Tankless Water Heaters - Any Suggestions?

[ctrcbob]

Many years ago, when I lived and worked on the third largest island in the Mediterranean (Cyprus), my house had a tankless gas water heater. It was great. Sure it had a pilot light but I guess today, had units would have more modern igniters. Water entered a core of a coiled copper tube. When water flowed, gas would light in the center of the copper coil. Faster the water flow, the higher (and hotter) the flame. Worked great.Showers, washing machine, washing dishes (by hand) were no problems.

Don't know what they are like today, but back then, it was great.

 

[ARB1977]

The amount of hassle and money isn’t worth it from what I’ve been told.

 

[69GTX]

Also 2 member household here with average to low HW demands. I went from electric water to a tankless oil-fired burner 10 yrs ago. No maintenance issues so far other than routine cleaning to remove residual ash from the furnace side. The 1 minute delay to get hot water to the other side of the house is a bit annoying at times. Not a big deal though. Don't have a dishwasher to comment on that. When doing dishes by hand no issue when running 3-5 gallons of hot water.

Can't say I've seen much of a difference before or after we switched. While our electric bill is lower, we're no doubt using more oil during the warmest months of the year (mid May to mid Sept) when the old burner would have remained off. I'd estimate that for those 4 warmer months we use 50-75 gallons of heating oil to cycle hot water.

 

[Gebo]

Originally Posted By: Whimsey
Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted By: UncleDave
My dishwasher only has a cold fill and uses it's own heating element - so it depends on the dishwasher.


My understanding is that this is the standard configuration....


Maybe on newer ones but the older ones were hot water fill.


My Bosch dishwasher has a heating element that will heat the "hot" water feed if it's not up to 140*F I believe.
Whimsey


My Bosch heats the water, too.

 

[Gebo]

IMHO, tankless water heating is not quite where it needs to be for me to switch. Maybe in a few more years...

 

[JustinH]

For the price of a standard water heater, the tankless does not seem worth it unless you are doing the install yourself.

Then if you do the install yourself, you get no warranty.

Amazon and ebay sell gas water heaters, and even with doing it yourself, you can't beat $400 for a standard water heater obtained locally.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I was going to try to drain the water heater but it literally does not have a drain. Looked on all 4 sides of the tank. Anyone know how to drain the sediment out of it?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Edit:

The water heater did not die!

Last weekend I was taking measurements and planning for a dishwasher install. I pulled the access panel out.

Today the water was completely cold. Pulled out the access panel again to check the pilot light and noticed that the temperature was set to off. Turned it back up to the lowest setting and I have hot water again!

The access panel was hitting the switch. So when I pulled it out a few times, the heat turned down a hair. Until it turned off.

 

[alarmguy]

Up and downs to every technology.

Tankless certainly solves the "space" issue and a perfect solution for some people, nothing wrong with it.

HOWEVER,
Marketing by the manufacturers, home builders, home improvement stores and plumbers make it sound like the best thing on earth. Add to that the save the earth people and ... well you know.

Bottom line, nothing replaces the ready hot water supply of a traditional hot water heater.
Its cost to run is no more then pennies more a month to operate. The reason all the stores above push tankless is simply, the profits much greater. Fancy marketing, lots of "options' to confuse people certainly makes it easy to make money on it, vs a tank with a flame below it.

If you dont have a space issue, traditional tank is best for hot water. Its clean, always ready, and easy to replace a decade or more later with a new model.

Its much like the front loading washing machine craze of years past, all of a sudden, people realizing they have been getting soaked with profits for the manufacturers, when a $300 top loader washes clothes better and more reliably. )