Anyone have a tankless water heater?

[stormborn]

Are you happy with it? Pros and cons?

Our 58 gal. water heater needs replacing and as usual dh wants to buy a new one RIGHT NOW, so I don't have much time to research. Mostly I'm worried about if they can keep up with demand. We have 6 people in the house right now so fighting over "who used all the hot water" could be a problem.

TIA

[gmvh]

We looked into and ultimately decided not to do it.

I think the biggest thing was that the plumbing contractor could not tell us if we'd have enough gas pressure (we were looking at a natural gas whole house system) to run the thing and that there was a chance that the gas company would refuse to change our meter to give us a larger diameter incoming pipe. Then what? We'd have $2500 of plumbing work done and no hot water.

If/when we move into a custom house situation, we'll have one built in. From the research we've done, they're much more reasonable that way vs. retrofitting (cost-wise). My husband ended up replacing our traditional wh with a power-vented heater (so not much difference other than it's vented through the side vs. the chimney). It was also not an inexpensive proposition and I think he regrets not just buying a tankless heater and doing it himself. The most easily available store model is a Bosch and it does not get consistent reviews.

Good luck! Is there one shower that gets used more? Could you put in a tanked heater and add an electric tankless heater in the bathroom that gets the most use?

[laohaire]

I wish I could tell you - but your situation with 6 people is a lot different from my situation with 3 people (one of those being a 2 year old who shares her bath with me... so really only 2 people using hot water).

We switched from tank to tankless, I don't remember why (other than the tank needing to be replaced, but why we went with the coil I don't remember). But we've been very satisfied. While we occassionally (but not very often) ran out of hot water with the tank, we never ran out with the coil, because it was so quick to heat up if demand is high.

We even filled a whole birthing pool with hot water, so hot I had to let the pool sit uncovered for three days while it cooled down (DH filled to his taste, but it was TOO HOT!! LOL). I'm sure that took a great deal of fuel, but anyway.

But for 6 people, I don't know.

Maybe it would actually be better for you, since the coils can reheat much quicker than an entire tank can.

But maybe not, what do I know? lol

[stormborn]

Thanks ladies. Arrrgh now we don't know if it's actually the heater itself or not. A friend came over and bled the pipes going into the tank which fixed it...for 24 hours. So I guess it's air getting into the pipes somehow. We would have to buy a new heater on credit which I hate to do so I hope we can fix it.

Originally Posted by gmvh

Good luck! Is there one shower that gets used more? Could you put in a tanked heater and add an electric tankless heater in the bathroom that gets the most use?

We actually only have one shower but now that I think about it the shower is most of our usage. I usually wash clothes in cold and the dishwasher heats its own. So maybe we don't use as much hot water as I think we do.

[bigeyes]

We have one, they call them 'instant' water heaters here. From a water conservation standpoint, they suck. We're going to switch to solar ASAP. The problem is, by the time enough water has run through the heater to reach the pipes in the kitchen or bathroom, you've run a lot of cold water down the drain, yk? Wasteful and annoying.

I can't wait to get rid of it.