Tankless Water Heaters - anyone own one?

[CynthiaOK]

We're at the point of having to replace our old water heater. With 4 boys, dh, and myself, we are rapidly running into "hot water issues". We checked on the new tankless water heaters and they look fantastic. There are a lot of brands available now.

Can you recommend a brand? Pros and cons of the tankless type? I think there is a tax credit available which makes it even more interesting.

Any information would be appreciated,
CynthiaOK

[Heather in the Kootenays]

I'm considering one for our next water heater. I hope you get lots of answers.

[T Baer]

I think the water pipes have to be larger than what is typical, so it might depend on the location of your pipes. I am not totally sure about this, though. The water passes through the pipes and gets heated as it goes along. Someone correct me if I am wrong in this.

[Snickerdoodle]

We live in Europe and have one of those instant tankless water heaters. We didn't install it, but we like it. It does deliver the hot water but we don't normally wash dishes while showering. It is also connected to our central water radiator heating.

[Herding Cats in NC]

We have a Rinnai tankless water heater. We like it and haven't had any problems with it (knock on wood!). Do you have any specific questions?

[Claire]

We have a Rinnai tankless water heater. We like it and haven't had any problems with it (knock on wood!). Do you have any specific questions?

Just wondering if there is any noise associated with these? Also, do you turn it on, wait a minute, take your shower, and then turn it off? If so, what happens if you forget to turn it off?

[HomeOnTheRanch]

I want one. There were THREE old water heaters in the barn when we've moved here and we replaced one about 3 years ago. The next time around I want tankless.

[CynthiaOK]

I think the Rinnai was the first to come on the market. Do you think it is better than the competitors? We looked at the specifications for pipe, etc. and our plumbing should be fine.

Do you find that the water is very hot? Is it noisy? We often have 4 people wanting to shower early in the morning - will it keep up? They seem to be pricey to have installed. Do you think a good handyman could install one or do you definitely need a plumber?

We have 2 water heaters: 1 downstairs to run the kitchen and laundry room (and a powder room); 1 upstairs to run 2 bathrooms with showers and tubs. I think we will only need this upstairs. The downstairs seems to keep up fine.

[Jennifer in MI]

Thanks for posting! I have these same questions. Ours would be for our whole house, so can I run the dishwasher while someone showers? Can I start the laundry while someone showers? Can we flush the toilets without scalding someone in the shower? (Can you tell we have these issues now?)

What about the pipes? I never knew you needed larger pipes.

[Herding Cats in NC]

Well, I hope I didn't misunderstand your question. We only have the one tankless water heater and it serves the whole house. It is on demand, so it just runs whenever we turn on the hot water in the house. We didn't actually choose Riannai over any of the other brands; it was what the builder included in our house. Ours is actually mounted outside of the house, so noise isn't an issue for us. I've never noticed any noise inside or out when it's running, but I have to say that I honestly haven't really been looking for it either. I can check and let you know. The water is very hot, but we can easily adjust the temperature (we have a thermostat for it in our garage). Actually, the only odd thing I've noticed is that when we lose power, the thermostat seems to reset to around 109. Ours keeps up with usage fine. But, I would be careful to check flowrates - I think when my bil was considering one, he found that the models have different flowrates, which effects how well they can keep up. I haven't noticed a problem with two people showering at the same time, and back to back showers don't seem to be an issue. But, sometimes if one person showers and then the next person turns the shower on a little bit later, the water will still be hot initially, but then turn cold for a minute or two. Dh insulated the hot water pipes in the crawl space, and that really helped with this. The heater turns on & catches up very quickly, but I've learned to wait a minute in those cases (if one person gets out & the next gets in pretty soon after you won't have that problem). Since our builder installed ours, I don't know much about installation. You would need someone who could do both the plumbing and the gas lines. I'll ask dh what he thinks about that when he gets home tonight.

[Herding Cats in NC]

Thanks for posting! I have these same questions. Ours would be for our whole house, so can I run the dishwasher while someone showers? Can I start the laundry while someone showers? Can we flush the toilets without scalding someone in the shower? (Can you tell we have these issues now?)

What about the pipes? I never knew you needed larger pipes.


You can definitely run the dishwasher & flush toilets while people are showering without any problems. In our house, water pressure is the limiting factor. If I run the washing machine when people are showering, the water pressure is dreadful, so I'm afraid I can't answer that question.

I'm very happy with our tankless heater. I think it takes slightly longer for the water to warm up than with a traditional tank water heater, but, if I remember correctly from conversations with some of my neighbors, I think it costs us roughly 1/3 of what they pay with the tank (judging from the summer months when all the gas we're using is for the water heater & cooktop).

[Herding Cats in NC]

What about the pipes? I never knew you needed larger pipes.

Forgot to answer this question before -- our manual says that our unit requires 3/4" gas supply line, 3/4" cold water inlet & hot water outlet.

[Holly IN]

We got a higher end tankless water heater. We had no issue of noise at all. It is inside our mechanical room behind our kitchen. I highly recommend going with propane tankless water heater as the savings are much higher going that route instead of electric run. We noticed a big difference in our energy bill.

When we put ours in we had to run new piping under the house due to switching from electric to propane water heater.

We LOVE our tankless water heater. No more fighting over who takes a shower first or running the washer first. With ours we can adjust the temperature easily now.

We can flush toilets, run the shower and washer just fine. It just depends on what kind you are getting. My bil got the lower end of it and they can only run one thing with hot water so make sure you know what you are getting.

Holly

[KristineIN]

My sister in law has one and honestly, I can't stand it at her house. It takes a few minutes to get hot water and when you want to just wash your face it can be annoying (compared to when you are home and turn on the faucet and it's hot.) I also think their pressure is worse than before they got it. Now they do like it, they haven't notice a "savings" yet, it was pretty expensive to put in. Anyway, dh & I decided that we would never own one, but we don't have people wanting to take showers all at the same time either and have a pretty big tank to start with.

Good luck.
Krisitne

[TexasRachel]

We had one put into our new home and we like it. I will say to be careful and make sure that someone locally knows about them. Our plumber had never seen one before and I'm pretty sure he installed it incorrectly. We had problems with it turning off at first; it seems to do fine now though. :confused: New house tantrums, maybe.

We did buy a big one that specifically said it was for using more than one item at a time: ie, a shower and the washer.

There was also some sort of tax rebate involved with ours, but I'm not sure what it was.

[Karin]

We've had a few when renting, and this house came with it. Dh cannot get a hot enough shower in the winter (he likes them HOT), but if I run it when the heat's not running (we have hot water heat and it serves both), I'm fine. There are boosters you can get for these, but dh isn't interested in that right now. I will say that the water can actually get hotter during a shower as it kicks in. Yes, I do hear it turn on and off sometimes, much like you'd hear a furnace.

[CynthiaOK]

Holly, can you tell me which brand you purchased? We already have propane water heaters so we will most likely continue with a propane unit.

Cynthia