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Tankless water heater


Forrest Gump 9

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I briefly looked into one, and was told by more than 1 source that for it to be feasible to replace a large hot water heater that gets lots of use by a large family, I'd need to have have at least 200AMP service. Also, that a water filtration system would also be ideal to prevent mineral deposits from eventually ruining it.
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One of my customers I have done a lot of work for had one installed. He always got the top of the line stuff though.... I don't see these working good unless they are fed by natural gas. An all electric whole house one would be a pain and a waste of time I think.

 

The one he had was supposed to be like 85-95% efficient with natural gas. The plumbing that had to be installed for it was a little tricky it looked like. He had a circulation pump hooked up inline and the heater would kick on and run the pump every half hour or so to keep the water constantly hot and ready. As far as I know he hasn't had any complaints about the system really.

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I've seen "green" people put small units under sinks in tandem with a whole house or regular unit to heat the water coming in until the main tank hot reaches the tap.

 

I've thought about putting a tankless in myself but just can't justify the cost.

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I have a tankless heater, endless showers are great, but you have to do your homework....

 

First, if you have a long run for exhaust, triple wall stainless vent pipe was $60 or so a 3 foot section, your tankless heater will require a dedicated exhaust, meaning you cannot tie it into existing hardware. Said heater will require a feed from 1" hardline, no less and no flex pipe.

 

I used a bosch unit, it uses regular galvanized exhaust, which saved me about $900. The rest was easy, fwiw, you won't save anything on gas or water, but I did get a bunch of space back as my weather heater was in a closet.

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We almost installed one in our current house but decided to hold off til our next and larger home. As many have mentioned the install is what many people forget about and the need for ss most of the time. I would encourage looking for one that can be horizontally vented. The one we had could and it meant we could install it right to the basement wall and vent it right outside and be done rather then redoing the venting up to the roof. it was also NG and would have been on Columbus city water for what that's worth.
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