Any tankless hot water heater users ?

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Mark Rutt

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I am looking to replace my 14 year old hot water heater before it goes south on me. I was wondering if anyone has a natural gas tankless hot water heater unit installed or has heard any feedback about them or any specific unit?

I'm not sure if I will go that route or just stay with the standard tank models.



Any feedback will be appreciated.



Thanks,Markr
 
Thanks for asking the questions, Markr...I am interested in the answer too. Our 8 year old HW heater will need replacing, and given that we have a finished basement the lower liklihood of a leak (long term) with the tankless seems appealing.
 
my boss use one.. he swears by it... except you have to make sure you put a water filter before the heater to prevent future clogging issues... other than that, he said he has never had any shortage of hot water anymore. whether he use all his fauset and 3 showers at the same time.

just make sure you get the a high btu rated unit.
 
Are tankless units more energy efficient than the standard tank units. I would think that the extremely high heating capacity to meet the demand for hot water with multiple faucets/showers used simultaneously would decrease the efficiency. I'm interested to learn from this topic myself.



As far as the standard tank units go, most people don't know that by simply replacing the anode every few years it will greatly extend the life. The anode prevents corrosion in the tank, but as the anode wears away, the water corrodes the tank instead.
 
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My brother sells log homes for a living. He uses nothing but the tankless heaters. They are more efficient as they only heat on demand and take up much less room.



He swears by them.
 
Lil Red, they are supposedly much more efficient that tank heaters. It makes sense when you think about it... while it may take a little more energy to heat the water that fast, you only heat the water when you need it, and then only the amount you need. If you think about it, you probably only have hot water running maybe an hour or two each day. For the other 22-23 hours, your heater is having to maintain that 50+ gallons of water at whatever temperature you have it set on, just in case you decide to take a hot shower.
 
They are good and use less energy, BUT if you have a family of 4 or kids you may need more water on hand then you think.....



Just make sure the burner is sized for the water your going to consume...



I personally went with a super store system, Uses the burner, but doesn't have its own heater element and I have 60 gallons all ready when I want...



Great for the Hot water hose bib I have out side...



Todd Z
 
I have one in my new house. Only downside is the hot water runs slower then I'm used to from a hot water tank, but I NEVER run out of hot water (takes 25 min to fill my jacuzzi bath tub).
 
Make sure it's sized right for your potential uses. Especially if you live in the north and have a surface water source. Water temperatures can get down to 33 degrees some years, and that cold of water has to be taken into consideration when sizing a unit.
 
I had them overseas. They work great as long as you have good water pressure. In Turkey, we sometimes had low pressure. When the pressure was low, the heat would not kick on and you'd have to take cold showers.
 
I like long hot showers, but I hate the idea of using all that water just to make me happy. So I installed these tiny little stainless steel shower heads that only allow 2 gpm. They still feel like they are under pressure so it doesn't feel like a low-flow shower head. I've never run out of hot water, even the time I fell asleep in the tub trying to kill a cold with hot steam, and we only have a 30 gallon hot water tank. Apparently the burner on the hot water tank is enough to keep up when the flow rate is low enough.
 
Teasip, I don't know how they rate HW heaters, but I don't expect the sq feet of the house makes a diff. I suspect it goes by gals/min, or number of family members, etc. (# of bathrooms is a good start).
 
I thought I'd heard that only new construction benefited from getting the tankless hot water heaters (or at least that it was cost-prohibitive to retrofit most already lived-in houses). I don't remember the details of why that is though.
 
Probably the biggest problem with a conversion is that tankless heaters usually require a stainless steel flue vent pipe, and quite often a larger one that what is currently installed. So a conversion usually requires you to replace the vent through the roof. Depending how long that is could run into some expense over just the cost of the heater itself.



That being said, I still will probably convert to tankless when the existing tank needs to be replaced.
 
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UB, my gas fueled HW heater also has a stainless steel vent pipe. I assume the only one's that wouldn't would be electric heaters. Would you agree? How much larger are we talking...the current one seems to be 4" and leads to the same outlet as the gas furnace...which is vented through the roof.
 
TJR

'Most' tank water heaters are installed with galvanized vent piping. Yours being stainless steel is unusual. The most common size for a tank heater is a 3" vent with occasionally a 4" being used. The most common size I have seen for a tankless is 4".



so, most commonly the owner has to upgrade to a 4" and make it a stainless steel vent.



disclaimer - my experience is with left coast installations. may be different in other parts of the country.
 
I used Gas tankless water heaters in Germany nearly 40 years ago, and they are great! You never run out of hot water, and you only pay for they water you heated, not to keep a 50+ gallon tank of water hot all day. I never understood why we never had them in the USA until recently.



I don't have gas at my house, but I installed an electric tankless hot water heater about 4-5 years ago. The unit I got required 100 amp service, so I had to pull two 50 amp 220 volt circuits to the utility closet where the old hot water heater was, and installed a small breaker box.



The electric units work, but nowhere near as good as the gas units. The water does not get as hot unless you turn down the volume of water coming out of the faucet. That moves the water through the heater slower, and let's water get hotter. I eventually took the electric unit out and put in a conventional 50 Gallon hot water tank unit.



I may look at going to a gas tankless unit and putting in an LP tank to run it.



...Rich



 

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