Tell me about tankless water heaters

[qtwns]

Hi--Dh wants a tankless water heater. I have heard both wonderful and horrible things about them. Any advice/opinions are welcomed. TIA!

 

[jlder72]

Lived in London for two years and that is all they have over there. Never had any problems with it, it was actually in my kitchen right above my 1 machine washer/dryer, but thats another story.........

 

[karibritt01]

All I can tell you is my DH works in an engineering firm, and they will not use them in buildings unless the client insists on it. I don't know the reason they don't like them... only that they don't.

 

[DrCavin]

Would be the only way to go for me. Just be sure to get it sized correctly for your household.

 

[momrek06]

We built our Boston home in 2005, and DH is a design engineer, he made all those decisions and he chose tankless!!! We have been very happy with it!!

 

[moburg]

Hi--Dh wants a tankless water heater. I have heard both wonderful and horrible things about them. Any advice/opinions are welcomed. TIA!

Well, they are water heaters, but they are tankless.




Ok, seriously, I have one and love it. But it does have some downsides too.

Pro:
- Lower power/gas bills. You aren't constantly heating 40 or 50 gallons of water. It's heated only when it's needed. My gas savings is roughly $20 a month!
- Never run out of hot water. In fact, the more showers, or dishwasher, etc in use at one time, the better it is for the flow rate (see con below).

Cons:
- A certain flow rate is needed for the heater to kick in. So a lot of cold water with just a touch of hot, may not be enough to trigger the heat on the hot water line.
- It takes a little longer to first get hot water, so you use a little more water. (cost is more than offset by the power/gas savings).


The "trick" you learn quick for warm water, is to go full on hot until its hot, then back off to add in cold. Thats the most efficient way to use it.


More on the flow rate. The annoying part to me is somewhat due to my preference for a warm shower, not a hot shower. My wife loves a full on hot shower, so she has no issues. In the winter, the water in from the street is colder, so its easy to balance with the hot water, keeping the hot water flow rate up to give me my warm shower. In the summer, the street water is warmer, so I need less hot water, pushing the hot flow rate down and shutting down the tankless heater. So I have to take quicker showers before the hot water already in the pipes (from going full hot at the start) runs out and my shower goes cold.

 

[Alison Wonderland]

I have one and I don't like it. If it hadn't been so expensive I would go back to a traditional water heater. It takes FOREVER for the water to get warm--I hate to see all that wasted water. Also the water does not get nearly as hot as my old water heater so during the winter I feel like I am taking a lukewarm bath or shower--NOT enjoyable. I did notice a very small decrease in my gas bill but it is not enough to make up for how much I dislike and regret the tankless water heater.

 

[eeyore65]

For those of you waiting for hot water - you may need a hot water accelerator. We have a big house so when we have peak demand times - morning and evening - we have the accelerator on and I get hot water instantly. If your water doesn't seem hot enough you may need to adjust the temp up. I lov eit - because to satisfy all th eneeds of my family we would have needed a big hot water tank or two. The load is easily handled with one tankless.

 

[Alison Wonderland]

My hot water heater is at the maximum temperature. ( and the company that installed it refused to put it at that temperature--I had to call the company and get instructions and have someone else do it for me)

 

[eeyore65]

Alice - wow that stinks - it really sounds like there may be something wrong with it or the installation. I see you are in New Orleans - so your base water is probably not even cold! Did you ever have someone test to see the temperature out of the tap?

 

[MnMomtoboys]

When we looked at doing it we were told that we would need a seperate circut breaker for the heater. Not something we could do since it was the day after Thanksgiving when the water heater busted.

 

[rwdavis2]

Consumer Reports won't recommend them. If I remember correctly they don't think they are up to the job.
Bob

 

[moburg]

I have one and I don't like it. If it hadn't been so expensive I would go back to a traditional water heater. It takes FOREVER for the water to get warm--I hate to see all that wasted water. Also the water does not get nearly as hot as my old water heater so during the winter I feel like I am taking a lukewarm bath or shower--NOT enjoyable. I did notice a very small decrease in my gas bill but it is not enough to make up for how much I dislike and regret the tankless water heater.

Mine has a thermostat on the unit. So you can set the temperature of the water. Ours is at 120°, but could go higher.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Good thread, thanks for starting it OP. We are in the market for a new hot water heater this year too so the posts are interesting to me. Ours hasn't broken but my MIL has been issuing dire warnings about the age of my house and the life of a heater, throw in all her stories about damage and I'm willing to accept her suggestion to get on the ball. So this year they still have the tax credit so I think we'll bite the bullet in the early winter so we get a close turn around for getting the money back with out Tax Return. I'm in the same position as the OP, I've heard lots about the tank-less but since it's new I'm unsure. Are there any brands people prefer over others? One person mentioned an accelerator, does that come as a part of the ddevice or is it an after market ad on? I'm also intrigued by the complaints of not getting enough hot water though because I'm not positive I understand the complaint. Isn't the whole point of the tank-less heaters that you can never run out? My DD is 11 and takes ridiculously long showers that drain the tank so with both my kids' teen years a heartbeat away I thought it could possibly be worth the investment to not be yelling at my kids and suffering cold showers for the next 7 years of my life. If it makes a difference we all like hot showers here which is why our current 40 gal tank is inadequate. If I don't do something I can see scheduled shower shifts in my future

BTW, here in the NE we don't have the drought issues people on the West Coast do so conservation isn't applicable unless a drought warning has been issued, you use it - you pay for it - it's an easily renewable resource here so no worries.

 

[msmayor]

Tankless installation estimate was $5,500. Tank replacement $1,100.

$4,400 difference.

At $20/month in energy savings (posted by another person) it would have taken 220 months, or 18 YEARS, to recoup the extra costs.

The reason for the high cost? Extra venting required, larger gas line, increased cost of equipment.

I stayed with a tank.

 

[Kies99]

We just put a large addition on our house (including a new master bath). We did not change our water heater at this time, however we talked with our plumber (who is also our neighbor) and he said he recommends that if you go with the tankless then it's a must to get a small resevoir tank on the side. I guess this will hold hot water so you will get instant hot water when you turn it on. Something like 2-5 gallons (if I remember correctly) is the size of the resovoir so by the time it empty's, the tankless heater has warmed the new water.

We will look into this in the next few years as I have 2 DD's (9 & 7) so I'm sure I'm going to need it!

 

[CF'er]

DH and I just talked about this the other evening. He says they now have units that mount outside so there is no extra venting required. Because of this he is wanting to get one.

 

[moburg]

Tankless installation estimate was $5,500. Tank replacement $1,100.

$4,400 difference.

At $20/month in energy savings (posted by another person) it would have taken 220 months, or 18 YEARS, to recoup the extra costs.

The reason for the high cost? Extra venting required, larger gas line, increased cost of equipment.

I stayed with a tank.

It was only a $1000 difference for me. A choice when building new.

 

[minniecarousel]

We are extremely happy with our Noritz tankless water heater which we had installed last November. It's mounted outside. However, the one problem we had was that it took waaay too long to deliver hot water. So we had the metalun(sp?) recirculating pump installed in the master bathroom. You can hear it working and when it stops, hot water is available.

One of the reasons we installed tankless was that we were getting tiny white particle residue in our water faucets. It was a royal pain to take off the faucet strainers and flush them, along with yearly draining the water heater. The other reason is that we will be selling in another year or two and it would be a great selling feature in this neighborhood.

 

[kinntj]

Don't know much about either one, but DH said the boyscout in him loves the tank of water (for whatever reason).