive, you have to take off work and try to schedule a plumber at the last minute, or go ahead and do without hot water for another week.

I would replace it with a standard heater but we have no room. Our house was built with it in place and has no area for a regular hot water heater.

Be very cautious about the brand you go with if you get one. Hopefully there are better brands than what we have.

 

[brymolmom]

There are pros and cons....

We've had ours a long time - so likely technology has improved...but it does take a long time for the water to get hot - longer than the 30 seconds someone else quoted - maybe more like 1 minute or a bit more for really hot- and I HATE wasting that much water. I RARELY wash my face at night with hot water. Unless dh has just brushed his teeth (he always keeps the water running - I HATE that)...

BUt, that said - we have a 2 person jacuzzi tub and can make it as hot as we want - even too hot sometimes, because we don't run out.

 

[seashoreCM]

You can run the inlet pipe to the tankless heater circuitously as as multiple zig zags across the basement ceiling so the water gets preheated and the heater can then deliver more water to more showers and faucets going at the same time.

Going through the finned pipe dissected out of a baseboard forced hot water radiator will preheat the water faster with fewer zigs and zags.

 

[wbarkhur]

There are pros and cons....

We've had ours a long time - so likely technology has improved...but it does take a long time for the water to get hot - longer than the 30 seconds someone else quoted - maybe more like 1 minute or a bit more for really hot- and I HATE wasting that much water. I RARELY wash my face at night with hot water. Unless dh has just brushed his teeth (he always keeps the water running - I HATE that)...

BUt, that said - we have a 2 person jacuzzi tub and can make it as hot as we want - even too hot sometimes, because we don't run out.

Technology has improved some, thankfully, but if this is really something that bothers you you can get a small four gallon water heater and put it right under your sink to heat the water right there. it is not a lot of water but it will cover that space of time until your hot water can get to you. Also you could put in a circulation pump to help get the water to you faster check out gothotwater.com it you want to know more about a pump and what it does.

 

[ceecee]

We have a large tub as well and I love that I can fill it and still have hot water left with the Tankless. I don't notice a difference in how long it takes to get the hot and we live in a cold climate.

 

[jackie101]

- Having a tankless hot water heater doesn't mean instant hot water...it just means you never run out. Overall, I'd say it takes us ~30 seconds longer to get hot water at any tap over what it used to take with our old tank water heaters. It's not a big deal to us, but it could be for some people.

- A lot of folks make the mistake of not buying a big enough tankless heater. We have one tankless water heater for our whole house. We have 4 full bathrooms, kitchen sink, dishwasher, and washing machine. When we sized the water heater, we made sure it could support running all 4 showers at once...or 3 showers and either the dishwasher/washing machine. Does that happen often? No. But the people I know who aren't happy with theirs figured "Oh, I'll never be running that many showers/dishes/laundry at once", and yet they don't have enough hot water because they weren't realistic about their usage.


We had one in our brand new 4 bedroom house & we hated it. Never had enough hot water. We switched over to a regular hot water and we loe it

- One thing I have noticed is that if we do have, say, all 4 showers running, then we don't have quite as much water pressure as we did in the same situation with the tank water heaters. However, it's been worth having slightly less water pressure to have enough hot water.

Overall, this is a situation where you want to consult with a plumber who has a lot of experience with tankless water heaters. Ask them about their experiences with the tankless water heaters. If they don't bring up the bad with the good, call another company!!!!

Feel free PM me with any other questions.[/QUOTE]