Tank less water heater

They're very small. They only come on when you open a hot water faucet. They use lots of electricity or gas while they're working to keep up with the demand, but none when there is no hot water flowing. The benefit is that your not paying to heat and store a big tank of hot water. Sizeable units are expensive to purchase and you need an adequate electric service or gas service to operate them

If you can tell us why you are asking, maybe we can provide better advice.

Thanks. I am looking for someone who has or had one and can recommend a brand name. Already did my search on the Internet and know everything the websites are suggesting, this is why I need a person who has one, and that is not to say that your advice wasn't sufficient because it was :)

What kind of advice?

Do they work?! Yes.

Advice? Ya, don't bother. You'll never get the water hot enough (especially in the winter) to wash dishes properly. Even hot enough for a proper shower is questionable. And don't even ask about the flow rates.

How far back does your newsreader go? There was a long thread on this under:

Newsgroups: alt.home.repair,alt.hvac Subject: Most efficient water heater? Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:27:22 -0400

Don (e-mail link at home page bottom).

gas or electric? if electric just forget it, unless your willing to upgrade your main service to 200 amps just for heating water. can cost thousands, really.

gas? delay from valve open to hot water arrives, heater must detect water use then turn on burner. you will waste water.

with low flow valve open a little to wash dishes may not be enough to trip on burner, cold water a result.

if your tankless needs line voltage to operate a power outage means no hot water at all. a standard tank still has a tank full to give, for say 2 quick showers.

tankess warranty is no longer than a regular tank. you need qualified service people they are complex. standard tanks are highly reliable till they leak, at which point you replace them...... nearly no service needed

if you live in a area that gets cold, incoming cold water can cause tankless troubles when water gets really cold. around here it bottoms at about 40 degrees.

the tankless savings are bogus, regular tanks standby losses are really low, take a look at the energy guide. in the lifetime of a tankless you will save little because of the large up front cost. oversize gas line, high capacity flue/

in the winter standby losses help heat your home

endless hot water can get some folks to live in the shower, driving up water and gas use........ teenagers are the worst.

I researched them up and down.

Facts: They save energy by heating water just before it comes out of the tap.

Fact: For the 115 volt variety, electricity is usually close by. Good for a wash sink, or even a kitchen sink. Probably a dishwasher, maybe.

Fact: For the 220V. variety, they take a single dedicated circuit and breaker per unit, 50-70 amps, IIRC. No problem if you're wiring the house during construction, but for a retrofit, it might be spendy.

Fact: You need to alter your style a little so that you don't put too much demand on it at any one time. Running all showers at once, plus the dishwasher, plus the washing machine may require more than they can put out, so you have to be aware, and break up your usage.

Fact: If you have a large house with a few 220v. units, you may have to have a very large service. No problem, but something to be put in from square one, and more costly at first.

Fact: Over the life of the product, they will save money.

If it weren't for the costly retrofit, I'd do it in a heartbeat. If I do any new construction, it will definitely be in there.

My two cents. YMMV.

Steve

"Don Wiss" wrote

How far back does your newsreader go? There was a long thread on this

I suggest we disband the newsgroup. Everything has been discussed, and is available at Google. Therefore this newsgroup serves no further purpose.

Yer welcome.

Steve

Thanks to all of you who responded. You answered my question fully. Methinks I'll do without one of those tankless thingies, too much of a headache, really. Thanks again :)

On 3/30/2008 2:04 PM nospam spake thus:

Yes; Takagi. I just helped install one (I did the wiring, a real plumber did the rest). This apparently is *the* state-of-the-art tankless heater currently. The model we installed is pretty kewl, in that it is made for exterior installation and requires no venting (it vents from a small grille near the top of the unit). Very efficient, compact (surprisingly small) and well-made.

This one also has electronic ignition, so uses no gas at all when not needed (unlike older ones with pilot lights). The only downside to this seems to be that it will not work during a power failure; there seems to be no way to manually light it.

nospam wrote in news:47effbd7$0$24124$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com:

Learn how to ask a proper question.

I have one in my home, but I would not recommend them.

While for one person that never wants to shower at the same time he does his laundry it might be fine, multiple hot water users screw things up.

You need to install an oversize gas line and an upgraded vent to feed the very large burner needed to supply enough BTU's to give you on demand heating.

The unit needs service from time to time and the parts are bloody expensive. I moved into my place with a dead electric water heater so I did not have a good comparison to a standard tank model, but in comparing gas bills to similar homes with regular tank water heaters they do not seem to burn a heck of a lot more gas than I do.

If you had a cabin where you only went occasionally then these might make sense, but for regular domestic use I would give a pass.

Good advice! A lot of people today think that the regular storage tank heaters waste tremendous amounts of energy.

In truth, they do not, especially if they are instulated well. An average-grade insulated tank heater can be full of hot water and will normally not even feel warm when touching the outside of the tank. Of course, the outflow pipes should be insulated for best results, but this is not expensive to do during the initial plumbing installation. Electric models can be placed on a timer or even shut off by a switch if the house is vacant for a long time.

The capacity to store hot water means that your burner or electric heating element does not have to be excessively large, expensive, or difficult to replace, and make excessive instantaneous demands on your gas or electrcal system.

Also, in the larger urban areas, the tank-type heaters are almost commodity items and can usually be replaced quickly and cheaply with standard stock replacements.

quoted text -

And of course more bad advise from someone who does not own one, has not used one properly installed, but seems to think he is qualified in giving advise, which happens to be total BS.

Here again more bad info, the savings are there and tank true energy rating is the Energy Factor, its amazing how everyone just " forgets" this rating. I own one, they work fine and save you money.

I have one and am getting a 4 yr payback on a 500$ Bosch plus instalation. You have to size everything right, the gas supply and flow are where the mistake are made all to often. You dont say what you want to know or its use that you need, but you will find alot of bad advise here from people that are ill informed.

Maybe you could learn how to provide a proper answer, or maybe read the question.

Sure it would have been better if the OP had provided more details about his use of them, but when first thinking about them, most people would not have enough knowledge of them to know what to ask. So it becomes a two way conversation where we may provide some information and ask some questions so more information may be provided more specific to the OP's situation. That is the way a newsgroup works, just like a conversation, but with a delay.

Your response did not provide any information on the subject nor did it provide any information to help the OP know what information he should provide.

We all can lean.