Tankless water heaters?

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The 6.6gpm one says it might feed 2 sources and the 7.4gpm says it will feed 2 sources.

I guess the $200 upgrade depends on if you family/household ever uses 2 feeds at one time. Say a shower and a sink, dishwasher and sink. Etc.

Riddler
 
I'd personally lean toward the smaller one. It should keep up well enough unless you do several things at once with the hot valve slammed wide open with no cold to supplement the task(s) and have modified all of your fixtures to flow beyond the 2.5 GPM water-saver crap.
 
these items pop up on ebay every now and then @ a good price. Bosh brand I heard is very good..I think you may get some tax credit too..
let us know if you buy/install

a friend had an eletric on demand and it failed in 1 1/2 years..tost
 
I've been looking into these as well, and the plumbing and heating guys I've talked to all say it's not worth it. You may save a little but it will never put you positive over a regular heater. They say the electric ones use too much energy and when they break parts are hard to get. That's from 3 different heating guys and the supply house that sells them.
 
go with the smaller unit and take the $200 bux savings and buy something else for the hot rod.

The tankless are great and instant hot water is...uh... cool ? .... er.... no lets say neat !

-RPM
 
Unless you are using them for light duty they truly SUCK!! Instant Hot water yeah right. I have the Big one "PROPANE" in my guest house where my mom lives, and another one in my Shop. They take forever to get warm and the water is slowed down so much that it comes out of the faucet and showers VERY SLOW with little pressure. I have a well with 10000 gallons of storage, 3 pressure tanks and 2 booster pumps wired in series pushing 60+psi all day and the water still comes out slow, Use the garden hose and that is another story, you better hang on or it will knock your teeth out!! If you are using the Laundry Machine on hot cycle and try and take a shower YOU WILL BE IN FOR A COLD *** SHOWER!! In the main house I did it different, 2-75 Gallaon Propane Water Heaters Piggy Backed in Series so one of the tanks preheats the water and then it goes into the other tank. I tell you what My Shower has sooooooo much pressure that it will take your skin off at full blast and I can run 3 showers at once with the Laundry Machine going with NO DIFFERENCE IN PRESSURE, they just dont care with this set up. I have NEVER ran out of hot water and I have 2 teenage daughters a son, myself and wife...........Just my experience, I would never do it again......they SUCK!!
 
Make sure you have enough space in you panel, I didn't have 2 spaces for the additional 50 amp breakers required for the one I was looking at.
 
well if you are a fab builder.
here's the long deal
get a NEWhome heating oil hot water tank..big mo
http://cgi.ebay.com/Bradford-White-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19ba07f955
then go to ebay and buy a waste oil gun type unit.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Beckett-waste-o...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e5a864c8a
dude in baltimore, maryland sells them
they use air and a heated machine block
I sold him some old pump injectors when we converted our old furnace to gas.
waste oil is free local in citys
idude in baltimore burns clean and u have free heat....
he been heating up his house with mcdee's french fry oil for years..goes out once a week 1/2 day and gets the oil 4free.
 
Mad Dart said:
Unless you are using them for light duty they truly SUCK!! Instant Hot water yeah right. I have the Big one "PROPANE" in my guest house where my mom lives, and another one in my Shop. They take forever to get warm and the water is slowed down so much that it comes out of the faucet and showers VERY SLOW with little pressure.
Mad Dart said:
So Im confused. He is looking at the Natural Gas ones. Not Propane. Maybe thats the difference ? Around here I know quite a few people that have the tankless fired by natural gas and as I indicated.... instant hot water and never had a issue with running different appliances and getting a cold shower. I however, dont own one... so everything I know of them is hearsay. If they sucked that bad though... these high end homes wouldnt have them... guaranteed. It would be interesting to know why the propane isnt warming properly. I will ask my friend who has installed these for 10 years and ask what he knows.
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Went through this about a year ago. All set to buy one then bumped into a guy who installed them in new homes. What you have to understand is that it requires a DEDICATED 3/4 gas line. Not a shared one like most people have. Mine is split between the furnace and water heater.

If you do not run a dedicated 3/4 line it can't get enough gas volume to keep up the burn rate. So it will drop out for the line to catch up.

From my research they are great for small location. Like the kitchen sink or bathroom sink. The tech has a little ways to go for total house usage.

Dan...
 
The other thing about the gas-fired ones is that you don't get hot water unless you have at least a certain minimum water flow in the hot water line (below that rate, the burner won't kick on). Makes it hard to have warm water or a slow trickle of hot water.
 
I can tell you I replace my electric WH with a tankless propane WH 2 years ago and will never go back to electric. Mine is a Rinnai R-53 and they are rated as to your water use. My wife washes clothes or dishes while I have showered in the past and have never had a problem. My electric bill this month is $82.25. Now I did replace my central A/C heat pump system last summer and between the two my electric bill is less than half of what it use to be! The water heater uses about 50 gal a year. It only takes a small 3 amp circuit to ignite the heater. I love mine. Just make sure you buy one for the amount of water your family uses.
 
RPM said:
Mad Dart said:
Unless you are using them for light duty they truly SUCK!! Instant Hot water yeah right. I have the Big one "PROPANE" in my guest house where my mom lives, and another one in my Shop. They take forever to get warm and the water is slowed down so much that it comes out of the faucet and showers VERY SLOW with little pressure.
Mad Dart said:
So Im confused. He is looking at the Natural Gas ones. Not Propane. Maybe thats the difference ? Around here I know quite a few people that have the tankless fired by natural gas and as I indicated.... instant hot water and never had a issue with running different appliances and getting a cold shower. I however, dont own one... so everything I know of them is hearsay. If they sucked that bad though... these high end homes wouldnt have them... guaranteed. It would be interesting to know why the propane isnt warming properly. I will ask my friend who has installed these for 10 years and ask what he knows.
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It is not that the water doesn't get hot at 1 source it does that just fine. Put more of a demand on it and it has to SLOW the water down to heat it up! I have the biggest ones they make from Takagi they cost me $900.00 each........As far as High End Homes that is what I have 15000 sq ft under roof 3 seperate buildings, Guest House, Shop etc. My plumber told me to run the main house with those same water heaters I would have needed 6 of them just for the main house that is 7300sqft livable. So there would have been a total of 8 that I would have had to buy. Now this is 4 years ago so unless technology for these have changed quite a bit.........would never do it again!! This is from MY EXPERIENCE with them........They are JUNK!!
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ah ok gotcha. Well... dunno... sounds like there is plus/minus factors to them just about like everything else in life... some one will like them and some will hate them. J.R. hope you get a answer.

-RPM
 
I bought a Gas one that stated it was sufficiant for a 3 bedroom houses hot water supply: BUNK!! I have not had a HOT shower in over a year now. The flow is sllloooww and only goes about 5 mins before cold water. As soon as I can afford one I am getting a Electric one (Gas is now WAY to expensive around here). My 4 cents worth.

Later,
Bruce B.
 
Im a licensed plumber and have used rinnai in most applications. I like these because the settings are easy to deal with right on the front digitally. Slant 6 Dan is right that they wont kick on unless the minimum 1.5 gallon per minute is achieved. If you do use one i have only seen good results using gas. The biggest thing with these is the flushing. They must be flushed and reset every 6 months or they will shut there selves down. its a coil like a still and cannot transfer heat fast enough if allowed to build up calcium.I would use one in my own home if i couldnt get the wholesalers to give me freebie heaters for my own home when needed. Most faucets and showers are made to work at 1.5 gallons per minute so you can add it up and if youre gonna run less than the max of the heater at one time you will be fine.
 
7071DartGTReg said:
I bought a Gas one that stated it was sufficiant for a 3 bedroom houses hot water supply: BUNK!! I have not had a HOT shower in over a year now. The flow is sllloooww and only goes about 5 mins before cold water. As soon as I can afford one I am getting a Electric one (Gas is now WAY to expensive around here). My 4 cents worth.

Later,
Bruce B.
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Bruce something isnt right with yours. they should never go cold if sized right. perhaps your flush bypass is open. do you have one, or two piggybacked. if you have any questions i,d be glad to help.
 
i must be living on a differtent planet. we have a Takagi tk3 in our house. open a hot faucet, the outlet side of the heater is hot within 5 seconds. while it takes a few seconds to get hot water at the faucet, it is only because of the distance from the heater to the faucet. it is on a shared 3/4 line with the range (propane) with no issues. max flow is 7 gallons a minute, min. is .5 gallons a minute. have taken a shower while the wife was doing laundry/dishes with no issues.....
 
The house we are buying needs some plumbing work as it has rusty galvanized pipes. The main line in is 3/4" galv. that we will also be replacing. I am not a plumber (unless it's on a car) but if you show me how to do it I will get the job done asap! I will be getting help from my brother in law (licensed contractor) and my dumb *** annoying father in law "super Larry" who has worked in every form of construction you can think of his whole pathetic life.

As for the water heater I want something that goes outside (so I can get the tank out of the garage and put my air compressor in its place... you know, the important things first) uses natural gas and won't take up a lot of space. There are only 2 of us living here so it wont be working overtime. I'm not opposed to spending some cash for a decent unit, I just don't want to go too overkill.

Hey D.D. what are your opinions on using PEX tubing when we redo the house?
 
I use it in all the Trendmaker homes we plumb . They are a subsidary of Weyerhauser lumber. Pretty big builder here. I like it and would use it in my own house. We do a hybrid method where all the cold water is branch and tee,one trunkline with little feeders off it but do a home run system on the hot where we put a manifold next to the water heater. this way you have smaller individual hot lines to everything.It takes less time for the line to purge all sitting water so you get hot water directly from the heater faster. I think its modern and the way to go. DD
 
We've got the Rennai natural gas fired one. I like it, we have lots of hot water for everything we do. Our gas bill dropped considerably. I mean, think about it, running the damn 40 gal tank on heat for 25/7/365 just to have the odd shower or wash your hands and not have to worry about cold water - man that is expensive. Plan for the future, bigger is better. You're there now.
Daryl
 
I have been researching PEX tubing and so far it looks like the hardest part of replumbing the whole house will be replacing the main line in.

D.D. would you go with the crimped fitting or should I buy the cool looking compression tool that looks like a mini exhaust flaring tool?

This stuff is cool as hell and it kinda looks fun to work with!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJMK...66697907&index=19&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
 
Rinnai is the one to get. The exhaust and the inlet are within the same pipe, a pipe within a pipe. This adds to the efficiency. Plus it has a remote, and I do use it.
Think about what a hot water tank does- it keeps 40 gallons above a certain temp when your home, at work, at the pub, in the yard, etc- and all this as it sits on a cold concrete floor.

Pex- definitely. The crimp kind require a special expensive tool. The push on type work just as well, can fit on copper or pex, can be spun around when they are on in any direction, and can be easily removed.

Pex plus the connections will be about the same in price as copper, but the time saved and ease make it a better choice.

When I bought my house, it needed work and we did not move in for 1 month. During that time the 30 gallon tank ran- $125.
Put the Rinnai in and the first month the bill was $20.

WARNING: the wife will complain that the water does not heat up fast enough- but water is way cheaper than gas.

Next project: radiant heat.
 
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