Anyone have or look into getting a tankless water heater?

[gordo]

We just moved into a new house. I have this great, huge jacuzzi tub, but the darn water heater is not big enough to even fill it. So we are looking at getting a new one and DH is really interested in a tankless one. Just wondering if anyone has any positive or negative reviews about them.

[geochick]

Dh has done some research, and can't wait for our old tank to die so we can replace it with a tankless. Here's one of the places he's been reading...5th one down.

http://www.consumersearch.com/water-heaters

[niccig]

Me too. I want to know as well.

[lilycat88]

We replaced or hot water heater about a year ago. We were planning on going with a tankless but decided not to. We went with a gas AO Smith Vortex direct vent water heater. I'm trying to think of all of the reasons. Some I remember...

High up front expense. It was going to take us longer than the lifespan of the unit to realize a savings.

It's not truly "instant" hot water as they say.

Hard water causes problems. Even with soft water, there is scale build-up on the coils. More maint. issues than we wanted to deal with.

The controls are electric so if you lose power, you lose hot water.

There is a supply issue. We were told that doing multiple things at once...laundry and shower...two showers...etc. could/would be an issue.

I seem to recall something about having to do some additional wiring or modifications to accomodate tankles.

We love the Vortex we have and have noticed a decrease in cost. It also qualified for tax credits based on the efficiency.

[Sassie030]

My DH is a plumber and I just asked him since he as sitting right here. He said that over the last couple of years they have made them bigger and more efficient to try and fix the constant hot water issue. He does agree with the post above as they are all the good reasons most customer decide against it. However, he said the biggest reason at this point is that they are very expensive to purchase and install so by the time you recoup that cost the unit will need to be replaced. Hope that helped a little!!

[smiles33]

We seriously looked into it as we have a solar PV system on our roof so I'd love to use that excess electricity to heat my water. However, our contractor said the retrofitting cost would be too high to justify the expense unless we're already planning a major remodel or it's new construction. Apparently, it has to do with the diameter of the pipes in the venting system so you need to pull out the old system that's set up for the huge gas-powered tank and put in a new venting system.

I didn't even get into investigating specific units, but I know we have very hard water in my area (we keep thinking of getting a water softening system) so it sounds like that's an issue per lilycat's post.

[larig]

when our tank heater died last september we got a tankless. we have a TINY house, and they can be mounted outside, so we gained a lot of room in our utility/laundry room. It was probably 3 times the cost of getting a tank installed, but we did not shop around, because it was an emergency thing--had a 3 month old at the time. I am sure we could have gotten a better price, but overall we are happy with it. it takes no longer for us to get hot water than it did when we had a tank heater. it is gas. I haven't paid attention to how much it is saving us in terms of utilities, but the money wasn't really the point for us, it was primarily about the space. That's a huge benefit that a lot of people don't think about, plus it is just less gross to me, our old one was kinda scary looking. We have 1 bathroom and generally don't use a ton of water except for the daily dishwasher and laundry that come with kids. I can run washer, dishwasher and tap water and still get warm tap water. We are really happy with ours.

[schums]

We have one, and while I like it better now, I probably wouldn't get another one.

Pluses:
- you can not run out of hot water. We've had 2 showers plus the washer running at the same time, and there is hot water for everyone. I think the number of applications you can use at one time varies by model, but we've been fine.
- it does take up a ton less room. It's suitcase size and hangs on the wall of our basement.

Minuses:
- takes slightly longer to get hot water to anywhere in the house. Basically, it heats the water as you request it, and it looks for a high enough volume of water going through it before it kicks on the gas.
- it is WAY more sensitive to any change in how hot you want the water to be. So, for example, if you turn on the water all the way to hot to get hot water to the shower, and then turn it down to warm, you get hot, then cold, then warm.
- it is very water pressure sensitive. So if you turn the volume of water down, the unit may turn off, leaving you with cold water. Also, if you turn the water off, the unit shuts off. When you turn the water back on, you have the startup time again for the unit. So you get warm (leftover in the pipe), then cold, then warm/hot again.

Like anything, it has it's quirks and ways of doing things. Honestly, if I got a do-over, I'd go with a super efficient, super big (like 60 gallon) traditional water heater.

[catsnkid]

My parents have one and they are very happy with it.

[cheri]

We had one in our old house and loved it, but we have a plain old tank one now...and it's fine, too.

I don't miss the tankless as much as I thought I would.

[kristenk]

We'd like to replace one of the water heaters in our house with a tankless one. BIL has one and he's been very happy with it. Actually, I think that BIL and FIL installed his tankless water heater.

We'd like to install one primarily for space issues. If we get a tankless, we can free up a large portion of space in our hot water heater closet and actually get space for coats and the vacuum cleaner. The heater we'd replace only supplies hot water to the bathrooms. The dishwasher and washing machine are on a separate water heater.