itsy bitsy tankless water heater?

Itsy bitsy tankless water heater?

I saw a thread a while back about tankless water heaters.

How about this?. I only want to heat the hot water for one sink, in the bathroom. I haven't the patience to wait until it's hot so I always wash my hands or my face with cold water.

I don't mind wasting money for once, though I plan to install it myself.

So what sort of electric tankless water heater would you recommend for one sink?. I hope it won't need more than 15 amps.

How many gallons a minute of hot water does a bathroom sink use?

Favorite brands?

(The shower/tub in the same bathroom, the other 1.5 baths, the washing machine, the kitchen sink, and the laundry sink can just wait until the water gets hot, like they do now. My half-bath/powder room off the front hall is directly above the water heater, and it is such a pleasure to have hot water almost immediately.)

Thanks.

Reply to
micky
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How about a small tank? They make under counter styles that hold a few gallons.

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We used them in two locations at work and they were plenty for a vanity sink and wash up.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Most modern aerators run 1.5 gpm, I think it is. I don't know the brand, but my church has a couple instant heaters under sinks. They work well.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I doubt 15 amps is going to get you anywhere. I have an electric kettle to heat water in the kitchen for coffee, tea, etc. It's 1500W and it takes qu ite a few minutes to heat just a liter of water to boiling. You don't have to get nearly that hot, but you probably want a couple liters a minute min flowing through there. Like Ed said, a small tank type might be better i f you have room. But IDK about them either. I've had a couple of those in stant hot water dispensers for the kitchen sink. They use a tank. They la st about 3 years and then they fail, for one reason or another, including l eaking tank. Also, like a regular tank type water heater, sediment builds up and the water winds up not tasting good. Just like I wouldn't use water from a tank water heater to drink, I decided those under sink units were a bad idea. For a bathroom it would be OK, provided the units last.

Reply to
trader_4

Micky,

For one sink, perhaps a recirculator would be better than a water heater. More installation work but less money than a water heater. Why do you want to go with a water heater?

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

I'd use a mini-tank heater. 110 volt, 15 amp, 3 gallon

Or this 4 gallon unit:

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1500 watts, just like a tea kettle
Reply to
clare

And when they run out of hot water, the hot water from the main tank will have arrived.

Reply to
clare

I'm not sure a recirculator is less money either in installation cost or operating costs compared to a small water heater for one sink. The recirculator would have the advantage that it would get hot water to everything in the bathroom, eg shower, too though.

Reply to
trader_4

+1

I installed the Watts recirculator a couple of years ago. Works great and not that difficult if you can do some light plumbing work. I bought my unit from an Ebay seller (brand new) and saved about $80.

Pump unit (mfg by Grundfos - very quiet) mounts atop the water heater on the output side. Simple bypass valve mounts under the sink in the location (ideally) the furthest down line from the heater.

It has a timer which you can use to tailor the operational hours if you wish or just leave it run 24/7.

Only downside I've found is that if you like to take a drink out of the tap, you'll find you have to run the water a bit to get it cool. System is a closed-loop and the only way to get the hot water to your sink is to "bleed it off" onto the cold side.

Sure is nice to open the faucet and have hot water immediately though.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

Doesn't recirculation mean having an added pipe that runs back to the water heater? I could measure, rather than going by my eye, but I"m pretty sure that the water supply to this bathroom goes up the wall between the kitchen and dining room, but then runs horizontally for a foot or two, betore going a foot or two up the wall between the bathrooms.

Also I'm *sure* that the water supply pipes to those bathrooms turn vertical just above an I-beam that holds up the house. So even if it is really a straight run to the second floor, the I-beam is in the way if I want to run another pipe.

(I was very surprised to see an I-beam in residential construction (townhouses) about 10" high by 3 or 4 inches wide. There are two of them, running sideways, perpendicular to the joists and trusses. The one in the basement family room is boxed in. The one in the laundry/ furnace room has everything showing, except the ends, which I guess rest on the cinder block wall. (I thought cinder blocks could crumble?))

So running a return pipe would be a lot of work, far beyond my ability.

(The kitchen has cabinets, but (I guess I could cut a path up the dining room wall, across the dining room ceiling those 2 feet.... and somehow turn corners at both ends, and have someone else replaster, but.I'll probably tear the house apart and not repair it. Can't I do under the sink in one day?)

Reply to
micky

NO! No additional piping is required.

Do a Google search on watts recirculating water pump. I'm pretty sure there's even a YouTube video out there.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

I guess this is really what I had in mind.** Thanks.

My basement WH leaked after so many years, but it was on the basement floor, and now I have a pan underneath with a pipe to the sump pump sump. Will this some day leak its 4 gallons into my bathroom, through the ceiling to the dining room?

And will it radiate heat? I"ve pretty much stopped using my AC -- only

8 days this summer where I even needed the big fan -- but I don't want to add heat to the top floor either? **After I posted the question I found a page that seemed to say a tankless water heater for even one sink was more like 40 amps.
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Reply to
micky

YES! Additional piping is required.

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The traditional hot water recirculation system uses a dedicated return line from the point of use located farthest from the hot water tank back to the hot water tank.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

If I call before noon, they'll install it this afternoon!! Thanks.

Reply to
micky

TRADITIONAL, yes. Watts recirculator as I have and has been featured on Ask This Old House in the past does NOT.

As I specifically mentioned the Watts system in both my posts...

let's not confuse the issue for the OP any further.

Still in doubt?

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and here's the installation video

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Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

Yes. And probably sooner than the typical 10 year WH tank life.

Of course it's going to produce heat. There's no free lunch. With decent insulation, the heat isn't going to amount to more than a fly farting in the wind though.

Reply to
trader_4

As long as you're OK with putting tepid water that's been in the WH into the cold supply line, where it will be used for cold water for anything between the WH and the sink that he wants the instant hot water at. Could be the kitchen sink is on the route. If he's not OK with that, then he would need a separate return line.

Reply to
trader_4

That is exactly what I did for the kitchen and a bathroom that is too far from the water heater to get hot water in a reasonable time.

Reply to
gfretwell

Go to Amazon and look at "Bosch GL2.5 Ariston 2-1/2-Gallon Point-of-Use Indoor Electric Mini-Tank Water Heater". Or you could just install one of the automatic circulation pumps to make sure that hot water is always there when needed but to make this effective, the hot water line really needs to be insulated.

Reply to
BenignBodger

If you are in a multi story and your water heater is in the basement, you can make a gravity driven recirculator if you can run the pipe. My father did that in our house but we had a central stack chase that went from the basement to the attic, catching the wet wall on the second floor along the way. He was able to push a copper tube up from the basement building length as he went until he got to the 2d floor bathroom. Tie that to the hot water line and the bottom of the water heater and it will thermal siphon.

Reply to
gfretwell

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