tankless hot water heaters - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

baddest434 · 04-22-2009, 02:43 PM

anybody have one installed in their home? i need to replace my reg style hot water heater and was looking for some pros and cons on this tankless heater. thx

WildBillyT · 04-22-2009, 02:46 PM

Pros- You don't have to keep a big tank heated, and you won't run out of hot water.

Cons- Every time you use hot water it will kick on, and if your WH is in a spot in your house near living space then you will hear it.

My parents have a pair of them in their place. They seem to work great. I like the digital temperature setting, much better than a crappy dial.

baddest434 · 04-22-2009, 02:54 PM

my hot water heater is under my house in a crawl space. any idea how expensive they are to have installed? i don't mind staying with the old style heater i have but i'm interested in a tankless one if affordable. the reg type i can do myself. but i know nothing about these new ones.

WildBillyT · 04-22-2009, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baddest434

my hot water heater is under my house in a crawl space. any idea how expensive they are to have installed? i don't mind staying with the old style heater i have but i'm interested in a tankless one if affordable. the reg type i can do myself. but i know nothing about these new ones.

I'll give them a shout and see how it went for them. Off the hip I don't think it was that much different than a regular water heater, it just uses a lot more gas when it's running, but I don't know for sure.

baddest434 · 04-22-2009, 02:58 PM

thx WildBilly btw mines electric not gas.

WildBillyT · 04-22-2009, 03:09 PM

Ah... Well, I'll see what they say. Are you sticking with electric then or would you convert?

stoney2677 · 04-22-2009, 03:29 PM

i install them. never had any complaints. yes you will hear them if near by but its a great trade off if you currently run out of hot water. there are also tax credits for on demand WH so the price becomes more competitive with conventional WH.

baddest434 · 04-22-2009, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WildBillyT

Ah... Well, I'll see what they say. Are you sticking with electric then or would you convert?

i have no gas service at all. oil heat everything else is electric!

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoney2677

i install them. never had any complaints. yes you will hear them if near by but its a great trade off if you currently run out of hot water. there are also tax credits for on demand WH so the price becomes more competitive with conventional WH.

can they be installed in the crawl space (kinda near were my WH is now?) so it wont take that much copper piping to install. or do they need to be installed near the sinks/shower area? i'm clueless

ShitOnWheels · 04-22-2009, 04:40 PM

We have one in our house.

Pros - pretty much everything.

Cons - if you are on a well, or otherwise have low pressure, it may not kick on. It needs a certain pressure to kick on, so you may also need to a get booster or well tank system. If pressure isn't an issue, we have no other complaints. It does occasionally stop sending hot water when James is shaving, but if he turns the water off and on and again, it'll be fine.

The tankless can most likely be installed in the same spot. Ours is also in the crawl space, and we have bathroom and laundry room on the second floor. You can get mini booster systems for near the sinks/tubs/showers, but not necessary.

Ours was installed prior to us moving in, so I'm not sure about price. I know when we looked into one at our old house, they were a few hundred dollars more, but nothing that wasn't ridiculous or anything.

Yes, you can hear them if they are near living space, but it's really not an issue. Ours is below our living room, but the TV is always on, or we're upstairs, so it doesn't bother us.

Let me know if you want to know anything else.

//<86TA>\\ · 04-22-2009, 06:48 PM

the issues that i know of with the tankless heaters, are

the flow rate is usually crappy

they draw a lot of current when they kick on, $$$$

I have dealt with the electrical end of several of these, whether electric or gas fired, havent been thrilled with any other them.

I personally would never use one, i like the simplicity of a regular old, run of the mill, electric electric water heater, or gas if its available

ShitOnWheels · 04-22-2009, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by //<86TA>\\

the issues that i know of with the tankless heaters, are

the flow rate is usually crappy

they draw a lot of current when they kick on, $$$$

I have dealt with the electrical end of several of these, whether electric or gas fired, havent been thrilled with any other them.

I personally would never use one, i like the simplicity of a regular old, run of the mill, electric electric water heater, or gas if its available

The flow rate from ours (I'm assuming you mean coming out of the faucet) is fine, assuming decent pressure from the water source and no clogs in the filter (we have a house filter after the softener but before the heater). You can run two or three faucets and still have decent pressure. And you don't really notice an issue if you run hot water from two faucets, or run cold water in one faucet while hot is going from another.

camaroAL · 04-22-2009, 07:26 PM

ive got one, its a baxi luna, we run 2 showers and the washing machine at the same time and there is barely a pressure drop. and u dont get the ohhh **** who just flushed affect.

we are going on three years with ours and have nothing bad to say.

stoney2677 · 04-22-2009, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baddest434

i have no gas service at all. oil heat everything else is electric!

can they be installed in the crawl space (kinda near were my WH is now?) so it wont take that much copper piping to install. or do they need to be installed near the sinks/shower area? i'm clueless

yes as long as your town has no objections. they will not vent into the chimney, they direct vent out the side wall or up to the roof.

Camaro67_rcl · 04-22-2009, 08:31 PM

Is the oil hot air or hot water ?
If hot water how close to water heater ?

baddest434 · 04-22-2009, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoney2677

yes as long as your town has no objections. they will not vent into the chimney, they direct vent out the side wall or up to the roof.

it's electric should'nt need a vent correct?

Quote:

Originally Posted by //<86TA>\\

the issues that i know of with the tankless heaters, are

the flow rate is usually crappy

they draw a lot of current when they kick on, $$$$

I have dealt with the electrical end of several of these, whether electric or gas fired, havent been thrilled with any other them.

I personally would never use one, i like the simplicity of a regular old, run of the mill, electric electric water heater, or gas if its available

now you have me thinking. the reg one i can do alot cheaper anyway

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camaro67_rcl

Is the oil hot air or hot water ?
If hot water how close to water heater ?

force air

stoney2677 · 04-23-2009, 06:33 AM

yes electric=no vent

Blackbirdws6 · 04-23-2009, 07:00 AM

I think you should be learning toward a standard but energy efficient water heater.

A tankless system does and can work but they require proper sizing to deliver enough consistent hot water at a given time. Some of this can be due to improper sizing. If you need a larger unit to supply what your home needs, you may need to also upgrade the electric as these units can draw heavy electric load to heat the water up at a given time. These units are more energy efficient than the standard capacity water heaters however the initial cost produces a return on investment well off into the future (think 10-20 years). These units also require a bit more maintenance as they are prone to needing a good flushing to remove any scale build-up.

Again, not bad technology at all but just weigh in all the options. For simplicity, I would go with the most efficient capacity water heater you can find, insulate those copper pipes in the crawl space and call it done.

sweetbmxrider · 04-23-2009, 09:40 AM

we have one at work for the sink. it has worked great for a long time.

JSPERFORMANCE · 04-24-2009, 06:58 AM

Rich, you have two of the best HVAC guys anywhere helping you on this one (Stoney and CAMARO67RCL) take their advice as a gift..

baddest434 · 04-24-2009, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSPERFORMANCE

Rich, you have two of the best HVAC guys anywhere helping you on this one (Stoney and CAMARO67RCL) take their advice as a gift..

who's rich

JSPERFORMANCE · 04-25-2009, 05:00 PM

sorry, I meant to say
"bill,..........(dave, stoney and rick camarorcl)... BLah blah blah

jims69camaro · 04-26-2009, 09:08 PM

something to check into... down in CR they had a direct source water heater. i am not sure how it worked, but it was electric. there was no tank either nearby or situated elsewhere. it seems to be a stand-alone system, and by system i am using that word very generally. it was just the shower head in the shower. it only heated the water coming out of the shower head. obviously if you need hot water elsewhere in the house, this will not work for you. it's truly something to marvel at, though. it's something i would consider here in my own home since we always wash our clothes in cold water and the only other place you need hot water, besides the shower, is the sink. even then, you might be able to get one for the sink and one for the shower, or make some other arrangement for hot water in the sink. since it's electric, it would cut our gas bill in half. i wish i had at least gotten the name of the manufacturer, but i wasn't thinking right the last time we were there. we'll be going again in february, if not sooner, so i'll be able to get the manufacturer and pricing information. i hope you have luck replacing the current unit.

btw, did it go out already or were you just looking for cost-effective alternatives? seems like a silly thing, but if you have a large roof i have seen solar alternatives with copper pipe. it only require a pump to get the water up to the roof where it is heated by the solar panel(s) and then shuttled back down to a holding tank. i've been seriously considering solar for about a year now. heating water would be another benefit from a solar system.