Replies

1. 
   GRCourter | Feb 29, 2008 03:56pm | #1

   If we knew where you lived we could maybe point you in the right direction.  4.5 baths?  how many kitchens?  How many people?  Tankless operate and are sized by the incoming water temp and GPM.  6 people living in a 2 bath home in Minn will have a higher GPM need than 3 in a 4.5 bath home living in S Florida.

2. 
   Waters | Feb 29, 2008 06:29pm | #2

   use the search function.

   I got a lot of good info this way and just bought a Noritz model I hope to install here soon.

   With 4.5 baths, you must have long runs of plumbing!  This means heaters in different areas and possibly a recirc system.

   Lots of info here, and there's been a couple FHB articles recently.

   "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing..."

    

3. 
   JTC1 | Feb 29, 2008 06:42pm | #3

   Not a plumber, no first hand experience.

   That being said, if you have 4.5 baths, kitchen and a laundry I believe you will have 7 gas tankless heaters, 7 vents and a lot of gas piping to buy, install and maintain.

   Not sure if this is a great route - but maybe I am missing something.

   Jim 

   Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
4. 
   peteshlagor | Feb 29, 2008 07:27pm | #4

   From experience, it's bull when someone tells you that you NEED "x" number of units to cover "x" number of bathrooms.

   How big is your family?  That's a more reasonable question.  And are they trainable to not take showers at the same time as another will be?  And another could be, what's the floorplan of your house.

   I have 3.5 baths and 4 bedrooms.  One Tagachi K3 is all I need.

    

1. 
   jake101 | Mar 03, 2008 09:39am | #5

   We have 7 people in the house 3 of which are female, like to take long showers. there are 6 total bedrooms. I just want to be able for @ least 2 showers to be running @ the same time. We also have free gas so I am not too worried about the energy saving just the ability to have hot H2O.

    

   Jake

1. 
   hurnik | Mar 08, 2008 06:27am | #6

   The Bosch 240 (which I think is really the Takagi) should suffice. At least it claims it's for 2 simultaneous "things" at a time (ie, 2, 2.5 gpm devices).I was seriously looking at one for my house.Unfortunately cost and venting prevented it.$3,000 for the unit and installation. PLUS, I couldn't have the vent more than 4' from any window or existing vent outtake. Since every spot in the house has a window and the few that didn't already had the high efficiency furnace vents, I had no way to vent the sucker (and it needed a 6" vent).So for $850 I put in a 50-gallon high efficiency (power vent) bradford white with a 32 minute recovery time.If I was more experienced I probably could've installed the tankless unit myself, but doing gas/venting like that was a bit tricky for me. Plus I couldn't justify the cost of the unit vs. the high efficiency one (at least I wouldn't have broken even during the lifetime of the unit).

1. 
   lkg907 | Mar 08, 2008 06:38am | #7

      Be cautious.  I just went through the exercise, and the code restrictions were HUGE.  Clearance from soffits, clearance from foot path areas, clearance from sidewalls.  Bear n mind that the discharge from these things exceeds 300 degrees F.

   LKG

5. 
   USAnigel | Mar 08, 2008 07:08am | #8

   We love ours but water flow does drop if running two things (rare as this was also a problem with the electric unit it replaced) Best thing is non-stop hot water!

   4.5 baths might be an idea to use 2 units as one per two bathrooms.