Tankless Water Heater for Home???

.... dont get me wrong (from my comment earlier), if it wasnt for the fact that we have a brand new 55 gallon gas water heater I'd have a gas tankless in a minute. When this one goes it will be replaced with tankless, unless theres something better on the market
 
Falko said:
How do you know when it's time to get out?
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When you start looking like a prune.:D That is the only real problem we have, getting my son out of the shower in a reasonable time. Endless hot water=no urgency to get finished. Solved that problem though by just throwing the breaker a couple times.

I did look at the electric ones on the market back when I was looking. There were some that ran on electric for whole house applications that were supposed to be compariable to the gas units in heating capability. They were also much smaller footprint than even the gas units, I want to say they were 18" square and a couple inches deep.
 
Rox&Mud said:
I did look at the electric ones on the market back when I was looking. There were some that ran on electric for whole house applications that were supposed to be compariable to the gas units in heating capability. They were also much smaller footprint than even the gas units, I want to say they were 18" square and a couple inches deep.
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yeah - they also require some serious gauge electrical wiring, you'll pay through the nose for the copper alone...

Unfortunately you're up against physics when it comes to electric heat. It's basically a giant resistor, you push a shitpile of current through...
 
I've had both electric and gas tankless in the past. Had an electric one in a condo we owned. It worked ok, just took longer for the water to get hot enough at the point of use. At our previous house I installed a gas one. It replaced a gas tank unit that was 20 years old but still worked great. We went tankless as I wanted to install an outdoor unit to free up space in that room. I bought the largest one I could find. I want to say it cost just shy of 1K. Thing was a beast. It was very adjustable. I set the temp low enough to where we would shower using only the hot water faucet. I would go tankless again in a heartbeat once our tank unit goes at our new house.
 
He decided to go for it. He's going the electric route. He went ahead wired everything up, and now we're just waiting on the unit to arrive. Not sure what brand but I'll post up and let you guys know how it works out if you're interested.
 
RatLabGuy said:
yeah - they also require some serious gauge electrical wiring, you'll pay through the nose for the copper alone...

Unfortunately you're up against physics when it comes to electric heat. It's basically a giant resistor, you push a shitpile of current through...
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Saw one the other day on an inspection hooked up to an R/V (don't ask, weird area...). In any case, it was a tankless Rheem unit with a standard 120v 3 prong plug on it. The inspector I was with had them take it apart to see the interior connections and read through the user manual and saw no real issue with it. It wasn't a big unit, designed only to service the R/V and the attached room addition (again...weird place).
 
BRUISER said:
What do you guys think of this one? RL75IN Tankless Water Heater 180K BTU with Valves (Indoor Natural Gas)
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Rinnai, Takagi, Noritz are the highest regarded from all of my research and talking to people. Rheem too I think?

I've never heard of the place you linked to, although the price is good. Their selection is pretty small though, which makes me suspicious of the company and your future customer service needs.

Maybe try one of the established players with really good reputations like SupplyHouse?
 
Shawn pointed out all the reasons why tankless has only EVER been installed on any of my projects as a VE offered by the contractor (in lieu of tank AND circumstances system) after the fact, and only on churches. Never dorms, commercial facilities, schools, or any other facility that has a regular initial demand.
One thing you all will find out the hard way, is if you're not descaling your instantaneous annually you're going to start seeing greatly diminished performance on the gas ones and total crap out on the electrics within just a few years. I've never seen a point of use instantaneous heater for a single or dual lav application last longer than 2 years.
Tank type heaters also scale, but not at the same rate and not with as great an effect. Of course your results may vary. But here in Forsyth they have treated the water to enhance scaling to preserve the more fragile aging watER pipes under the city. This has played hell with boilers and made us scramble for a while to figure out wth was going on.
If you have a water treatment system then you'll benefit, but look for long range costs to benefit tanks
 
CasterTroy said:
Shawn pointed out all the reasons why tankless has only EVER been installed on any of my projects as a VE offered by the contractor (in lieu of tank AND circumstances system) after the fact, and only on churches. Never dorms, commercial facilities, schools, or any other facility that has a regular initial demand.
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I just recently considered swapping the house to a tankless (again). Decided against it (again). Want a recirc pump something terrible, though.
 
I have an EcoSmart made in the USA with a lifetime warranty on the heating elements. It does 5 gallons per minute and I can run 3 showers at one time. It's also electric and customer support is excellent.
 
We have a rinnia or whatever it is called, works great, endless hot water, even ran a line in the garage for washing cars and what not in the winter.
 
Charles Greene said:
I have an EcoSmart made in the USA with a lifetime warranty on the heating elements. It does 5 gallons per minute and I can run 3 showers at one time. It's also electric and customer support is excellent.
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The biggest electric that EcoSmart makes is capable of 5.1gpm at 105F assuming a 57F inlet temperature. However, a typical shower head pulls 2.5 gpm. If you're using municipal supply, that 5.1gpm falls to 3.8.

And it needs a 150 amp (!!!) supply. 36 kW at full draw. That's four 40A 220V circuits, for a total of eight slots in a typical breaker panel.
 
shawn said:
And it needs a 150 amp (!!!) supply. 36 kW at full draw. That's four 40A 220V circuits, for a total of eight slots in a typical breaker panel.
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holy juice draw batman
Unless you have personal access to a copper factory or can put it right next to the breaker that install won't be cheap!

My whole house panel is only 150A.
 
Coming up on 2.5 years with a Rinnai. No problems. Works awesome.
 
shawn said:
Want a recirc pump something terrible, though.
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Same. The way the house is looped my farthest fixture is almost directly under the GWH in the attic. It's almost ridiculous that I haven't added one by now. I need to get off my ass.
 
shawn said:
Want a recirc pump something terrible, though.
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I've thought about that, but it's useless during the 18 hours a day when we're sleeping or at work, and it's just a continuously running water cooler. Between the pump and the piping heat loss and the water heater cycling more often, it doesn't really make sense from an energy standpoint.
 
Fabrik8 said:
I've thought about that, but it's useless during the 18 hours a day when we're sleeping or at work, and it's just a continuously running water cooler. Between the pump and the piping heat loss and the water heater cycling more often, it doesn't really make sense from an energy standpoint.
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Yeah, but if it gives them near instant hot water, wives don't care what makes sense from an energy standpoint.
 
I will be the one to throw out a nod for the electric tankless water heater. We did a complete gut and remodel on a home a few years back and installed a Titan N120 tankless unit. Granted, it is just my wife and I in the house. The other caveat is that we were in Miami, FL...where the incoming water temperature was significantly higher. Still, for a small household, it served us extremely well. We changed so many things in a short period of time that I can't really speak just the hwh's energy savings. Still, we loved the unit. A few things we could have done differently, for sure. We plumbed the new bathroom with 3/4" copper from the old hwh. The new unit was 1/2" fittings which really concerned me about volume. The master shower had 2 'panels' (his & hers)...each having a rainfall shower head and 6 steam jets. That unit had no issue running both shower heads or all 12 jets. One we installed the teak bench, I tested it up to an hour nonstop. I could shower...she could fill whirlpool bath...kids could bathe (if we had any)...run dishwasher...laundry all day and still never run out of hot water. I would think this to be the best advantage, particularly for a family.
 
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