My water heater just took a dump. It's really old so I will replace it.

Since I am going with a new one anyway, I am thinking of getting a tankless water heater. The old one used natural gas, so I am thinking that would be fine for the new one as well, but would like to hear comments, especially if someone went to tankless and regretted it.

If you have teenage girls at home expect your gas and water bills to skyrocket. 2 hour hot showers become the norm.

True story, my BIL has had one for years and years, one of this daughters spent the night at a friends house and when she came home told her dad that she thought the family had a problem with their water heater. She was only in the shower for a 1/2 hour and ran out of water.

well.. I dont have one but every person i have talked to that has them regret it. Expensive and dont seem to last as long as traditional. I had three kids and ver ran out with a 50 gal. of course if they were 2hours long I would be putting a stop to it. Also I like having the tank as storage if I needed it in an emergency!!

Consumer Reports did a study on tankless water heaters several years ago, and said the payback is more than 20 years.

The btuhs required to heat the water is the same either way, so your potential savings are only the tank losses. Go with a good insulated tank, and you push the payback way out there.

I can see where a tankless could be a problem with a houseful of teenagers. We’re empty-nesters and really like our tankless. Ours is a Navien and it’s “Energy Star” rated. I imagine we’ll have longevity issues because our well water is hard, but I think we would have that issue with a conventional water heater too.

“Payback” wasn’t a consideration for us; our contractor installs tankless heaters in the homes he builds.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
well.. I dont have one but every person i have talked to that has them regret it.

Not me. I love mine.

$1200 for parts and labor. To replace my old 50G propane tank would have cost $650 for just the tank. I've had it for four years now and it has darn near paid for itself already. It was costing me a fortune in propane to keep that 50G of water hot 24/7/365.

I run some vinegar through the system once a year and that's it.

My only complaint, if you want to call it that, is that it takes 30-45 seconds for the hot water to reach the faucet. Other than that? No problems or issues.

More like 2-3 minutes for mine. A big waste of water.

My only complaint, if you want to call it that, is that it takes 30-45 seconds for the hot water to reach the faucet. Other than that? No problems or issues.[/QUOTE]

Had one in the house we just moved out of and loved it. No problems whatsoever in the five years we lived there. If we ever build another house, it will have one.

I manage a house that's a third house for the owner. It's a gas rinneua that is mounted on the exterior wall which requires no additional venting and it was mounted directly outside where the old water heater used to reside in the garage. It freed up a lot of space in the 1 car garage. It also is great because it doesn't use any gas sitting there for a week or two, then sometimes there's 6 people staying in the house and they never run out of hot water. It was installed in 2012 and we've NEVER touched it and on city water that is on the harder side of the softness scale.

I looked into it, but my vent / chimney pipe was not large-enough / good-enough, so that was that. I went with another tank.

We went tankless about a month ago.
It's great.

We have a large jacuzzi tub that the old heater could never fill, let alone add hot water while we were in the tub because it was out of hot water.
Not anymore.

There can be a slight drop on the hot water pressure side depending on how high you set the temperature.
It self regulates the pressure in order to insure proper water temperature of one's personal setting. We use 120.

The only negative is we have to wait and run the water longer than before until we get the hot water to the taps.

I have probably installed 50 of them over the last several years in the houses we build.

I have never had a client be anything but extremely satisfied with the performance of the units.

We switched over to tankless after I replaced my tanked unit with a Rinnai. I have kept meticulous records of our propane consumption since 1997 when I built our home. Long story short our propane consumption went down almost 35%.

We are now using Navian brand units as these are slightly more energy efficient and allow us to use smaller diameter intake and exhaust pipes due to their effeciency.

Now having said that there are two potential issues with the tankless heaters:
1. It can take a few seconds more for the hot water to reach your faucet. This is largely a function of the distance between the unit and your faucet.
2. You have to perform an annual maintenance on the by circulating white vinegar through the heat exchanger. It is an easy process and takes about an hour. Make sure whoever does the install installs the valves for this.

quote:

well.. I dont have one but every person i have talked to that has them regret it.

Well.. I guess you can’t say that any longer, can you

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
well.. I dont have one but every person i have talked to that has them regret it. ...

Nope. I have had one for probably 15 years now and I'll never go back to a tank. Even with two step-daughters and one of their boyfriends taking 2 hour showers the gas bill was still less than with a tank. About $26/month in the non-heating months.

The only reason I can see regretting getting one is if you get a cheapie. Get a Rinnai and you'll be into it, too.

This!

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
well.. I dont have one but every person i have talked to that has them regret it.

Not me. I love mine.

$1200 for parts and labor. To replace my old 50G propane tank would have cost $650 for just the tank. I've had it for four years now and it has darn near paid for itself already. It was costing me a fortune in propane to keep that 50G of water hot 24/7/365.

I run some vinegar through the system once a year and that's it.

My only complaint, if you want to call it that, is that it takes 30-45 seconds for the hot water to reach the faucet. Other than that? No problems or issues.

Aside from the delay on getting hot water to certain faucets, no complaints here.

quote:

Originally posted by Ironmike57:
More like 2-3 minutes for mine. A big waste of water.

My only complaint, if you want to call it that, is that it takes 30-45 seconds for the hot water to reach the faucet. Other than that? No problems or issues.

[/QUOTE]

About 60 to 90 seconds for me but only during the winter months. No other issues.

I have an electric tankless unit serving the guest bedrooms in my house. It SUCKS!. I think a gas unit would be ok, but the electric one I have is woefully underpowered.

quote:

Originally posted by John Steed:
My water heater just took a dump. It's really old so I will replace it.

Since I am going with a new one anyway, I am thinking of getting a tankless water heater. The old one used natural gas, so I am thinking that would be fine for the new one as well, but would like to hear comments, especially if someone went to tankless and regretted it.

Actually just got a quote for a tankless. I don't like where my existing 60gal tank is located and would prefer the unit to be outside.

Had a Rennai RU180EN quoted. It is efficient and has good reviews and ratings.

Installed price on an exterior wall was $3500.
Based on the gas company's estimates it is about $75-$100/mo less to operate based on electricity costs and current costs for NG.

Second quote a LOT higher.

Still deciding if I am going to wait on the 15 YO unit to stop working, or if I am going to get it replaced on my schedule.



--k

For those with tankless water heaters, what happens when two people opt to take showers at the same time, or someone opts to take a shower when the clothes washer is running? Do these units have enough capacity to meet the demand?