Tankless Water Heater

[jensarlou]

Diane,
My house was a two story and had three full baths and clothes and dish washers.  It worked wonderful.  It ran on gas and really wasn't a very large unit.  Like I told Wilma I loved it and wish I had a gas in my house so I could have a Ranai.

[sixdogsmom]

What was the initial expense please?

[Diane Amberg]

WOW...Where was I when J's was installed?  And just one? Now I'm impressed! That's exactly what we would have liked.  Ranai is the name?   Cost please?   

[jensarlou]

Gee I can't really remember exactly how much it was.  We had a bunch of stuff done at one time.  New ac and heater, new ducting, ranai, gas lines run for both, and a new 1000 gal. propane tank.  But for some reason 600 to 800 sticks out in my mind for the cost of the ranai.  We also had 2 controllers and the second one was either $80 or $120 extra.  When you buy the unit it comes with one controller.  We paid cost for it because the work was done by family.

[sixdogsmom]

Thanks! We want to get the water heater out of the cellar as it sometimes floods. At our age, we want to simplify things as much as possible!

[mthomas]

I have gas fired Takagi tankless units installed at my home and rental properties. They can work well, but must be correctly sized and installed. I put up a web page about what we have learned at:

http://paragoninspects.com/tankless-heater-home-inspection-evanston-chicago-il-faq.html

[Diane Amberg]

Thanks! That is a very good article. I never did get a straight answer on the life expectancy of the units and components for our water quality and average temperature. We finally gave up and put in a good quality regular tank, but I have a friend who is researching for one and I'll be sure she sees this.

[W. Gray]

For those who might still have an interest in tankless water heaters, Consumer Reports for October 2008 is running a two page comparison of tankless to tank.

[Roma Jean Turner]

A salesman at Sears told me that if you have hard water theywill calcify more quickly than a regular one.  He suggested considering a water softening unit.  I decided to just go with a regular one.

[W. Gray]

Ditto from Consumer Reports in reference to calcification and on recommending a water softener.