Tankless Water Heaters

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Ignatius

1,000+ Posts
Anyone have any experience with these? For various reasons I need to relocate my existing water heater (about 12 years old), and it seems more economical to just install one of these rather than re-run lines, etc. From all the literature they sound like the best thing since sliced bread, but do they work as well as claimed?

I'm doing research on my own, but any comments as far as effectiveness, cost, models/manufacturers, and/or installers in the Austin area would be most welcome...
 
Electric or gas? How many and what type of water usage points do you plan on using at the same time? Im not sure what you mean by re-running lines, do you mean that an electric tankless wont need a gas line? The problem with the electric ones in existing construction is that even a smaller one that can handle something like a shower will require a 240volt connection and possibly an upgrade of the whole electrical service to your house. In new contruction that is not as big of a deal.

Id say the problems with gas (have had one for 10 years) is that they require more maintenance than a tank. Given my experince id say the gas tankless doesnt end up paying for itself because of the higher up front costs and the higher maintenance costs. But it is nice to have endless hot water, no tank to leak, and lower natural gas consumption.

I hear Rinnai is the best brand, but I dont have any experience with them, I dont recommend Bosch.
 
What maintenance do the gas tankless water heaters need?
And it is really a "never run out of hot water" benefit? I have heard some say it might not keep up with a long, hot shower (?).
 
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NO you can not just tap into a 220 volt line, if there is one close by. It already has a purpose and it is rated for that purpose only.

Electric tankless water heaters are one of the biggest demand consumption appliances I know of. For a normal size house, you would need one that required around a 100 amp circuit. Granted, the consumption is only on demand, but it would require an upgrade of your main electrical service just to accommodate the demand time.

I highly recommend against an electric on demand WH.













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I have an electric one, and have been less than pleased with it. One element has already failed. Fortunately it's under warranty.
And it sucks power like a mofo.
But if it fails, it won't leak water like the tank did.
Yes, it's the Bosch.
 
I have an electric tankless water heater and love it. Love it mainly because the extra space it gave me (an extra closet). The only negative is that it takes longer for water to warm up in the winter, but the warm water lasts forever. Otherwise, no problems. No complaints. Glad I made the switch.
 
they have not perfected the electric yet so i would steer clear.
the rinnai are outstanding.

this does not help the op but to answer the question about whether they have endless hot water the answer is yes. you need to stick with takagi or rinnai and do not get bosch or any of the brands sold at depot/lowe's.
 
I have the rinnai gas and love it, the only issue I had is that after Hurricane Ike when we didn't have electricity it didn't work as it still has a small electronic component to control the temperature thus it didn't work without electricity.
 
I did, and the only thread on the subject with any level of detail was 2 years old. Does it disturb your browsing experience that someone might want first-hand information that's a little newer? Rather than posting thoughts about the upcoming OU game in On The Field, should I just read a post about the game from 2002?
 
the tankless will run without electricty on a battery backup, but obviously that would only work for 6 or 7 hours.
 
One other thing to consider is venting. When our tank WH went out a few years back I was seriously considering going w/ a tankless gas unit. Unfortunately it would have cost something like $1500 to install a wider diameter vent pipe thru the roof (we have a 2 story & the WH would be located in the garage).
 
I'm under the impression venting is only an issue with gas models, is that not the case?

It looks like I'll probably end up holding off, there's no gas in our neighborhood so my only option would be electric...
 
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Correct...only gas WHs have to be vented. I think you are smart to not go with the tankless if your only option is electric...there is just no way for them to be efficient. For a normal size house you need 20kw which is 83 amps. I would guess your main electrical service is 200 amps, so every time you called for hot water, you would literally be using half of your available power. If you happened to have your clothes dryer and your oven operating together with the WH, you would basically be using the entire 200 amps...not even considering a refrigerator, MW, lights, etc.













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Good point on the venting, we had to put in a wider diameter vent for our gas unit.

We have a bosch gas unit, 8 years old or so, not bought at lowes but maybe its of the same quality. At first we had issues with the pilot light not lighting, the pilot light then lights the main burners. After screwing with it for a good deal of time I finally discovered that simply bending the pilot light sensor closer to the flame fixed it, but that was after screwing with it for a long time. Now we are having issues with the burner going out during use, real pain in the ***.

Most likely after 5-10 years the valve system will have to be rebuilt, which unless you are quite handy someone else will have to do it. In our instance part of the unit has to come off the wall, water piping taken apart, new seals installed, a few small parts replaced, etc. The parts were about 75$, but I'm sure a tech would charge at least 150 in labor to do it.

I will say that my experience would most likely have been better with a different brand.

IMy point is that the electric units require less to no maintenance. Its interesting that someone said one of their heating elements failed in an electric one. But I imagine it was relatively simple to replace, working on the gas untis is not simple. If you check the manual on the gas units it will say they need to be inspected by a tech annually and perhaps even cleaned out, scale build up inside the heating element, decreasing its efficiency.
 
Also

The top of the line gas untis will provide for more hot water flow then the top of the line electric, from what I have seen. I dont think there is an electric that can handle 3 sources running at the same time. Depending on the shower flow it may be a stretch for one of them to handle a shower and the washing machine at the same time in teh winter. I say winter because the heater will have to heat the water more degrees in the winter, and it may not be able to do so for two high flow points of use. You will definitetly need to look into that.
 
We've had a gas rinnai for 3 years, mounted on the exterior of the house, and we've had no problems with maintenance.
 
I've had a gas Takagi TK-1 since 2001 and it runs my entire house. Able to have 2 showers going at once or shower and dishwasher/washing machine at same time with no problems.

Only "maintenance" we've had is installation. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone (that has natural gas).
 
Is it recommended to "drain" or clean out the tankless types like you are supposed to do with regular water heaters, once or twice a year? Which almost no one does, I know I don't.
 
We have them here in HK - nobody uses tanks.

I have had experience with electric and Gas.

I have Electric ones in my house now that I installed during my renovation.

They rock the house.

Time to heat up - maybe 20 seconds.

I have no idea whether they are energy efficient or not.

Im not aware of any maintenance i need to do.

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