Tankless Hot Water Heaters?

[gymnbomb]

Who has a tankless hot water heater? Do you like it? If you added it recently, how much is installation?
I think our current hot water heater is about 9 years old, and the thread about water damage from them dying has me thinking about looking into a replacement. I browsed them on the Home Depot website, but I don't know which ones are good (enough) or how much I need to add to the budget for installation.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Interested too! We should have started researching as our renovation starts in like a month and we have made no decisions...

[marymoo86]

There's been ongoing discussions on this at work from the engineers. Concensus is that you go tankless for convenience - you rarely save the money for cost differential and it has challenges if there are multiple uses of hot water at the same time.

Installation will vary great depending on where it is located, if you have to upgrade electrical, need new venting, etc. Seems like average is around $3000 but go higher.

[Philly Mom]

We just replaced ours. Our local company did not recommend one based on the cost, the amount of hot water we use at one time, and how far traditional water heaters have come in dealing with leaks. With our new one, we have a tray underneath and a sensor. It immediately shuts off if any water touches the tray.

[khm]

We looked into it last year. We'd always figured we'd go that route. But, our tank one started to leak. It would have taken a lot longer to get a tankless one installed, and since we were without hot water altogether, we went the quick route and got a new regular one. It was considerably cheaper as well.

[trcy]

We just had to replace our hot water heater (Merry Christmas to us [emoji849]). We asked about tankless. What we we're told was they haven't perfected them yet, so you don't get consistently with the hot water (he went into more detail, but I don't remember the specifics). He also said you more often than not need to upgrade your electrical system to support them. The unit's themselves are also significantly more expensive. Needless to say, went went with another tank.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Baby Bargains mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87652)

[HannaAddict]

We have one dedicated to our master bath (huge shower and huge tub) and it is great. Never runs out no matter what. Rest of the house has traditional tank. Our vacation house has two tankless water heaters and we have no issues and because it circulates I guess better to avoid frozen pipes (in the mountains and snowy in winter). All were installed as when newly built and not by us, but I would not hesitate to get one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ett]

We have one in our house which we built 2 years ago. It works great and I love not worrying about running out of hot water.

[Dayzy]

My vacation home is on its third in 5 years. Thank goodness for a warranty. After that expires I'll be going to a traditional heater.

[PZMommy]

I was the one who posted in the BP. Our water heater did not just leak, but pretty much burst away from all of the piping due to the pressure thingy breaking. It was a total mess. We are finishing up the dry out phase, but currently have walls cut out, most of our flooring ripped out etc. At the time our pipes were bursting water every which direction I swore we would never use a drop of hot water ever again! The water heater people did not recommend a tankless water heater because I asked about it. We would need to upgrade our electrical, and in the morning we often take showers at the same time. We were already facing a huge unexpected expense of getting the water heater, so going tankless was not an option. We put in as many “safety features” as we could with the new water heater. However right now I have high anxiety over water. I hear the slightest noise and I’m convinced water is dripping from someplace.

[pharmjenn]

We put in a tankless a few years ago. I don't think it was a cost savings, but did clear out a nice space in the garage. My complaint is that it takes 2 gallons of water to get hot in our kitchen and our master bath. I think they are the furthest down the line from the garage location of the water heater. In the shower, I just fill a bucket and use it to water outdoor plants (in California, so we got used to doing this anyway over the last few years) and just do my dishes in cold in the kitchen. But definitely something to consider.

[HannaAddict]

My vacation home is on its third in 5 years. Thank goodness for a warranty. After that expires I'll be going to a traditional heater.

Sounds like issues with installation or brand. Never heard of going through them like that and the higher end homes here have them and love them. Ours are going on ten years at our vacation home and six years at regular home. Three in five would be frustrating!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HannaAddict]

We put in a tankless a few years ago. I don't think it was a cost savings, but did clear out a nice space in the garage. My complaint is that it takes 2 gallons of water to get hot in our kitchen and our master bath. I think they are the furthest down the line from the garage location of the water heater. In the shower, I just fill a bucket and use it to water outdoor plants (in California, so we got used to doing this anyway over the last few years) and just do my dishes in cold in the kitchen. But definitely something to consider.

This should not happen. They install something on the line (technical right!) that keeps water hot to all areas. Our vacation house is 3,400+ sq ft and have hot water in all the locations and after skiing no issues with lots of use (when guests there and all bedrooms are en-suite so lots of simultaneous showers). I would see how much it costs to get a booster or whatever it is called. Might be worth it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[twowhat?]

We switched one of our two traditional water heaters to tankless as part of a remodel, because we needed that space in the attic and a tankless took up much less space. We had to re-route a gas line in the attic to serve the tankless but other than that since we already had access to cold water pipes, etc, it was straightforward for a licensed plumber to install.

The water has to be running fast enough to turn it on and start heating, so think about that. You don't get "instant" hot water and if you start the water at a flow rate too low to trigger it to turn on, it won't ever get hot. This hasn't been an issue for us since when we use the hot water we have it turned all the way on. But - if I'm doing a load of laundry where I want to use the max amount of hot water, I will run the laundry room sink hot water tap on high for a couple of minutes to activate the tankless unit, and then start the washer so that the water is hot right away when it feeds into the washer. Otherwise, with a front-loader which uses less water, it may not get hot enough for your liking depending on how far away the tankless is (like a PP mentioned above, if it takes 2 gallons of water to get to the hot water, and your frontloader only uses 5 gallons in one load...that means the first 2 gallons of water won't be hot! Also, you have to get the right size tankless. If you need it to serve 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and laundry, it needs to be able to deliver enough hot water to all of those places simultaneously, particularly if you have guests...and some houses do not have a large enough cold water supply line to have enough water volume to do this, so be careful! Definitely be sure you have a licensed plumber install and check into all of these things.

Also, if there's a power outage, I don't think our tankless would work even though it uses gas - because the computer that tells the heater when to start heating wouldn't work. But I'm not totally sure about that and we haven't worried because we still have 2 bathrooms using the traditional water heater:)

No problems so far but it hasn't even been a year yet. We do have a condensate filter on it, which neutralizes the condensate that the tankless produces before it goes down the drain - otherwise the condensate is acidic and can erode your pipes. I'm also not sure what kind of regular maintenance it requires...I need to look into that.

For a traditional water heater, the most important thing you can do to prevent water damaging leaks is to make sure the pan underneath is in good shape AND drains properly. We've had a traditional water heater leak, and the pan and working drain saved us. There's also a pressure release thingy that prevents pressure from building up and causing a catastrophic leak, and that has to be installed correctly, with the right angle to it. If we didn't need to make space for the attic remodel, we would have just kept our traditional water heater, but sometimes it makes sense to switch. Some older homes don't have a large enough access point (closet or attic access door) to get a new traditional water heater in to replace the older ones. New ones are flat out bigger now - because they have had to keep up with the requirements to be more energy efficient and therefore they are more insulated.

[SnuggleBuggles]

This should not happen. They install something on the line (technical right!) that keeps water hot to all areas. Our vacation house is 3,400+ sq ft and have hot water in all the locations and after skiing no issues with lots of use (when guests there and all bedrooms are en-suite so lots of simultaneous showers). I would see how much it costs to get a booster or whatever it is called. Might be worth it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The research my dh has done show that they can be an issue depending on how your house is set up. Our tankless would be in the basement and would travel through the pipes. Our house is 1920s and I wonder if the infrastructure of a modern house lends itself better to success (I assume your house is newer or that you’ve totally renovated something). Curious if that’s not the case though. Otherwise I’m not sure how well situations can be compared


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gymnbomb]

I was the one who posted in the BP. Our water heater did not just leak, but pretty much burst away from all of the piping due to the pressure thingy breaking. It was a total mess. We are finishing up the dry out phase, but currently have walls cut out, most of our flooring ripped out etc. At the time our pipes were bursting water every which direction I swore we would never use a drop of hot water ever again! The water heater people did not recommend a tankless water heater because I asked about it. We would need to upgrade our electrical, and in the morning we often take showers at the same time. We were already facing a huge unexpected expense of getting the water heater, so going tankless was not an option. We put in as many “safety features” as we could with the new water heater. However right now I have high anxiety over water. I hear the slightest noise and I’m convinced water is dripping from someplace.

This is my worst fear! I talked to DH about it and (somewhat to my surprise) he quickly agreed that it's about time to start looking at new water heaters. I think we've decided to just replace with another traditional tank unit. We're hoping to move within the next 5 years and while we're doing stuff the house needs between now and then we're trying not to spend a lot more than necessary.

[pharmjenn]

This should not happen. They install something on the line (technical right!) that keeps water hot to all areas. Our vacation house is 3,400+ sq ft and have hot water in all the locations and after skiing no issues with lots of use (when guests there and all bedrooms are en-suite so lots of simultaneous showers). I would see how much it costs to get a booster or whatever it is called. Might be worth it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The research my dh has done show that they can be an issue depending on how your house is set up. Our tankless would be in the basement and would travel through the pipes. Our house is 1920s and I wonder if the infrastructure of a modern house lends itself better to success (I assume your house is newer or that you’ve totally renovated something). Curious if that’s not the case though. Otherwise I’m not sure how well situations can be compared


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Our house is less than 20yo, and 3500sf. The heater is in the garage, diagonal from our second floor master. The kitchen is directly below our master. I am sure the washing machine takes time to get hot as well, and it is much closer to the heater. I will have to try the sink trick, but we never wash in hot (haha, except today I actually wanted to, as our cat peed on my husbands white towel in our bathtub), and wash in cold mostly anyway.

My DH and our contractor dealt with the heater, so I may just have to google the brand and model and see if it is the right size. I would hope so, but you can't always trust men! The booster may be a good idea; I don't think we can add a shower only tankless at this point without opening up walls.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Dh did more research and it mostly seems like one of those that you have to prepare to spend a lot on up front plus consider a booster.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[anonomom]

We put a tankless in our old house in 2010. It was persnickety — the previous owners had botched a plumbing install and the tankless wouldn’t work right until we fixed it. But after that, we loved it. Hot water didn’t seem to take any longer to start than our tank had, and I loved not having to worry about a leak. I don’t recall having to change the electrical to install the tankless, but the house was only 17 years old.

We never had a problem getting hot water to multiple bathrooms at the same time.

[lizzywednesday]

...
Also, if there's a power outage, I don't think our tankless would work even though it uses gas - because the computer that tells the heater when to start heating wouldn't work. But I'm not totally sure about that and we haven't worried because we still have 2 bathrooms using the traditional water heater:)...

It won't work.

BIL and his family have a tankless heater for their house (put in during their major reno) and during Sandy, they had to come to MIL & FIL's to shower with hot water.

[Dream]

We've had one for 2 years. And the only difference I've noted is that it takes a tad bit longer to get hot water. But its not a big deal at all. My kids take very long showers on the same day back to back and no issues.

[smiles33]

Seeing the other thread about the water heater that failed has spurred me to move on replacing the old tank water heater at our vacation house. I read every post here and it seems like:

- high up front costs (I got a quote of $4500 for tankless install and $1500 for tank install) with a lengthy time before you "recoup" that initial investment (if you ever recoup it)
- limited energy savings since tank heaters are more efficient now
- "unlimited" supply of hot water if you take a lot of showers or run hot water for a long time but we have to get a booster to avoid the cold water delay
- no need to turn it on vacation mode every time we leave if it's tankless (which also helps us avoid the bacteria/Legionnaire's Disease issues when the water is left at a lower temp while we're gone)
- no fear of 50-100 gallons of water leaking out of a tank heater that fails (but is there some auto-shut off if the tankless heater fails to prevent flooding?)

Anyone able to answer that last question re: the risk of flooding with a tankless heater?

[twowhat?]

Seeing the other thread about the water heater that failed has spurred me to move on replacing the old tank water heater at our vacation house. I read every post here and it seems like:

- high up front costs (I got a quote of $4500 for tankless install and $1500 for tank install) with a lengthy time before you "recoup" that initial investment (if you ever recoup it)
- limited energy savings since tank heaters are more efficient now
- "unlimited" supply of hot water if you take a lot of showers or run hot water for a long time but we have to get a booster to avoid the cold water delay
- no need to turn it on vacation mode every time we leave if it's tankless (which also helps us avoid the bacteria/Legionnaire's Disease issues when the water is left at a lower temp while we're gone)
- no fear of 50-100 gallons of water leaking out of a tank heater that fails (but is there some auto-shut off if the tankless heater fails to prevent flooding?)

Anyone able to answer that last question re: the risk of flooding with a tankless heater?

There's a risk of flooding with any appliance that uses water - think flooding risks with dishwasher, washing machine, etc. A properly installed tankless heater has a pan underneath to catch and drain the condensate as well as drain water from a leak. However, if there's a catastrophic valve failure, the pan underneath may not contain the volume of water that leaks. There's a water shutoff valve to the tankless (just like the water shutoff to a traditional water heater) so that you can shut off the water at the site if that happens but of course you'd have to be there to catch it! I'm not sure if the risk is more or less than with a traditional water heater though! My guess is probably less (assuming it's properly installed) because, as you say, there's not that extra factor of already having 40-50 gallons of water sitting there.

Curiously, we just got our gas bill and despite having colder than normal temps this year and still having 1 traditional water heater, it's significantly less than last year's bill (when we had 2 traditional water heaters). BUT we also spray foam insulated our entire attic, which I think makes the bigger difference. Y'all, if you can afford to spray foam and you have enough access in the attic to do it completely and properly, it has made an AMAZING difference.