Tankless Water Heater

[Diane Amberg]

Sherri, I'm glad you had a good experience. Is your house just one storey?  We were told we would probably need to have one in the basement for the washer and sink there (and for the first floor kitchen and powder room) and another one up on the second floor for the two bathrooms  up there, because of the heat loss in the pipes, in spite of insulation.

[Sherri]

Diana:  Ours is installed in the basement.  Our basement does not have a bathroom in it so it only has to work for the main floor.  I have two bathrooms and the kitchen and it works great.  It is run by propane....That is all I know.  I just know that having hot water for as long as you want is great.

[jensarlou]

Wilma,
I had one in my house when I lived in Howard.  I absolutly loved it.  They run on gas.  In our case propane.  It was nice because it had 2 controllers.  You could change the temp. according to how you liked your shower.  Or you could set it for dish washing or clothes.  There was no waiting for the water to get hot or come upstairs.  You turned on the faucet and it was there.  I wish my house here in Fl had gas because I would get it.  Mine was installed by my former brother-in-law Chad Wittmeier.  He did a wonderful job.  Had a new a/c and heater put in at the same time and a 1000 gal. propane tank.  I think it was the best money saving decision made while living out there.  REA is very costly and this saved on elec. bills dramatically.  I would say if you had any questions just give Chad a ring.  I think he could help.

[Teresa]

I didn't know Chad was your brother in law?

Lord, sometimes I feel like I have just crawled out from under the cabbage plant and found out what is in the world..
sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
We'll be somewhere and people will be talking about something and they'll say," You didn't know that Teresa? gosh I heard that 2 weeks ago!"

Oh well... always the last to know. 

But maybe that also means I am 'minding my own business'. 

[jensarlou]

Yes Lori, Chad's wife is Louis' sister.  But he does do wonderful work.  Don't feel bad I felt the same way while up there.  I just attributed it to the fact that I didn't get out much  .  hahahaha!!!!!

[Wilma]

UPDATE.  Talked to a professional at Lowe's and here is what I learned.  They have removed all their electric tankless water heaters from the shelves.  He said that too many of them were coming back.  He thought the biggest problem was the installation.  They need 3 breakers.  Also, they need to be close to the point of use, they wouldn't handle more than one user at a time.  That is, they wouldn't support a shower and dishwasher at the same time.

The gas heaters do better but need a special flue that is pretty expensive.  I think that he said that the propane heaters performed the best.

Now for my needs which is to replace the gas heater in the old trailer house, I have decided that the tankless would be too expensive in spite of the energy it would save.  Gas water heaters in a trailer have to be special for trailer houses and are more expensive than a regular gas heater.  Mark won't sell me one for the trailer house unless it is especially for trailer houses.  Bless his conscience.  A regular electric water heater would be less expensive and not require special venting, but would need to run wire for it.  My next step is to talk to Mark and my handyman to see what the problems and cost would be.  Wish me luck.

[W. Gray]

Paul Harvey pushed the Renai tank less water heater for awhile.

Rush Limbaugh now peddles them on his program.

He said today that you can take a shower for as long as you want and never run out of hot water.

In the sixties, I was stationed in Germany and tank less water heaters were used by Germans in their housing.

[Diane Amberg]

That is true if it's big enough, the water pressure isn't too high and it's located near the shower.  It's just that they don't tell you all the information. It's tough if you have a big two storey house with several bathrooms, several sinks, a dishwasher, and clothes washer. Then you have to have several on at least two levels and they don't tell you that. In a small one floor house it'd probably work well, as Sherri's does. 

[W. Gray]

Yes, you are right.

I recall that the German's had one located in the vicinity of the kitchen hot water faucet and one next to the shower area.

In the local guest houses, hot water was an extra cost item. A digital counter was hooked into the electric tank less heater that showed the cost (in pfennigs) for the water being drawn. When hot water was turned on the counter went faster than a buzz saw. 

If one were to equip four bathrooms, laundry room, utility room, and kitchen, the appliance and installation costs would be prohibitive in relation to a single water tank.

When I first heard Paul Harvey stumping for them I remember thinking he was not telling "the rest of the story," no  pun intended.

I still have a hard time in my mind conceiving how cold water can flow in one end and exit the other hot. Even heating a sauce pan of water on a gas stove takes a little while.

The water would seem to have to go through several feet of heated pipe inside the tank less mechanism in order to be heated like that.

It would also seem a terrific surge of energy would be needed that would be expensive, although not as expensive as heating a forty or fifty gallon water tank.

[Wilma]

The savings in the tankless water heater would be in the energy.  Heating only the water being used at the time of use instead of holding 40 or 50 gallons at a high temperature around the clock.  It makes sense for some people and certainly savings in some cases.  The cost of the appliance and installation is too prohibitive for me, a poor widow on a fixed income.  Besides not being reasonable for an old trailer house that was on the verge of being disposed of.