I am thinking about installing a tankless water heater. I have a large house with a larger family. What are the good brands? What should I look for? What are the down sides to tankless water heaters?
I am thinking about installing a tankless water heater. I have a large house with a larger family. What are the good brands? What should I look for? What are the down sides to tankless water heaters?
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Replies
Try the forum search. There have been at least a dozen tankless water heater threads in the past year.
I have a Takagi tk2 . Its great. For a bigger family and a biger house they have larger models. I have had Rannais installed for some of my clients. My plumber likes them best. Both brands are well respected. WHen I bought my house it had a 20 + year old Bosch. IT was still working. My Takgi gives us endless hot water and we can run the dishwasher while we both take showers.
Randy there have been at least 10 thread on this this week, but take a look at this, no I do not work for them at this point I feel I should get some $$.
http://www.hotwater.com/products/residential/rg-vertex100.html
Tankless problems:
sound good then:
unit 1000 Plus
Stainless venting an added 600 plus
labor a bit more, you need for most a 3/4 gas line, sometimes dedicated depends on what else you have i.e. standard h2o heater and furnace can work off 1/2 line. a tankless takes has many or more BTU's then both.
Flushing isolation valves add install dollars yearly maintenance to flush unit of minerial deposits.
water sandwiching more so with kitchen faucet constant on and off.
This A O Smith has the best of tanked and tankless, on some installs it might be cheaper then a tankless. I don't have one was thinking of going with the smith then do to the length of time we plan on being here went standard.
WAllyo
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=99640
"unit 1000 Plus"Numbers that I have seen or more like 2000 plus..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
"unit 1000 Plus"
Numbers that I have seen or more like 2000 plus.
Eh? What sort of tankless is this? I could see the high-end, high-capacity units going for that much, but very few of the consumer models I've seen retail for more than $1000. My tankless, a Rheem 7.4GPM (max output of course) model, cost me about $880. Install was about another $1K, due to the length of exhaust run.
People are right about the install costs, though. Even on new construction, it pays to be very careful about siting the heater so as to minimize the length of exhaust needed, as it's quite expensive. If I had it to do over again, I'd have mine mounted such that it'd direct-vent out the wall on the second floor, rather than in the basement.
The only complaint I have is that it can take quite a while for water to reach the master bath, but that is less a function of the WH we chose than the fact that the master bath is about a 50' run from the source (House is a 2900SF 2-story). Otherwise it works like a champ.
Jason
What is water sandwiching?
That's covered in the previous 240 different threads on tankless heaters.
The search function is so nice!
Thanks. Seems to be a problem with the search function. I'll try later.
In the advanced search function, type in "Tankless water heater." Then choose (first) "Construction Techniques." Hit "Search."
Repeat with "Energy, Insulation, etc." in a second search for more. Repeat using different folders until you've had enuff.
Thanks.
This is another reason to fully understand what a tankless leads to:
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=115597.1
Seriously, with a large family, there ain't no way, even with whips, that you are gonna save with a tankless.
basic: It is hot-cold-hot-cold-hot water in the supply pipe do to the unit firing up shutting down etc as you turn the faucet on and off several times for just a bit like at a kitchen sink while preparing diner. Depend on the length of the run. With a single handle faucet most leave it in center every time you open it the heater fires, even if you just wanted cold water it will fire up because there is a call for water. If you go tankless in my opinion best to have 2 handle faucets that way if you want cold all you get is cold.Wallyo
"...you need for most a 3/4 gas line..."Depending on distance from the meter, you may need as much as 2" pipe to overcome line resistance enough to to deliver sufficient volume of gas at the water heater. I installed a tankless that was 50+ feet from the meter. I had to run 20' of 2", 25' of 1 1/4" and 5 feet of 3/4" to get sufficient volume of flow. Cost the HO a lot more in time and materials than a new tank type and in the end his gas bill went up, not down, because his teen aged boys no longer ran out of hot water in their showers.BruceT
Did you look at running a 2 psi system for that instead of upping the pipe size..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
Yeah, LOTS of previous discussions. .... my opinion (again).
Generally I feel tankless as being oversold to people making them feel like the tank style technology is 'energy inefficient' and that a tankless will reduce your hot water costs "dramatically". Old tanks you may replace may be inefficient ... new tanks ... just as efficient as tankless.
For large families w/ regular water use ... personally there is little benefit of the tankless. Yeah ... bottomless/endless hot water .... but it comes at a price.
Downsides:
Very expensive to install. Gas or electric service is often much larger than that required by a tank.
No hot water when you have a power outage.
Upsides:
Saves standby loss on your tank style. - I've calc'd it at a few bucks a year (IOW big deal). This is effectively the ONLY energy benefit ... you can buy new tank style with the same combustion/water heating efficiency as tankless.
Saves space ... if that is an issue.
You want to save on hot water costs? Do some water savings throughout the house. Install JetStream shower heads at 1.5 gpm ... I've been 'testing' them on people who I've yet to hear any complaints ... in fact a lady w/ the teenage daughters from heck ... who we had to pry the test head out of their teenage hands to get it back. Now THAT is satisfaction. Front loading washer. Good dishwasher. That should reduce your water heating bill a LOT more than a tankless and your water bill, too.
Invest in water savings, it's a better investment IMO.