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Mon May 12, 2008 5:45 am

Has anyone had any experience with the tankless water heater? Is it an easy conversion from the standard water heater to a tankless? How does the calcium (hardwater) affect it - or does it? The water heater I have now, is in the hall closet (opposed to garage) and the house is on slab.

Anyone interested in a POS house in Indpls, under 1200sq ft. :roll:

Mon May 12, 2008 5:51 am

They work great. Cost to install is high but it will save over time. Make sure you size it correctly tho in order to get hot water every where. Do the recommended maintenance and it'll last a long time. Longer than a tank unit. It will require a larger vent also.

Sarge

Mon May 12, 2008 6:07 am

I have just begun checking into them- I know one guy that installed in his rental property, so I need to drop him a call.

We - well I drain and clean our tank yearly and change the elements - I am amzed at how much sludge accumilates.

Mon May 12, 2008 6:18 am

On a regular tank check the anode rode also, if it has one. Personally I like the tankless but only in gas. The electric needs their own line to work correctly.

Sarge

Mon May 12, 2008 7:13 am

There are a lot of things that need to be inspected and possibly changed in order to install a tankless water heater correctly.
Tankless typically run at a much higher BTU than a tank type so you might need the size of your gas line increased.
Also depending on what tankless mfg you purchase they require a different flue pipe as you cannot run standard B-vent pipe.
Sizing is also critical because the tankless are very dependent on the incoming water temperature. If you have extremely cold water coming in it will take much more work for the heater to put out 120deg water.
For instance, if you buy one that puts out 6.9gpm which is rated at 60deg rise and you have 45deg water you might only get 4+/-gpm out of your heater and then you're screwed as you might not have enough how water.

So, size first to determine what changes are necessary to install.

Hope this answers your questions.

Mon May 12, 2008 8:11 am

We checked into them, as we are running all electric. The electric ones require an 80 amp circuit. The house only has like 200 total, so I would have to install a 2nd panel, and possibly get a 2nd bill for it...like its a separate house or something.

Just went with an 80 gallon tank instead... no more cold showers. 8)

Mon May 12, 2008 8:27 am

Good info, I was thinking of installing a tankless on the end of my house that is farthest away from the tank (which just happens to be the master BR/bath) to save all of the water I am wasting while waiting on the hot!

Mon May 12, 2008 8:30 am

KantDriveFast wrote: We checked into them, as we are running all electric. The electric ones require an 80 amp circuit. The house only has like 200 total, so I would have to install a 2nd panel, and possibly get a 2nd bill for it...like its a separate house or something.

Just went with an 80 gallon tank instead... no more cold showers. 8)

We too are on electric, as gas typically here will run a lot more. I will need to dig into this further. I think the guy that has one in his rental is on gas. He remodeled an old shot-gun style house.

Mon May 12, 2008 8:37 am

bdub74 wrote: Good info, I was thinking of installing a tankless on the end of my house that is farthest away from the tank (which just happens to be the master BR/bath) to save all of the water I am wasting while waiting on the hot! Newsflash -- you're still going to have to wait for hot water to reach that end of the house.

Mon May 12, 2008 9:06 am

Icy wrote: bdub74 wrote: Good info, I was thinking of installing a tankless on the end of my house that is farthest away from the tank (which just happens to be the master BR/bath) to save all of the water I am wasting while waiting on the hot! Newsflash -- you're still going to have to wait for hot water to reach that end of the house.

Mon May 12, 2008 10:11 am

bdub74 wrote: Good info, I was thinking of installing a tankless on the end of my house that is farthest away from the tank (which just happens to be the master BR/bath) to save all of the water I am wasting while waiting on the hot!

Might be cheaper and easier to just put a loop in. That's what we're doing.

Mon May 12, 2008 10:17 am

swervyjoe wrote: Icy wrote: bdub74 wrote: Good info, I was thinking of installing a tankless on the end of my house that is farthest away from the tank (which just happens to be the master BR/bath) to save all of the water I am wasting while waiting on the hot! Newsflash -- you're still going to have to wait for hot water to reach that end of the house. Dammit, I missed those key words. There are still people out there who misconstrue "instant hot water" as meaning that the moment the tap is opened that hot water will come out.

Mon May 12, 2008 10:41 am

I installed a bosch gas unit last fall and have had good luck with it so far. Yes, the special stainless steel vent pipe is EXPENSIVE and almost cost as much as the basic unit did(!), and you just cant go down to home depot and buy it either as I wasted a day driving around boise ID to be told by everyone that I needed to be a licensed contractor to buy the stuff, so I ordered it on-line without issue. The only thing that I have an issue with it is that if you turn the hot water on full blast, it stops trying and you just get cold water. Turning it off, wait 5 seconds and turn it on at a lower rate will yield hot water. It does save money but I havent noticed too much saving from our old tank, plus it uses electricity to run the vent motor. I saw big savings when I also installed a new gas heating furnace and the $500 tax energy rebate.

Mon May 12, 2008 11:00 am

Icy wrote: swervyjoe wrote: Icy wrote: bdub74 wrote: Good info, I was thinking of installing a tankless on the end of my house that is farthest away from the tank (which just happens to be the master BR/bath) to save all of the water I am wasting while waiting on the hot! Newsflash -- you're still going to have to wait for hot water to reach that end of the house. Dammit, I missed those key words. There are still people out there who misconstrue "instant hot water" as meaning that the moment the tap is opened that hot water will come out.

it's the key words that get ya sometimes! I know it's not "instant hot" unless the unit is about two feet from the faucet, but if I put one in the garage under the master bath I won't have to wait 2 minutes (and waste that much water each day) for the hot.

Major Woody, how much is it costing you to add a loop to your system?

Mon May 12, 2008 11:02 am

bdub74 wrote:

it's the key words that get ya sometimes! I know it's not "instant hot" unless the unit is about two feet from the faucet, but if I put one in the garage under the master bath I won't have to wait 2 minutes (and waste that much water each day) for the hot.

Major Woody, how much is it costing you to add a loop to your system?

I worked in a small office a few years back that had an under sink unit that was set so high that the water went from cool to flesh-burning in .0000001 second. It's all about the distance ;)

Mon May 12, 2008 5:33 pm

Icy wrote: bdub74 wrote:

it's the key words that get ya sometimes! I know it's not "instant hot" unless the unit is about two feet from the faucet, but if I put one in the garage under the master bath I won't have to wait 2 minutes (and waste that much water each day) for the hot.

Major Woody, how much is it costing you to add a loop to your system?

I worked in a small office a few years back that had an under sink unit that was set so high that the water went from cool to flesh-burning in .0000001 second. It's all about the distance ;)

one of my stores is like that, there is no warm, just polar ice cap cold and straight out of a nuclear reactor hot!

Mon May 12, 2008 6:00 pm

I have had a tankless water heater for about 4-5 years now, love it, my wife can run a full bath and never run out of hot water, because of where we had to place the old tank style, in a crawl space, we had to go with a small one.

When it died I decided to go tankless, glad I did. As mentioned the further from the unit the longer it takes for the hot water to get there, but of course this is with either unit.

I did have to run two separate power sources as it requires two dedicated lines. Also the amp usage is way high, when we had to run a generator after a ice storm a few years back it would not run the tank, too many amps being pulled. I have an apartment where I had to take a shower since it still has an old tank unit?

All in all I would say it is worth the initial cost as our power bill went down an average of $10-20 a month. I even had a timer on the old tank unit?

Mon May 12, 2008 7:51 pm

DaveM wrote: The only thing that I have an issue with it is that if you turn the hot water on full blast, it stops trying and you just get cold water. Turning it off, wait 5 seconds and turn it on at a lower rate will yield hot water.

Usually it means the unit is too small for the demand.

Sarge

Mon May 12, 2008 8:51 pm

Man, I fucking hate mine. It never calls, it never writes, it never remembers my birthday...

oh.

Tankless, not thankless. never mind, I don't know nothing about those.
But if you ever want to know about unfaithful, two-timing microwave ovens...

Tue May 13, 2008 2:27 am

Another plus is that if you have problems you can rebuild it versus throwing

it out