We are needing to replace the old water heater. What's the best system now?

[kep]

I am seeing so many mixed reviews for tankless heaters. I am sure the plumbing in our house is crazy. Everything else is! We are a family of 7, in 1800 square feet. We rarely shower too close together, usually staggered by at least 45 minutes between showers. DH is really interested in a tankless, but I am nervous it isn't going to work well. Unlimited hot water though is tempting! Any BTDT, favorite brands, etc.?

[Kindra178]

Do you have a boiler? If yes, a boiler heated hot water system is amazing.


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[2ndtimearound]

We put in a Navien tankless about 6 months ago. Overall, I am happy with it. There are lots of things to consider-- gas v. electric, hard water v. softener, location of the plumbing, etc. In my case, we live in SoCal, so no basement. Our 60s era house was built with the water heater in a closet adjacent to the main bath. I wanted it moved out of the house. One of the reasons, I went with a tankless was because it could be mounted to the side of the house. I also had to have the gas line and water lines re-run. The claim of "instant" hot water is not accurate. It takes longer than when I had a regular tank. Also because ours was gas, I do not see any savings in our electric bill. We also have very hard water, so we had to put a filter on the line. This will need to be maintained yearly,which will cost about $250. Also, because the water heater has an electric starter, but burns gas, if the power goes out, we lose hot water. That was not an issue with our gas tank heater. Really, my reason for doing it was to get the water heater out of the house. It did that. I wanted the city to inspect it, so I had to go with the Cadillac of plumbers. I don't regret it, but if I could have accomplished what I wanted using a tank, I would have.

[smiles33]

We looked into a tankless maybe 5 years ago (or more?) when we needed to replace a 10 year old traditional water heater. At that time, the retrofit models required larger diameter gas inflow pipes (or whatever they're called) than the standard piping. This would have meant spending over $2K to replace our gas piping system. So we opted to just go with the traditional tank model from Costco for about $900. I know Takagi (a Japanese brand) was highly rated at the time.

Maybe see if you can get some estimates?

[anonomom]

We went tankless about 5 years ago. I can't remember the brand -- perhaps Rinnai? I'll admit I hated it at first. Tankless heaters are incredibly persnickety about plumbing. We had some weird plumbing on our third floor and for the first few weeks we had our tankless taking showers was an exercise in Russian Roulette. But my DH was able to fix the issue with the plumbing and we haven't had any issues since then. I love having enough hot water that we can give all three kids successive/simultaneous baths or showers and have enough hot water for everyone.

For us, the biggest benefit was that our water heater was on the third floor. Several people in our neighborhood had had their tanks leak and do thousands of dollars of damage before it was discovered. With the tankless outside, we do not have that concern. That peace of mind is great.

[TwinFoxes]

OP, we are in a similar situation. DH wants a tankless, and I'm not sure it's the way to go. I'd rather just get a really big tank heater. I don't believe we will get instant hot water. He wants it basically because it's the newest gadget, if you ask me. It's so much more expensive than a regular tank. We have gas, so we won't be seeing much savings. I'll be following this thread.

[marymoo86]

You have more people in the house than we do OP. We just replaced our tank. It was old and small.

Our plumber who has done all of our remodeling work installed a new commercial grade efficient 50 gal heater. We had asked about tankless but given the cost and maintenance, it didn't make sense for us.

You might want to check your local city/county to see what rebates could be available for various units. I was very intrigued with the Geospring electric water heater system if you have electric.

[o_mom]

Yeah, tankless is not the same as instant hot water. With a tank or tankless, all the cool water in the pipes has to be run out before you get to the hot water. How long that takes will depend on how far you are from the hot water heater. For instant hot water you need a recirculating line which will continuously circulate the hot water from the farthest tap to the heater so that the water in the pipes is kept hot. That is hard to put in to existing construction.

Everything I have read has said that there isn't always a savings with the tankless from an energy usage perspective, but that you do gain the unlimited hot water since it heats it on demand.

[lil_acorn]

Do you have a boiler? If yes, a boiler heated hot water system is amazing.


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:yeahthat: This is what we did.

[khm]

I am seeing so many mixed reviews for tankless heaters. I am sure the plumbing in our house is crazy. Everything else is! We are a family of 7, in 1800 square feet. We rarely shower too close together, usually staggered by at least 45 minutes between showers. DH is really interested in a tankless, but I am nervous it isn't going to work well. Unlimited hot water though is tempting! Any BTDT, favorite brands, etc.?

I don't know much about tankless, but we did look at a house that had two separate regular water heaters. They we a large family and just got tired of the hot water running out. So, they piggy backed a second water heater. Just another option depending on your space constraints.

[kristenk]

We replaced our hot water heater a few years ago. I really, really wanted to go to a tankless just to reclaim the closet that the hot water heater was in. After finding out that the tankless would have to stay in the same area and the cost of the unit and talking to the plumber, we decided to stick with a regular tank. Our house has 2 water heaters. One is for the kitchen and laundry, the other goes to the bathrooms. We decided that we typically didn't run out of hot water, so switching to tankless wouldn't be all that beneficial to us.

I'm still a little bummed that the switch to tankless didn't work out - I would love to have a hall closet!!

[kep]

Thanks guys! We do not have a boiler, but we do have crazy stupid plumbing, so I think we are leaning toward getting another 50 gallon tanked heater. It seems like the safest bet for us. ;)

[niccig]

For us, the biggest benefit was that our water heater was on the third floor. Several people in our neighborhood had had their tanks leak and do thousands of dollars of damage before it was discovered. With the tankless outside, we do not have that concern. That peace of mind is great.

This is why we're replacing our tank with a tankless water heater. The tank is in a very small basement area with the furnace. We're lucky when it leaked last time it didn't take out the furnace. We know we won't be lucky a 2nd time do were replacing the tank with a tankless model