Tankless water heaters

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BackInTex · #1 Post by **BackInTex** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:00 pm

Who has one?

What size house (number of bathrooms)?

Any problems or dislikes?

I've already purchased one and had it installed. Replaced 2 50-gallon water heaters with a 7.4 gallons a minute tankless. My house has 3 1/2 baths.

It didn't work yesterday afternoon for my wife, it kept cutting off. So she is complaining and sayng I didn't do my research. What about when 3 of us want to take showers at the same time, in the winter?

She is also concerned that when the electricity goes out that we won't have hot water. She is correct about that, but I asked her how many time she has taken a shower with the electricity off. Four times in 8 1/2 years. I can live with that.

Anyway, to help with the buyer's remorse, I need some postive success stories.

Begin now.

MarleysGh0st · #2 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:10 pm

BackInTex wrote:Who has one?

Not me. But can I respond anyway?

BackInTex wrote:What about when 3 of us want to take showers at the same time, in the winter?

What's the flow rate on your shower heads? If it's 2.5 gallons/minute each, I'd say you'd have a problem.

According to this DOE page:

Before 1992, some showerheads had flow rates of 5.5 gpm.

Bob Juch · #3 Post by **Bob Juch** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:18 pm

You need a bigger shower.

earendel · #4 Post by **earendel** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:23 pm

BackInTex wrote:Who has one?

My water heater certainly has a tankless job - I just revel in the hot water and never once bother to express my gratitude.

BackInTex wrote:What about when 3 of us want to take showers at the same time, in the winter?

You devil you!!

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #5 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:35 pm

We had a tankless water heater in Connecticut and I hated it.

I like to take really hot baths and in the winter I could never get a tub full of nice hot water. In order to get a bath at my favorite temperature, I would have to heat pots of boiling water on the stove and add it to my bath.

BackInTex · #6 Post by **BackInTex** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:53 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:We had a tankless water heater in Connecticut and I hated it.

I like to take really hot baths and in the winter I could never get a tub full of nice hot water. In order to get a bath at my favorite temperature, I would have to heat pots of boiling water on the stove and add it to my bath.

I'm sorry, maybe I didn't make my request clear.

BackInTex · #7 Post by **BackInTex** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:56 pm

MarleysGh0st wrote: What's the flow rate on your shower heads? If it's 2.5 gallons/minute each, I'd say you'd have a problem.

Well, the 7.4 gallons a minute is increasing the water temp 45 degrees. If three people are takeing showers with 2.5 gallons a minute heads, they necessessarily wouldn't all have only the hot water on. If it is mixed 2 to 1, then they would only be using 6 gallons of hot watter a minute.

tlynn78 · #8 Post by **tlynn78** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:56 pm

I remember Bix researching and (I think) buying one of these. I don't recall any grousing about it from her. Yup, check w/Bix.

t.

BackInTex · #9 Post by **BackInTex** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:58 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:We had a tankless water heater in Connecticut and I hated it.

I like to take really hot baths and in the winter I could never get a tub full of nice hot water. In order to get a bath at my favorite temperature, I would have to heat pots of boiling water on the stove and add it to my bath.

I can heat the water to 140 degree (once I reset the dip switch). That should be plenty hot, unless you want third degree burns rather than second.

My concern is the winter. With 7.4 gallons a minute and a 45 degree rise in temp, if the water comes in at 60, then it will only heat to 105. But then that is plenty warm, and it will heat more at less than 7.4.

TheConfessor · #10 Post by **TheConfessor** » Thu May 22, 2008 2:05 pm

I first encountered a tankless water heater in Spain about 13 years ago. I was impressed, and if I ever need to replace my current water heater, I'll probably go tankless.

If yours delivers 7.4 gal/min at the same temperature as your old water heaters did, you should be fine. I think it's probably typical for most people to adjust the flow to mix roughly equal parts of hot and cold water to achieve a comfortable shower temperature. Using that assumption, you'd be able to deliver 14.8 gal/minute of shower-temperature water, enough for six simultaneous showers at 2.5 gal/min. If you get a lower flow shower head, such as the 1.5 gal/min models at
http://www.showerheadstore.com/
then you'll be able to take almost ten simultaneous showers. But you'll need to add several more bathrooms.

TheConfessor · #11 Post by **TheConfessor** » Thu May 22, 2008 2:10 pm

BackInTex wrote:My concern is the winter. With 7.4 gallons a minute and a 45 degree rise in temp, if the water comes in at 60, then it will only heat to 105. But then that is plenty warm, and it will heat more at less than 7.4.

What is your incoming water temperature today? I can't imagine there being a 35 degree difference between summer and winter temperatures of your incoming water. I'd guess closer to 10 degrees, and maybe less.

ToLiveIsToFly · #12 Post by **ToLiveIsToFly** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:53 pm

My (12-unit) condo building has a tankless heater. Our gas bills are a LOT lower than they were with the old heater. I can't say that's all because of the tanklessness, but I'm pretty sure a lot of it is.

When both showers are in use, you have to adjust the hot/cold mix to get the temperature right, but you can do it. (I take warm showers, but not scalding.)

In two years, I've never once noticed a problem with the water temp, even at 7:00 in the morning, other than the aforementioned both-of-OUR-showers-at-the-same-time quirk, which is more of a quirk than a problem.

ToLiveIsToFly · #13 Post by **ToLiveIsToFly** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:56 pm

Sorry, meant to add:

The last place we lived before we moved in here had a tank water heater, and we had to shower FAST. Otherwise, the second showerer would get frozen midway through. You'd be surprised how high a percentage of our newlywed figths were over this. And it wasn't like waiting a half-hour fixed the problem, it was hours and hours.

With a tankless heater, you never run out of hot water.

SportsFan68 · #14 Post by **SportsFan68** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:57 pm

BackInTex wrote:Who has one?

A good friend couple.

What size house (number of bathrooms)?

Just one

Any problems or dislikes?

Their water is very hard, so every now and again the coil gets clogged with crud and quits working, so no hot water at all until they fix that.

I've already purchased one and had it installed. Replaced 2 50-gallon water heaters with a 7.4 gallons a minute tankless. My house has 3 1/2 baths.

It didn't work yesterday afternoon for my wife, it kept cutting off. So she is complaining and sayng I didn't do my research. What about when 3 of us want to take showers at the same time, in the winter?

She is also concerned that when the electricity goes out that we won't have hot water. She is correct about that, but I asked her how many time she has taken a shower with the electricity off. Four times in 8 1/2 years. I can live with that.

Anyway, to help with the buyer's remorse, I need some postive success stories.

Begin now.

They adore it when it's working, and it's not working only every six or eight months or so. They both take loooooooooong luxurious showers and can run the dishwasher a couple times in a row -- we have to wait if we want hot water for the second load.

ghostjmf · #15 Post by **ghostjmf** » Thu May 22, 2008 4:20 pm

Gee, my brother's stingy apartment landlords put one of these in, but being stingy landlords didn't set it for very long a run per shower. By brother takes short showers, though, so says he doesn't mind.

I thought you could set it to the max if a whole household was depending on it.

Bixby17 · #16 Post by **Bixby17** » Thu May 22, 2008 5:13 pm

We worship our tankless water heater. We have a Takagi (sp?).

We have one story, about 2900 sq feet, 3 bathrooms.

The good parts:

Endless endless endless hot water. You can take the longest shower ever and it never runs out.

We don't have problems ever getting it hot enough-we never have it near the highest setting The water in Houston never gets cold enough to really matter.

The quality of the hot water is better. You don't have the crud stirred up from the bottom of your hot water heater going through the pipes. It comes through relatively clean because the water never sat.

Lower gas bills.

We have had it since 2001, and never had any problems with it. We also had the best people in town install it--a lot of plumbers aren't very familiar with installation. You have to make sure that the people are familiar with installation and know what size system you need for your house, stories of your house, water needs, etc.

The not so good parts:

It is not very good with multiple showers at the same time. The water pressure really drops.

It is also is rough if you are using hot water some place else in the house and you want to take a shower at the same time.

It takes a little longer for the hot water to get to the pipes in the bathroom farthest away.

If the power blinks off, you need to restart the system. We don't take showers when the electricity is off typically.

All in all, we love it. Husband and I both agree that it is the best purchase we have ever made for our house. (We are currently having a new roof put on--supposed to be a new product for residential use that is supposed to last for 20-30 years instead of 10 years like the typical roof product).

If your water heater keeps cutting off, it is not installed properly or you are using a lot of hot water in multiple places in the house all at once.

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