Tankess water heater

[bikhu]

HI,
(I am not sure this is the right place for this post so moderators please place where appropriate.)

I have been thinking about a tankless water heater for my fish room. The system for the whole house is cost prohibitive but i saw a single application system that you hook up to one sink. This would allow me to do my water changes without running out of hot water. I am very fortunate to have excellent water for Discus and need no aging. This allows me to do changes from the tap. The problem is that I run out of warm water and then I have to wait to finish. Also when I do changes in the morning it interferes in my family taking showers in the AM. The only system I found is electric. Any one familiar with these units? Any advice? Ease of installation?
thanks
peter

[mench]

I have a Boush tankless in my house,just the two of us now so I didn't go for the bigger one..I change around 700 ish gal per day and my heater will put out the 84 deg water all day long.Yea it cost more than a water tank..Mine was in the 1200 $ range installed,but the pleasure of changing all the water I want whenever I want is well worth the cost.
I would say do some research first and call a good plumbing company to come out and look at what you need and follow their recommendations
Good luck

Mench

[Ardan]

Hi Peter,
I think the ones for the sink are small and do not keep up with a lot of volume of water.
Mench has a whole house system

hth
Ardan

[Kindredspirit]

Mench has a whole house system

hth
Ardan

Ya think?


700gals a day? *******....You change 700gals a day? How many tanks is that? Just outta curiosity ~

[mench]

Only 20.but a lot of them are 125's..and I am retired so I have lots of time on my hands.....someday I might go to a drip system..not quire sure how to do it and I don't fully trust them yet...

Mench

[Riche_guy]

Why isn't the tankless system feasible for your whole house? Is it more expensive to run then a hot water tank? I was thinking about purchasing one when the old tank had rusty water, but back out and went for the proven water tank. I haven't seen any info. about it being way more efficient then the old hot water tank method. I guess if space is an issue.

[alpine]

We have this year an Energy Tax credit of $300.00 (expires at the end of the year) by purchasing a high efficiency Tankless Heater. I have been looking at them. Went to Lowes , they have a small Bosh ($498.00 ) but nobody there knew much about them . I am goint ot Home Depot next and see what they have and learned about them and about what they need for their installation. I believe they need a heavy duty venting tubes. I even read stainless ??
After I change one 75 gallon (80 % ) the water starts running cold and I would like to do all my tanks at the same time.
We have gas..Is that heater more efficient in gas than electricity ?

roberto.

[jeep]

Home Depot sell the exact same unit as Lowes unless you special order.

There is a company on eBay that drop-ships to your house for much less than the retail price. Their feedback is impressive.

If you don't feel comfortable installing it yourself, I would think hiring someone would cost approximately $200 to $250 plus materials. Gas heaters are vented the same as your old water heater or furnace.

I highly recommend a tankless heater, especially if you use natural gas in your home. With the gas companies milking us for all we have, tankless heaters will pretty much pay for itself in 2-3 years in reduced gas bills alone. I would also recommend on with a battery backup ignition in case your power goes out.

I'm installing one in my home as part of the remodeling project, along with a water softener and built-in RO system...

[alpine]

I visited an auto detail place in Cinci.. and they installed a Lowes tankless water heater. he was very please with it.
I installed my regular gas water heaters and have done some plumbing work at the house , I guess installing the tankless might be OK. I just want to make sure I decide on the right capacity model.
Any sugestions ?
Ron, what size is yours ? Jeep, what size are you thinking of installing ?
Thanks,
roberto.

[Ardan]

I have been told to go with the "2 appliance model"

this has a higher volume of hot water than the single appliance unit

hth
Ardan

I think Randal had one in his house, but not sure what size. he loved it.

[Riche_guy]

How more economical are they from a regular water tank?

[Ardan]

this article says 50% for hot water heating
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1997/ch10.html

here for gas compared to gas water heater tank is 54% efficient for the tank
and 99% efficient for the tankless = about 45% more efficient
http://www.seisco.com/pages/cost-com-notesA.html

hth
Ardan

[Riche_guy]

I've noticed that these studies are done by the companies themselves and not independant. Those of you that have a tankless system, have you done REAL comparisons with your previous monthly bills. Can you actually say you are saving 50% over a tank system?

[Discus_Josh]

Take it from a guy that was a rep for tankless waterheater, they do work. They do save $$$, the problem is, now that you have an endless supply of hot water, people tend to take longer showers/use more hot water. One thing to be careful of is gasline sizing, you need to make sure you supply enough gas to the appliance or it will not function correctly/or at all. I believe the tankless heaters sold at home depot/lowes are in the 120k btu range so plan accordingly. It is not as easy as just taking out your 40gal waterheater and throwing in a tankless. For instance are you aware that most if not all tankless waterheaters require special venting? Tankless waterheater's exaust produces hydrochloric acid (partly due to the efficiencies it burns at and by burning natural gas) so if you have a long (5' or more) run of vent pipe you can get a buildup that can destroy the vent pipe and possibly your waterheater.

Now, with that out of the way, they will work great for a fishroom or whole house if you can afford one of the contractor grade models (sold at plumbing wholesalers). One thing to be aware of is the flow rates, if you are just going to be supplying hotwater for w/c then the home depot/lowes models will probably do well since they produce around 3-4gpm, whereas the contractor models produce 6.5gpm+. If you need more than 3-4gpm of hotwater, my advice is to spend the extra couple hundred dollars and go with the contractor product.

HTH

Josh

P.S. on average the "contractor grade" models usually cost around 2k-3k+ installed, due to gas resizing + replumbing.

[alpine]

Josh, thanks for the information. I went to Lowes today and spoke to an experience plumber..He told me the ones they sell have use a pilot and that is much better since they keep some of the burner clean. He said electronic ignition models are not as good in the sense the burners do not last as long because of oxidation. He informed me that most likely my venting is three inches in diameter for my present gas water heater and I needed a five inch double wall venting and a new cap installed with flashing . That is going to put the price of my heater out of reach since I can not do the venting work myself. I am going to measure my vent later on but he told me that for sure my house vent would be three inches, not enough to handle the amount of heat of the combustion in the tankless heater.
Oh Well..

roberto.