Tankless water heaters: Are they any good?

[yk9001]

We've lived in our house 20 years, and our water heater is 20 years old (we've never had a problem).

I thought upgrading to a tankless water heater was a slam dunk: Move the old water heater out of the utility room, gain some space, save monthly; its more modern, etc.

 

Then we started reading up on tankless:  I am not really concerned about the upfront costs..  but to have to maintain it yearly; it may not 'click in' if you are just shaving and need a small amount...

 

I have never thought about our tanked water heater for 20 years... I don't want to have yearly maintenance on a tankless!

 

 

Those of you with a tankless:  Thoughts??

Edited March 7, 2015 by yk9001

[Spirit]

Anything tankless can't be good.

 

 

 

[Glen]

My brother has one and he loves it.  I know a few other people that have one and they all seem to like it.

[gotbeer]

We have one.  It does take time for the hot water to kick in.  Make sure you keep the heater outside, since it does burn gas and you can smell it.  As for maintenance, we haven't had to do any maintenance on it.  Probably should.  But it's not a yearly thing.  

 

No issues with it at all, and by moving the tankless outside, it did clear out a closet in the house.  

[Blarg]

In that case you could just take the current water heater and install it outside in it's own cabinet and reroute the water. Either way it sounds like an expensive way to gain a small closet. Maybe YK should just sell his jersey collection to gain the closet space?

Edited March 7, 2015 by notti

[Jay]

Never heard anything bad about tankless but don't expect miracles in terms of performance.

 

If you want instant hot water at your sink for shaving look into something like this:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-GL4S-4-Gallon-Electric-Mini-Tank/dp/B0006GVO1C/ref=sr_1_4

[Jay]

They also make really small tankless water heaters for under the sink

 

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-AE-3-4-PowerStar-Tankless-Electric/dp/B0006VOR3O/ref=sr_1_1

[Taylor]

st1ckboy has one.

[NJHalo]

We have one and love it. My sister-in-law's ex boyfriend owns a plumbing business and installed it for us. They broke up, and he forgot to bill us. Oh well.

It cut our gas bill down noticeably.

As mentioned, it takes a little while to get the hot water, depending on the distance you are from the heater. You adjust to this, and turn on the water before getting undressed. It is not a significant amount of time.

We were also told that your efficiency will vary based on the region you live in. The farther north you are, the colder the ground water is, so your unit has to work harder to heat it up. Living in NJ, it is still worthwhile.

We have a Rheem and so far no problems.

[mrwicked]

YES!

I just had one installed and it is f*cking bad ass. I would never have a normal water heater again. Ours sends hot water almost instantly, takes just a few seconds.

Normal heaters are so massive, total waste of space.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Sounds like they have changed a bit. The last time I replaced my water heater I looked into one. I was told that it could not use the vents that I had for the exhaust on my conventional water heater and it would cost over $3K to modify the house to take it. I just put in another conventional tank.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Tank]

st1ckboy has one.

Not anymore.

I'll explain later.

[mp170.6]

I don't know anything about tankless water heaters. 

 

But if you decide to install a conventional water heater, hurry up and buy one.  New Federal standards effective April 16, 2015 require bigger and more expensive water heaters to meet improved energy standards. 

 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) regulates
minimum energy efficiency requirements for water
heaters. The first set of regulations—known as
the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act
(NAECA)—were created in 1990 and later updated
in 2004 to the current standards. A new update to
the rules for increasing minimum energy efficiency
standards was enacted in 2010 and goes into effect
on April 16, 2015.

 

 

These design changes will require that most
residential water heaters under 55 gallons of
capacity produced after April 16, 2015, to be larger
in size. Therefore, they will require more installation
space in both single-family and multi-family housing.
Most water heaters under 55 gallons will grow by
approximately 2˝ in height and diameter. Units over
55 gallons will require even more drastic changes.

 

http://www.statewaterheaters.com/images/naeca/NAECA_Builder_Brochure.pdf

[deepdrive]

Unless you don't have the clearance, why wouldn't you want the better insulated water heater?

[mp170.6]

Unless you don't have the clearance, why wouldn't you want the better insulated water heater?

 

It's not so much clearance from side to side, but vertical.

 

On mine, a taller water heater would amount to hundreds of dollars in plumbing modifications. 

[Blarg]

Hundreds in plumbing costs amount to the plumber scewing the water line into the tank.