Tankless Water Heaters

[plumbplumbplumb]

Hey, I'm still looking for any input on these Tankless Water Heaters: Stiebel Eltron, Eemax and Bradford White.

Here is a link:

help is welcome...

[Patscga]

A home show on talk radio in our area discussed these last week. Said they're great. However, they added that the cost to go from the regular water heater to a tankless one would be about $600 for installation. Pat

[Rich]

Why would it be that much more? You still have two water pipes and a gas line. I know around here (near Chicago) Home Despot wants $269 to install a

40 gallon heater.

Merry Christmas, Rich

[m Ransley]

No 2 instals are the same Electric can require a new service and do require 120a for a single use Bosch. Gas can require larger lines as small units use 117000 btu and Takagi uses 188000 btu. Plus they are wall mounted, plumbing and venting are changed. Install could be 200 -

2000 nobody can say

[Robert MacKinnon]

The storage tank heater is usually placed away from the wall and the exhaust is routed to the chimney. The pipes and gas supply lines are in the wrong positions for the conversion. With the tankless, the gas and water lines have to be re-routed because the unit is usually wall mounted. In addition, they may have to install a zero-clearance air intake/exhaust pipe through the wall and cap off the chimney outlet. There's electrical installation required for the ignitor and the remote may also need new wiring if it will be located away from the tankless unit itself (kitchen or bathroom location). That work will be more than a direct drop-in replacement which Home Depot quotes.

[Mike]

Our current tank heater is about 2 feet from the wall so I figure sweating in a few elbows and maybe 10 feet of copper tube and a few feet of electrical isn't going to cost me $50 for an install. Not sure how they come up with those installation charges, but the labor could be the bulk of it. I don't think they would really "Have" to be wall mounted if your current unit sits in the middle of a room. Just make a little mock-up mounting platform and mount it to that if you want it to remain in the same area.

[Chris Hill]

The big problems are with electric you need to run very heavy cable and probably will need a new service. With gas you'll probably need larger diameter gas pipe and a different regulator to feed it. That's the problem with on-demand heaters, they demand a lot of energy at once.

[Mike]

That's

Very heavy cable= 220? Not much difference in cost on that gauge wire from 110. New service? like a new breaker box or just a new breaker added? Most people should have some additional amps left to use. Besides, he is removing an electric tank heater so he would only require the difference between the two, not the full amps.

Didn't mention gas, he wants electric. And the gas models can handle just about any size of gas line since the orifice in the heater is substantially smaller than the pipe anyway. Especially on LP.

Still don't see how putting one of these in costs anything over $150 in materials.

[John Cochran]

Yes, very heavy cable. Looking at

for a second, I see several different models (depending on input temp and flow rate). The smallest unit recommended for a house is their series two. This can handle only 1 major outlet at a time. This unit requires 80 amps at 240 volts. That current is supplied as two independent 40 amp circuits. And remember, this is for a minimal system that is capable of supplying a single shower. Their series three unit requires three 240 volt 40 amp circuits. I've lived in some homes that didn't have a service large enough to supply that monster.

[Joshua Putnam]

Code disagrees, when we put in our Takagi TK-2, we had to replace the

1/2" gas line with 3/4". And there are larger gas models out there than ours.

[Mike]

Makes me wonder how they can tout 50% reduced energy costs. Of course, you would need to test it yourself to find out. The electric "tank" heater runs continuously while the tankless only runs when needed. I imagine something like this would cause energy concerns unless the overall usage were subtantially smaller. I think someone mentioned in another thread that they would hate to see the grid in California from

6-8am if everyone had one of these. Unless I see something from consumer reports saying this is the way of the future, I think I will stick with my tank. 26 years old and going strong, will the tankless last that long?

John Cochran wrote: