Looks like the water heater is going out. Trying to decide between a normal 50 gallon gas water heater but could upgrade to a Rinnai tankless water heater.
Anyone with some experience?
Anyone with some experience?
Tankless Water Heater
- Thread starter buckethead1978
- Start date
Had one and loved it. Gas unit is the way to go. Only drawback is it took awhile for the hot water to get through the house. Slower than what a regular water tank will do. Would have to leave the water running (when washing hands upstairs) for a good bit before hot water came out. Would consider installing a pump that shoots the hot water through the pipes quicker.
From what I asked my plumber when he installed my tank.
Conventional tank heaters are much cheaper to install and replace.
Tank and install was $800 while tankless will run $2000 or so not including any retro fitting. You may have to have a larger gas supply line installed.
If you have hard water a water softener may be a recommended install in addition.
Can you find people that can work on a tankless unit? Handyman Bubba doesn't have a clue.
Conventional tank heaters are much cheaper to install and replace.
Tank and install was $800 while tankless will run $2000 or so not including any retro fitting. You may have to have a larger gas supply line installed.
If you have hard water a water softener may be a recommended install in addition.
Can you find people that can work on a tankless unit? Handyman Bubba doesn't have a clue.
Our builder told us we can have instant hot, but that it would do away with the benefit of not paying to constantly heat water. Maybe he was lying, but I'm not sure.
Ours is a gas unit and we've had it for about 1.5 years with no issue. It's definitely nice to never have to worry about running out of hot water when family or friends are staying with us.
I'm honestly not sure either as I speak from no actual experience, but I'll find out. Makes sense though.
I don't have gas, only electric, and from what I understand if you use electric you will likely need to upgrade your breaker box to handle the power needed to heat the water up quickly.
Here's a good article I came across: http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/Longevity/tankless-water-heaters.html
I have both a tankless and a conventional tank system, though mine is 150 gallon unlike a traditional 50 gallon. This is used to meet the extensive water demands of my large family and abundant square footage.
I leave all outlets running with my tankless because I don't care how much the water and electric bills are.
My cousin, who has worked as a plumber for a major central KY company for the past 15 years, has advocated tankless hot water heaters since day one. We are purchasing such a unit when our present system kicks the proverbial bucket.
I will likely have to change ours out as well here soon. We have lived here for 12 years and I believe the date on the heater puts it over 15 years old. I thought that I read the lifespan on a water heater is around 10 years. Did any of you change yours out in advance of it breaking or did you just wait until it went out and risked damage to your house? I hate to pay to replace one that still works (not as good as it once was though), but I definitely don't want to have it flood my house.
I installed a hot water on demand unit in our house in 2004. It is a Aqua Star 240. When it goes kaput I will install a larger model. We replace a 75 gal water heater. We have three bathrooms now and only had one when we installed it. Our water heater gas consumption dropped in half. I was able to determine this by our summer bill. The only gas that we used in the summer months at that time was for hot water. It really came in handy when my daughter and her family moved in for eight months. It doesn't take any longer for the hot water to come from this unit versus a tank style heater.
You are probably skating on the proverbial thin ice. Do you want to wait till you have to take a very cold shower some morning? Also you are taking the risk of the tank rusting out and then you have water damage. The peace of mind alone is worht what ever use you give up on the old unit. I replace a 13 yr old 75gal water heater. I had put a thermocouple in it and decided that it wasn't worth the roll of the dice. When I renovated the house five years ago I relocated the unit to the pantry. I left extra space so when I replace this one, I can get a larger model. The one we have is 165BTU it just doesn't want to handle two showers at once. We don't have that problem very often with just the two of us. It is when we have five or six grand kids staying here at once. The boys seem to all want to take one hour showers.
Not sure where your pantry is but a water heater can easily wreck your kitchen floors.
The basement (if you have one) is the best place.
Some of this is some good info. Still trying to decide if this is worth paying $1200 more over the tank heater.
I like that the tankless has a much longer life but I do worry about the effect of Kentucky’s hard water on it.
The basement (if you have one) is the best place.
Some of this is some good info. Still trying to decide if this is worth paying $1200 more over the tank heater.
I like that the tankless has a much longer life but I do worry about the effect of Kentucky’s hard water on it.
I looked into tankless a few years ago, but I'm also on electric only. Seems like the consensus at that time was that the electric version is much less efficient and not worth the trouble. Maybe things have improved since then?
The consensus is still that they aren't worth the additional cost. The payback on the savings takes the entire life of the equipment to realize. Besides the additional cost of the equipment, you also have to update electric if it runs on electric, and special venting for gas. The old venting can't be used.
If you have alot of users, you're better off just increasing the size of your next traditional water tank.
If you have alot of users, you're better off just increasing the size of your next traditional water tank.
I told the plumber to go with the natural gas standard tank. My installation requires a power vent because the only way it can exhaust is a pretty long run.
One of Obama's environmental policies done away with the standard 80 gallon hot water heater. They make a hybrid 80 gallon hot water heater, twice the cost, pain i* t** a** to install. These idiots didn't think that people would run to 40 Gallon water heater in series to get the same 80 gallons .
We looked into tankless a yr or two ago. Almost everything we read and everyone we talked to said that if you have gas that tankless is awesome and will make up the cost in decent time.....in fact over the life of the unit it's cheaper.
However, the electric units are not nearly as efficient. They don't get as hot. They don't hear nearly as quick. And it doesn't make up for the cost difference from the traditional tank. Still more development is needed.
I have electric tankless, installed it myself 15 years ago, I would never go back to a tank. Mine is a Stiebel Eltron and can be custom fitted to your needs. I installed one for my house and then one out in my laundry room in the detached garage. Whole house is the size of a briefcase and freed up enough room to give me a utility closet.
For most people tankless does not make financial sense. It costs about an extra $2,500 to convert to tankless rather than just buy a new traditional water heater. The annual fuel savings is less than $100 so it takes over 25 years to breakeven on the investment. Odds are that tankless system won't last +25 years.
- Tankless water heater pros
- Never ending hot water (in theory)! In some households that initially sounds like a huge plus… especially households with kids that like long showers.
- Take up less space and can even be mounted on an exterior wall or in an attic
- Have a lower cost per year to operate (though, as I will explain later, the long term cost is much higher)
- Tankless water heater cons
- Requires electricity to operate… no electricity = no hot water
- Initial cost is much higher
- Long term cost is higher
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Curious as to why you, in your line of work, think this. I've kicked around the idea of tankless when mine bites the dust.
We spec the rinnai all the time. The concerns over the time it takes to receive hot water could be alleviated by insulating your pipes. The retrofit shouldn't be an issue as they take a pvc flue.
I would not recommend an electric tankless for many reasons.
Not sure where you are getting your numbers from. Materials on tankless are now less than $500 more than a tank. Installation is virtually the same, other than running a pvc flue vent.
From the plumbing blog that I linked: "A tankless water heater requires a larger gas line than a traditional water heater, it requires electricity, and it requires special venting. Due to this a typical cost to covert from your existing tank water heater to a tankless water heater is around $3500.00. This price can vary depending on your particular situation. A typical price to replace a standard 50 gallon water heater is $920.00. So the difference in initial cost is $2580.00 (average costs)."
I know that $920 figure for a traditional unit is good because I just had mine replaced for almost exactly that. That included the unit, installation and hauling away the old unit. Even if that cost difference figure were cut in half, you are still talking about +12 years before you breakeven from the energy savings.
http://mitchclemmonsplumbing.com/tankless-water-heaters-pros-cons/
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Someone I once knew decided to make the switch to tankless. He said it was a little pricy, but he had recently came into money through a new line of work and decided to pay up. He did manage to save a few bucks by installing it himself, granted, he was one of the smartest men I knew.
He raved about how effective it was. His late-to-wake son never had to take a cold shower again, and he happily enjoyed his cereal for years to come....
That is until his mom and dad separated over an income dispute. Guy later died in some sort of shootout...just heartbreaking. I really miss that guy.
He raved about how effective it was. His late-to-wake son never had to take a cold shower again, and he happily enjoyed his cereal for years to come....
That is until his mom and dad separated over an income dispute. Guy later died in some sort of shootout...just heartbreaking. I really miss that guy.
I would caution anyone about electric tankless water heaters. They pull a considerable amount of demand (kW). In some cases the line transformer that feeds you and your neighbor is not sized to handle that size load, so you may experience flickering or dim lights when the thing is running. The biggest problem is that many utilities are looking at moving more and more customers to demand rates instead of kWh rates because they are better at reflecting costs and are more fair and equitable between customers. If you have a tankless electric water heater and you eventually get moved to a demand rate, I promise you will not save money over a traditional water heater.
If you have it sitting in a catch pan, I'd wouldn't worry to much and just keep an eye on it. I just replaced mine, I started noticing a little water in my catch pan, so it gave me a little time to change it.
I know that the initial cost of a tankless system is considerable, but what about the 2nd tankless system. Theoretically you wouldn't have to worry as much about the cost of transitioning over.
I'm no plumber, but I think most people don't start breaking even until about the 5th or 6th tankless system. I could be wrong though.
I've always heard that if you have an electric tankless system that it will take a while to recoup the cost. However, the gas systems recoup the cost of installation within the life of the unit.
What I was getting at is that most of the initial cost of getting a tankless system is the installation.....since most households are set up for a tank system. But just looking at the Home Depot website. A tank for a family of 5 may cost $500-1000. A tankless for the same family cost about $800-1300. So, for a 2nd tankless system, the cost "should" be made up fairly quickly.....I'm guessing.
If you are debating a tankless vs tank because of recouping cost, then you aren’t doing it right. It really is whether the possible convenience of nonstop hot water is worth the price difference.
For me, it was not.
For me, it was not.