There is a big difference. The tank type has most of a tank of hot water at close to the same temperature. When you start drawing water, you can pull a lot of water at whatever rate you want and the temp is not going to vary much. If you pull enough, eventually the temp will drop as the cold water entering the bottom of the tank starts to effect the hot water leaving the top.
With a tankless, the burn rate of fuel has to be adjusted to the flow rate. Otherwise you'd get steam at .1 gal an hour and the temp would vary wildly based on flow rate. How exactly they do that, IDK, but I'd suspect they use some kind of modulating gas valve.
I've had people suggest I go tankless water heater. Of course, the thousand dollars or so is a factor. The hot shower during a power cut is a very good thing.
____ I prefer single handle(sinks and tubs) because I am terribly dyslexic and always grab hot for cold faucet or vice versa. But to deny someone a two- handle setup is just communist, if you axe me!
Yes, per the site linked to below, they do exist. I quote, but offer no exa mples:
"Some types of tankless water heaters are thermostatically controlled; they can vary their output temperature according to the water flow rate and inl et temperature."
Not so. Flow Rate is known drawback of tankless WH. Well, maybe not a drawb ack, per se, but a key factor in sizing a unit. It's a drawback in the sens e that you may need to purchase a bigger/more expensive unit based of your flow rate/temperature rise requirements.
The more flow you demand, the lower the water temp at the output because th e water is not in "contact" with the burners for as long a time.
Granted, flow rate will impact a tank heater also in that you will run out of 120 degree water sooner with a higher flow rate, but the difference is t hat regardless of how many showers you turn on, you *will* get 120 degree w ater out of the tank for some period of time. With a tankless heater, you m ay never get 120 degree water if the flow rate outpaces the heater's abilit y to impart the required temperature rise.
From:
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SIZING TANKLESS OR DEMAND-TYPE WATER HEATERS Tankless or demand-type water heaters are rated by the maximum temperature rise possible at a given flow rate. Therefore, to size a demand water heate r, you need to determine the flow rate and the temperature rise you'll need for its application (whole house or a remote application, such as just a b athroom) in your home.
9:33 AMDerbyDad03 wrote: "- show quoted text - Not being dyslexic, I would like to ask, in a kind and serious manner:
If your malady causes you to grab the opposite faucet handle, does it not cause you to turn the single handle in the opposite direction than intended? "
But it might pay for itself in energy savings plus water savings. Water is cheap in the US but that isn't true everywhere. We had a tankless in Germany for the kitchen, based on not wasting water (kitchen was a long way from the boiler).
While you may very well be right in regards to your second comment, your fi rst comment doesn't hold water. (pun intended)
"More money than brains"
The fact that someone can afford to pay for the pleasure of "endless hot wa ter" doesn't mean they suffer from diminished brain capacity.
If someone offered you free endless hot water, would you pass it up? I know I wouldn't. So, if my resources were such that I could absorb the initial and incremental cost differences of tanked vs. tankless hot water without f eeling any pain, I'd do it in a second.
We all do things like that quite often. We could sit on wooden boxes instea d of couches. We could cook over an open fire instead of on a gas range. Th e fact that we spend more than we actually *need* to on things that make ou r lives more enjoyable doesn't (always) make us idiots.
Granted, when we make decisions based on unsubstantiated data and/or spend more than we can comfortably afford, then the "brain power" argument is val id.
It would cost me more. I can just about guarantee that we would use more water if we never ran out of hot. Even with a 50 gallon tank, SWMBO and I can empty the tank when taking a shower, either separate or shared.
Heck, on a lazy, winter Sunday morning, we'd probably stay in the shower until noon. ;-)
water" doesn't mean they suffer from diminished brain capacity.
ow I wouldn't. So, if my resources were such that I could absorb the initia l and incremental cost differences of tanked vs. tankless hot water without feeling any pain, I'd do it in a second.
ead of couches. We could cook over an open fire instead of on a gas range. The fact that we spend more than we actually *need* to on things that make our lives more enjoyable doesn't (always) make us idiots.
d more than we can comfortably afford, then the "brain power" argument is v alid.
+1 And so typical. In another thread, Clare calls for me to be censored, but he goes around slamming people as having no brains because they might choose a tankless.
I could see it as being useful in a vacation property or a rental property for example. If you only go there a few days a week, it's not maintaining a tank of hot water. And for vacation rental properties, same thing. When the renters show up, they have hot water.
The temperature of the water out of tank model is constant regardless of the flow rate. Sure you can drain it faster than it can re-heat the water if the flow rate is very high, but that is not the normal case in a properly sized tank heater.
A tankless model could mix cold water with hot water at lower flow rates to keep the output temperature constant (rather than trying to adjust the flame intensity. Maybe some do this.
That is true, but people put in tankless water heaters for other reasons. Someone mentioned a vacation home where they didn't want a tank heater constantly cooling and re-heating.
And here's what those tankless fanboys never want to talk about. What happens when the tankless controls fail (and they will) during a shower? Suddenly (with no warning) you find yourself rinsing shampoo out of your hair in 50 degree Fahrenheit water.
No thanks, I'll keep my cheap tank style heater.
And FWIW, I have a 50 gal natural gas water heater and I have NEVER run out of hot water.
There are other ways to get there aside from tankless. My old oil fired boiler would keep up forever but it was not very efficient. Most electric water heaters have a first hour rating of 50 or 60 gallons. My indirect fired tank has a rating of about 250 gallons. It is 40% better on oil than my old setup.
Water isn't cheap here either - but unless it is a big house and the heater is at the wrong end, unless it is a very high quality unit it will still not last long enought to pay for itself - and even then, a unit of high enough quality to last that long will cost so much it STILL won't pay for itself.
Move to iceland - hot water there truly IS endless - AND free.
If I needed endless hot water, perhaps - but I've NEVER run out of hot water - in a household with 2 daughters, and a standard 40 gallon gas water heater. Growing up with 7 siblings and a 30 gallon electric water heater it took some strategic planning.
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