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Does any one out there have any experience with Tankless hot water heaters? I’m doing some remodeling and it’s been suggested as an alternative to putting in two new 100 gal, tanks.
Tanks alot. jh
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John,
I had one (propane powered) from 1988 until about 1993, when I finally got fed up with it. My biggest complaint was that a certain flow rate was required in order for it to fire up. So, you couldn't run a low flow and get anything but cold water. My plumber determined it needed something like at least 1 gallon per minute to trigger the burner. Since I was living in a drought-prone area of California then, and I got my water from a low producing well, I didn't like having to waste water by turning the tap so far open just to get a little hot water. I remember having to turn on the kitchen or bathroom sink whenever I wanted to have a shower in order to get a good enough flow and have a hot shower. But it made really hot water really fast!
This might not be a problem with newer heaters or in areas with better water pressure than I had with that well. I think the concept is great and I know it works well in some applications.
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Thank you Rufus that's good advice. The system I'm looking at is a Myson 325. I called the manufacturer after i heard from you and he said the min. flow is 3/4 gpm. I haven't tested it but he's from Tennesee and he said you hardly never turn water on that low. I'm going to check with my plumber and I'll call around here, but thanks for puttin' me thinking about the flow issue. jh
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There is also a maximum flow. Don't think that unlimited hot water means you get as much as you wan't at any time. I have a 185,000 btu model to be sure there is enough to supply two showers at once. If you need 2 100gal tanks, you will have a hard time supplying that kind of demand from a tankless.
*Do you have a long run from the origional tank to the addition? What hot water loads do you have in the remodel? If it is just a bathroom, a good alternative often is a 2 or 3 gal. electric HW heater plumbed into the hot line as close to the fictures a possible as a booster. Set its thermostat 5 or 10 degrees below the main tank. For low use such as hand washing you will have almost instant hot water with out waste and for large use such as tub filling, the elements will shut off and the hot water will be supplied from the main heater.
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Thanks , Mike and Ron, the run I'm looking at is not so long. The two biggest concerns are, to be able to fill a 75 gal. tub and immediately have the shower run and not run out of hot water, that's why the two 100 gal. tanks. I think that is pritty much okay. But the running of the two showers at the same time....the manufacturer suggests that I use two units together and each has a max. of 100,000 Btu,so that must be to cover the two simultaneous showers. Which would be great. The min. flow to turn it on is a concern and another is, do I need the water to be filtered. So I'll be calling the water co.to find that out. again thanks this is really helpfull. jh
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John,
When I first discovered the minimum flow requirement, I too thought that it's not that often that I would want a low flow of hot water. That turned out not to be the case. I very often wanted less than 1 GPM.
I didn't have filtered water, but I had a lot of minerals in my well water and was forever cleaning scale and buildup off my faucets, etc. This stuff would collect in the water heater, too, as it would in a conventional heater. So, once a year, I took this tankless one outside and flushed it with a muriatic acid solution (manufacturer's suggested procedure...in the manual) until it stopped bubbling. Wasn't a bad procedure. Worst part was disconnecting everything to take it outside.
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I think that the tankless models today are great, provided you can afford one. Basic models run around $600 per, and if you demand higher flow rates expect to pay 1.5X that.
Bosch makes a good Instantaneous Water Heater. Try contacting the John Condon Company for more info.
One of their models, the W400-K5 puts out 117,000 btu/hr. Best of all, they are wall mounted and very small.
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Instead of using two tankless for high flow demands, one unit can be used in conjunction with a storage tank. By doing this you re-introduce the standby losses of a tank (though insulation will help considerably), but you will still enjoy the efficiency, space savings, and "unlimited" hot water of the tankless. Bosch also makes a line called Aquastar; see http://www.cechot.com
Chris
*Hi Y'all,I have one older 125,000BTU Aquastar and use two others at a dance hall.The newer ones require only 1/2 gallon/minute to turn on.125,000BTU easily runs two showers at the same time.Good health, Weogo
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Thank you for the info. I did get in touch with John Condon and I got lots of goodinfo from him aswell as a local vendor. I'll also look into the storage system. I guess my concern is that I don't want to get into a new technology and then later on find out that I have to learn to live around it's limitations ...that's not to say that I've learned to live around an existing hot water heaters restrictions, but I guess I'm just used to these.
Thank again and keep it coming I'm learning from all this . jh
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Does any one out there have any experience with Tankless hot water heaters? I'm doing some remodeling and it's been suggested as an alternative to putting in two new 100 gal, tanks.
Tanks alot. jh