The Tankless Water Heater and You
Friday December 1, 2006
Getting nearly instant hot water for your shower, hand or face washing or even for washing dishes is a luxury that is becoming increasingly popular. There are tankless water heater systems that work at the point of use such as under your kitchen sink. And there are larger units that serve multiple plumbing fixtures, even your entire house!
But these units have certain characteristics you need to understand in order to properly size and select your unit. In the tutorial Tankless Water Heater - What You Need to Know, we'll review many of the considerations involved with this appliance.
Also, you'll want to see this site reference from ToolBase.org for excellent additional tankless water heater information.
Comments
People need to know that many of the advertised total installed price from local plumbing companies are for a basic install and are somewhat misleading. An average tank style water heater uses 32,000-75,000 BTUs. Tankless water heaters use 190,000 btu at optimum use and more than that on higher powered units. This means that the 1/2 gas stub from the wall will not fuel it properly. So you need a minimum 3/4 – 1″ feed. That means a new gas line routed in at additional cost. No you cannot always tee off the Furnace next to it in the garage because then you take away from the units the furnace needs to run. Especially if you ever intend to run the heater and a shower on a cold winter night. Next the approved venting needs to be stainless steel. The thin B vent that homes are typically built with is not approved. ( there are several reasons relating to acidic erosion I wont get into right now ) but you will need to replace the venting or relocate the water heater. There are direct vent wall termination kits, but involve opening the walls. All this at additional cost. The water conservation act limits shower head flow to 2.5 gallons per minute, but home owners often remove them.
If you run multiple fixture simultaneously, such as laundry and a shower, multiple showers, dishwasher etc…. you will need a larger more expensive tankless model or additional tankless heaters. Another thing… tankless heaters have electronic interal components that can fail. Most plumbing companies do not carry these parts. Many technicians are not skilled in tankless repair. Instead of having your thermal couple replcaed in 5 minutes and a $8.00 part. you are waiting for parts to arrive and have no hot water. So do you research. Get a quote in writing. I have found that for the cost of an average tankless installation you can replace a tank style heater every 15 years for the next 60 years for the cost of one tankless heater installed. Energy saving are nice, but a $40,000 hybrid car is not saving you money over a $16,000 Honda civic.
Great comments Giovanni. Tankless units have limitations and require that careful thought be given to sizing them properly. The tutorial discusses these issues and you have raised other excellent points. Thanks.
I am having lots of problems with tankless water heaters and wonder if someone can give me some insight as to what we are doing wrong. We have a 20-unit propery of small one-bedroom units with only kitchen, lav and tub shower faucets, no dishwasher or other uses of hot water and have changed to tankless heaters. All heaters are less than 2-1/2 years old. We live out of the US and can’t find anyone who can tell me what is causing the problem. A couple of months ago, one of the pipes leading from a unit leaked. After changing the pipe, the unit didn’t work. It is a Titan, has two lights on the outside. One is supposed to come on only when the water is being heated. Both lights were staying on and the water doesn’t heat. The electrician assumed water had gotten into the unit and damaged it. Last night a pipe came loose on another unit and water gushed all over the floor. After the plumber replaced that pipe today, the same thing happened with the two lights staying on and no hot water. I cannot find any support info on the Titan site and they haven’t yet responded to an email. Does anyone know some way to repair them? My plumber and electrician say they don’t know how to repair them and folks on this island just don’t like them. We have electricity prices about 3 times most places in the US and felt the units would save us money. Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for the long post and thanks.
after repairing line alwaws turn power off and run water through unite for 20 seconds,also need to use inline water filter.
turn water off that goes to the unite ,if light goes out you have another leak.maybe leaking more than unite can heat.
I have had a great expiraince with Titan tankless water heaters. The size is great and the heat is endless. tankels a look at there website.
I agree with Austin I to have had a titan tankless water heater installed for many years and I love it. I lived in Miami all my live till I moved last year to Alabama. I watched Niagara Industries (the company that manufactures the titan tankless water heater) grow over the years. In Miami they are a staple in the community. There are good people ant there product is a good one.
The Titan tankless units are great. I love the size especialy they fit anywhere.
Well, after owning a Titan tankless water heater for about 10yrs now, it just decided to blow up and throw water all over me and my utility room while I was standing right next to it doing laundry. Is this common with these tanks? I’m considering talking to an attorney, I don’t think something like this should happen. I was terrified and ran out of the room with hot water all over me.