# tankless water heater...pros and cons



## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

HI Folks
Thinking about a tank-less water heater...
any experience ?
Pros and cons would be appreciated.
G.

PS
I know someone with a tank-less water heater that also runs his furnace which hosts a bunch of coils where the hot water runs into to create the heat. Any thoughts on that total system?


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2019)

Well or city water? I heard they don't like well water, although my parents have one on their well.


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## Hammerhands (Dec 19, 2016)

We had one, it came with a constant pressure system that is horrible.

It seemed to work fine, I can’t remember if it took a few seconds to heat up. If you have a small house, it would be a good idea. I’m not sure it saves a lot of energy. It sure was tiny.

Our furnace heats up our water now. That seems to work fine.


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## John Bartley (Jul 23, 2009)

From the research I did a few years ago, when I was contemplating installing one into a rental home .... there are at least two major concerns. First is the required temperature rise. How many BTU you need depends on consumption and also varies with how much you have to raise the water temperature above what comes into the house. If your source water is too cold, your energy efficiency decreases because you require more heat input to raise the water temperature. Second is the quality of the water. Apparently these units do not like water with lots of minerals that deposit inside the heating coils. If your water is high in minerals you will likely have to "descale" fairly often.

Anyway ... I'm still enamoured with them and will definitely be installing one into my own home, but ..... this info I've passed along is from my own research and you should verify it for yourself.

cheers.


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## Hammerhands (Dec 19, 2016)

Never running out of hot water is nice.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I stayed briefly at the home of a colleague's relatives in 1982, when we drove down to Minneapolis for a conference. After the drive, I desperately needed a shower and was quite taken aback by the "instant water heater" they had installed in their basement, beside the shower stall. Looked like a still of some sort, with a heating element, but it was a professional installation. Provided plenty of nice hot hot water with sufficient pressure. I was impressed.

Taking John's comments into account, I can see where a solar heater, to bring the baseline water temperature up a few more degrees, in tandem with an instant heater, could be a decent efficient water heating system.


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2019)

Gas or electric?


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I've had one for several years. Overall, I llike it. 

Pros:
You'll never run out of hot water.
Smaller footprint - mounts on the wall (In our case, it mounted behind the furnace in a space we couldn't have used for anything else anyways.)

Cons:
If you have a teenage daughter, she'll never run out of hot water.
Takes longer to get hot water to the tap.

As far as energy savings go, we saved a lot more when our kids were young and didn't shower every day. I shower at the rink 3 times a week and my wife showers at the pool twice a week, so when the kids are gone in a couple of years, we should save a fair bit again.

We have fairly hard water, but when I flush it with vinegar, we get very little scale coming out. YMMV. They recommended installing a water softener, but it was half the price of the heater, so I figured that if not having one cut it's life by a third, we were still ahead.

When I had a backyard rink, it was amazing. I could just set it for 85°F when I flooded the rink and I would get a beautiful smooth ice surface.

Edit: Ours is gas. When it's running, it uses more fuel than our furnace.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

If you have an older home with a 100 amp service I don't think you could run one. Pretty sure there is a minimum requirement for your mains fuse.


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> If you have an older home with a 100 amp service I don't think you could run one. Pretty sure there is a minimum requirement for your mains fuse.


doubtful. the manufacturer would be shooting themselves in the foot if they designed something that didn’t work in 90% of the market. I’m sure options exist for the homes with measly 100amp services.


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## Tone Chaser (Mar 2, 2014)

We decided to give tankless a try about two years ago.

We were told it could last 25 years if it was cleaned every year.

After a couple of years this is my take. Even though it was strategically located to give the best results, the plumbing company took short cuts and did not educate on what the run of piping should really be like. The shorter the run, the faster you get hot water. The smaller the diameter of pipe required to feed the point of exit the better.

You basically want what is called Home Runs. That means the shortest, most direct, properly sized, insulated, preferably copper pipe, to each outlet source. 

In order to get the tankless system to fire and keep heating you need a good hard, fast flow of water through the pipe carrying the hot water. You can turn down to a slower rate of flow eventually. If you do it to soon, the burner shuts down. The burner runs in multiple stages, as in my situation, it starts at something like 190,000 btu’s , the settles down to what is needed. You need time for the stages to settle into an economical setting if running water slower. A traditional hot water heater runs at 30,000 btu’s, and has a large reserve of already hot water.

The installer kept the original ‘tree’ thinking of large trunk line, to branches of pipe, to individual twigs of pipe, which works fine with a tank system, not at all well with my near 50 foot run of hot water pipe. 

Tankless should be fine set at the recommended 120 F temperature. However, I needed up to 145 F setting for colder winter month water to get the water hot for that overly long, oversized pipe.

I did my homework, and there are many costly ideas that involve ridiculous pumps, switches, sensors, and even storage tanks.

Home Run is the way. A new home would likely place the tankless unit, install a manifold, run Pex pipe to each individual source. Copper pipe holds heat better and insulates easier. When I changed the pipes to this method, less water gets wasted, hot water in 10 seconds or less to most end points of a run. Problems solved, better for the environment.

Cleaning the unit. Very, very important. For what it costs to have a professional do it, you can buy a kit with the pump, hoses, bucket, and chemical. Watch the correct YouTube videos and just do it. Water pressure and flow increase, water temperature gets hotter faster. Significantly! I noticed the improvement. The 120F setting is ideal, but you may want more.

I am the son of a 90 year old plumber, so I can do work, and did do the work that the professionals seemed to omit in my situation.

My father worked on tankless systems in Austria, during the late 40’s-50’s. Tankless has been around for a long time in other parts of the world.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@vadsy Search dude!!! You need a minimum of 120 amps for a tankless!! Most tankless companies assume you have 200 amp service. Most people don't have 200 amps


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

https://s2.img-b.com/build.com/mediabase/specifications/eemax/1010596/eemax-ha011240-specsheet-2.pdf

top of the page google search result, 33 to 54 amp options


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## DaddyDog (Apr 21, 2017)

We've had tankless for 11 years, and same experiences as noted above, especially @bw66 . At the time there were no solutions to the long wait to get hot water. I'm told now there are possibilities (that my wife wants, but I don't care much).

Good news: teens can shower as long as they want.
Bad news: teens will shower as long as they want... and the water bill is triple what it used to be (fortunately water is cheap).


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

vadsy said:


> https://s2.img-b.com/build.com/mediabase/specifications/eemax/1010596/eemax-ha011240-specsheet-2.pdf
> 
> top of the page google search result, 33 to 54 amp options


So you think it's ok to plop a 60 amp breaker into a 100 amp service home and you'll be alright?


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> So you think it's ok to plop a 60 amp breaker into a 100 amp service home and you'll be alright?


yes


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

My younger brother has been running propane ones since about 1985 on a well system. He now has 4 in his place. One for the washer, one for the dishwasher and kitchen sink, one for the bathroom sink and one for the shower. When he had just the one heater it was sometimes faster to heat water on the wood stove. He also has a water heating system around the chimney of his wood stove and a solar water heating system. He has two sand filters and a twin cartridge filter system on the water coming into the house. This propane system has had to keep up with two or more adults and five or more teenagers at times. The most that I recall was at mom's send off when there were 25 people between the ages of 2 months and 57 years old at his place. For a week. That doesn't include people who dropped by. The system held up nicely aside from having the propane tank topped off. 
I think he still flushes the systems twice a year but that's about it. Now that the kids are grown and gone the systems don't get used that much.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> So you think it's ok to plop a 60 amp breaker into a 100 amp service home and you'll be alright?


Will it work and be "safe"....yes, probably. Will you be alright and have no problems, I doubt it. Depends on your system and how much use it gets. Older houses can be a bitch. Have the stove and the dryer going at the same time and then you and the wife hit the shower together, too save money of course, might cause a few problems....especially if you have kids with lots of electronics. I wouldn't do it but vadsy can try it for a while if his place has a 100 amp service.


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

60 on a 100 system ?
safe ? yes 
will it trip the main breakers? eventually
will he get tired of tripping the mains , yes.

would any true electrician wire it ? (not if he likes having his ticket)


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

In addition to what had already been mentioned...one big drawback (or benefit depending on perspective) is that 20 minute showers become possible. To keep the bills down you need to exercise a little self control.

When my brother and I used to install these units, the two major factors were water quality and physical location of the unit due to intake and exhaust ventilation concerns. The venting can be quite expensive.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Another drawback or benefit, depending on your point of view, is you almost need more than one. Especially in a large house.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

I installed one I bought last year. The only problem I found was I got the water too hot and had to turn it down. They are fully adjustable. I bought mine from the USA on eBay and saved about $500.00 and it included the venting. Mine is for the whole house and I think I paid around $400.00 for it. If you want some help in sizing yours, PM me.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> I installed one I bought last year. The only problem I found was I got the water too hot and had to turn it down. They are fully adjustable. I bought mine from the USA on eBay and saved about $500.00 and it included the venting. Mine is for the whole house and I think I paid around $400.00 for it. If you want some help in sizing yours, PM me.


Is it your only source of hot water or do you also have a hot water tank for things like a cloths washer and dish washer etc.? When my brother started out he found that one was not enough and he didn't have a dishwasher back then.....dishes were done by hand. His electricity was strictly solar. He also has an old cast iron claw foot bathtub with a heat vent under it.....kept the water a lot warmer in the bath for a lot longer.


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## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

If you can handle the upfront costs then this maybe for you.
If you have fairly regular power outages and do not have a generator, maybe not.
Benefits are fairly instant hot water forever, drawbacks are initial cost and maybe operating costs and no hot water storage.
The standard 40 or 50 (US) gallon hot water heater isn’t going anywhere as they are cheap cheap, gas being a better overall alternative than electric. If you have a long run to say, your kitchen, you can install a 2nd smaller hot water tank dedicated just for this or a recirc line with a small pump from the main tank. I’ve done both and think a second tank works better as you can run it at a higher temp for your dishwasher.
Neither tankless or a typical tank style is better than the other for hot water. It’s all about having a choice and what you feel like doing.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

I did a ton of house hunting over the last 10 years and every single 100 amp service I saw was full. Crap in Hamilton there are still some houses only running 60 amps!! Ie if you wanted another 15 amp breaker you needed a bigger mains box. You are not going to squeeze a 60 amp fuse into a full 100 amp service box. If you want to remove 4 of your 15 amp breakers and lose whats on those breakers, hey it's your house. So you need to upgrade. 10 years ago that would have been a simple 1k job. Today you have to meet all the new codes, with arc interrupts in the bedroom and the kitchen and the laundry room. Now your simple upgrade is closer to 3k most likely 4k for a 200 amp service upgrade I don't care what anyone says, you cannot put a 60 amp breaker into a 100 amp service box and expect it not to trip the main breaker when someone turns on the vacuum while you take a shower


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> I did a ton of house hunting over the last 10 years and every single 100 amp service I saw was full. Crap in Hamilton there are still some houses only running 60 amps!! Ie if you wanted another 15 amp breaker you needed a bigger mains box. You are not going to squeeze a 60 amp fuse into a full 100 amp service box. If you want to remove 4 of your 15 amp breakers and lose whats on those breakers, hey it's your house. So you need to upgrade. 10 years ago that would have been a simple 1k job. Today you have to meet all the new codes, with arc interrupts in the bedroom and the kitchen and the laundry room. Now your simple upgrade is closer to 3k most likely 4k for a 200 amp service upgrade I don't care what anyone says, you cannot put a 60 amp breaker into a 100 amp service box and expect it not to trip the main breaker when someone turns on the vacuum while you take a shower


Or your kids or grand kids fire up the microwave and hairdryer at the same time which is more likely.


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## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

knight_yyz said:


> If you have an older home with a 100 amp service I don't think you could run one. Pretty sure there is a minimum requirement for your mains fuse.


Mine is 120v, wall plug and draws less than 2 amps. Plus it took the place of an electric hwt so Less overall draw.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

first of all thanks for all the responses....very informative so keep them coming.

All this talk about power and watts etc.....I had always intended to look at a tank-less water heater that runs on gas.
With the price of electricity compared to gas these days I thought that would be a no brainer...what am I missing in this equation?
G.


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

GTmaker said:


> first of all thanks for all the responses....very informative so keep them coming.
> 
> All this talk about power and watts etc.....I had always intended to look at a tank-less water heater that runs on gas.
> With the price of electricity compared to gas these days I thought that would be a no brainer...what am I missing in this equation?
> G.


gas vs electric was going to be my question to you but I got carried away with the internet engineers saying it wasn’t possible, doesn’t exist or can’t be done. 
gas would be the only way to do a on demand hwt as far as I’m concerned when it comes to efficiency and cost


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

It's been my experience that gas tankless hot water systems work great with city water, and become a total disaster when used with well water. Scale buildup becomes an issue real fast when used with less than perfect water. Some houses might require larger gas piping be run all the way back to the meter. Demand is huge (1" or 1-1/4" pipe), as large or larger than your furnace. You can pretty much count on yearly maintenance to de-scale the heating coils. And it won't supply more than 1 shower at a time.


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## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

Gas is the only way to go. You do need power regardless for the exhaust fan and if there is an internal circulator. Depends on the brand and configuration.
If you are replacing an existing gas water heater, the existing gas line should be sufficient. There will be venting and combustion air to deal with too.


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

you'd be right on almost all counts ... except that not every one has NG in their neighborhood .

so that leaves Hydro ... and us country folk pay a premium rate for hydro in Ont , outside of the cities.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

GTmaker said:


> first of all thanks for all the responses....very informative so keep them coming.
> 
> All this talk about power and watts etc.....I had always intended to look at a tank-less water heater that runs on gas.
> With the price of electricity compared to gas these days I thought that would be a no brainer...what am I missing in this equation?
> G.


Nothing. If gas is an option, there is no way in Hell that you should consider electricity.



Lincoln said:


> ... And it won't supply more than 1 shower at a time.


It can if it is sized correctly. Of course, higher capacity translates to higher cost of the unit.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

I inquired about tankless 15 years ago, when I put in my new tank heater. The contractor said they were getting better but still not quite there for bigger NA houses. Most of the tech came from Asia and Europe where houses were smaller and water lines were shorter. Even in those cases, people would run multiple units - one for kitchen/laundry, one for bathrooms, etc.

But I'm sure they've come a long ways in 15 years. When this tank is done, I'll have to research it again.

Not be overlooked out here in Earthquake Country, a hot water tank provides 40 or 50 gallons of potable water in the event everything is shut down for 72 hours or 72 days. Assuming your tank is earthquake-proofed and doesn't tip over in the shake.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

oldjoat said:


> you'd be right on almost all counts ... except that not every one has NG in their neighborhood .
> 
> so that leaves Hydro ... and us country folk pay a premium rate for hydro in Ont , outside of the cities.


There is Propane. Not too sure about in the city......you need room for a decent sized tank. And a lot of times it's better to have more than one unit.


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

and a premium for Propane .... almost as bad as Hydro ( plus we get hit with the CARBON tax , even on cremations)


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Everything has it's drawbacks. Propane is just another option and the price compared to Hydro or NG or even Solar depends on where you live and it also depends on what your house is set up for. Also depends on your needs. Nothing you can do about taxes of any sort so that's almost a moot point. I probably pay a carbon tax in one form or another but the yearly rebate I'm supposed to get should be greater than what I directly pay, which I think is close to nothing. Pretty sure I get a rebate, I now get a GST rebate again. Second time since GST started.
Update.....not too sure if there is carbon tax in Ab. at the moment. It was provincial and I think it got voted out around the end of May or so.


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

Electraglide said:


> but the yearly rebate I'm supposed to get should be greater than what I directly pay,


ZZZZZZZZZ . reel me in , I just bought a Kawasaki.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

GTmaker said:


> first of all thanks for all the responses....very informative so keep them coming.
> 
> All this talk about power and watts etc.....I had always intended to look at a tank-less water heater that runs on gas.
> With the price of electricity compared to gas these days I thought that would be a no brainer...what am I missing in this equation?
> G.


Nothing. I am surprised at anyone mentioning electric ones. The only time I can see you would go that way is for a single use fawcett that was used very little and was a long distance from the main source of hot water.Gas is faster, way more efficient and delivers more hot water.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Lincoln said:


> It's been my experience that gas tankless hot water systems work great with city water, and become a total disaster when used with well water. Scale buildup becomes an issue real fast when used with less than perfect water. Some houses might require larger gas piping be run all the way back to the meter. Demand is huge (1" or 1-1/4" pipe), as large or larger than your furnace. You can pretty much count on yearly maintenance to de-scale the heating coils. And it won't supply more than 1 shower at a time.


Nope. I am on a well and they work just fine, even with our cold winters here in NB. The larger gas piping is not true either. I am using 5/8"as my main and 1/2" to all my appliances. The only thing I would recommend is a water filter for the whole house or one before the water heater.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Lincoln said:


> Scale buildup becomes an issue real fast when used with less than perfect water.


This would could a huge concern in our area. The water is extremely "hard".


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> Nope. I am on a well and they work just fine, even with our cold winters here in NB. The larger gas piping is not true either. I am using 5/8"as my main and 1/2" to all my appliances. The only thing I would recommend is a water filter for the whole house or one before the water heater.


I won't argue about the pipe sizing at your house but make sure that the line from the utility is large enough to accommodate whatever you install, otherwise you'll have to power it with farts


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## Tone Chaser (Mar 2, 2014)

Cleaning takes about 5 minutes of setup. 45 minutes to an hour of run time pumping the chemical, 5 to 10 minutes of flushing time, 5 to 10 minutes to clean up, put things away. The proper chemical cost about $28, average in Canada.

The kit cost about $275 at a retailer with a container of chemical. Amazon.ca was about $200 for the identical kit.

My natural gas unit was expensive, but it is a beast that handles almost anything, including cold winter water supply.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

greco said:


> This would could a huge concern in our area. The water is extremely "hard".


A water softener or iron filter.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

oldjoat said:


> ZZZZZZZZZ . reel me in , I just bought a Kawasaki.


I’m close to buying a Harley. Once the lawyer says it’s ok.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> Nothing. I am surprised at anyone mentioning electric ones. The only time I can see you would go that way is for a single use fawcett that was used very little and was a long distance from the main source of hot water.Gas is faster, way more efficient and delivers more hot water.


Only if you can get some sort of gas.


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## Beach Bob (Sep 12, 2009)

We have a somewhat complex setup: A Navien combo boiler that supplies heating the basement floor slab system and it has a separate line for domestic hot water.. which is fed into a storage tank. 


Pros: Basement is easy to keep at a good temperature (may/probably not apply to most).
Unlimited supply of hot water (we're sized so that 3 separate showers can be running)
Even minimum flow will get you hot water like a regular system(i.e. don't need a minimum flow to trigger the boiler (which gets somewhat tricky with the popularity of low flow shower heads, faucets, etc)

Cons: Well.. you now have a boiler and a 50 gal storage tank
Our house is plumbed like "normal" so the time for hot water to get to the faucet is no different than it would be in any other method
Complexity - the more stuff in the system, the more stuff to maintain and repair
Space - there is a crap ton of plumbing and space required for this setup...

As our house had the basement slab pre-run with heating zones, going to this sort of setup was the right thing to do FOR US. Can't let the guitars get too cold you know.... I LOVE the concept of tankless heaters, but the reality is that a simple system is getting harder and harder to justify as we restrict flow rates in our faucets and it is REALLY hard for most people to justify the type of system we have from a cost perspective.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

my last request after all these great responses.
I live in Guelph and would really like a list of companies that stock and install and service tank-less water heaters in my area..

G.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

GTmaker said:


> my last request after all these great responses.
> I live in Guelph and would really like a list of companies that stock and install and service tank-less water heaters in my area..
> 
> G.


Google. You will find lots. If you want to save yourself some money (hundreds), buy it yourself and then get it installed.


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## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

Steadfastly said:


> Google. You will find lots. If you want to save yourself some money (hundreds), buy it yourself and then get it installed.


Unlikely an installer will want to install something you bought. They get no mark up and will offer no warranty. And if you just bought some random stuff off eBay, will it even be CSA. You're not buying a toaster here.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

GTmaker said:


> my last request after all these great responses.
> I live in Guelph and would really like a list of companies that stock and install and service tank-less water heaters in my area..
> 
> G.


Just hire a plumber who has one in their own house. Then you know that they have done the research and you just need to follow their recommendations.


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

Late to the game but we recently looked into having one installed this year. But all decent units require at least 65 amps to generate enough hot water for you to sit there all day long less amps meant that the units could only generate a certain amount of hot water for a limited time. We had the option of gas but to pay for the gas line would not have saved enough cost to balance off tankless or a full water tank. So we went with a 180 litre water tank which cost us around $1100.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Ship of fools said:


> Late to the game but we recently looked into having one installed this year. But all decent units require at least 65 amps to generate enough hot water for you to sit there all day long less amps meant that the units could only generate a certain amount of hot water for a limited time. We had the option of gas but to pay for the gas line would not have saved enough cost to balance off tankless or a full water tank. So we went with a 180 litre water tank which cost us around $1100.


You could have gone with propane. Much better than electric and the savings are there.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> You could have gone with propane. Much better than electric and the savings are there.


Propane does have it's drawbacks, one being do you lease the tank or buy the tank. Then there's the running of the gas lines and the chimney. Depending on where you live there's also the contract to fill the tank and keep it certified. It's not there 24/7 like natural gas or electricity. The BBQ sized tanks don't work too good except maybe for back up. Depending where you live they can be susceptible to cold. Another problem could be do you have room enough for the tank and the problems with where the tank is. For that matter, is a permanent tank allowed. Much better than electricity, that's hard to say; over a long period of time the savings, depending on your needs and usage, might be there. It's a crap shoot sometimes any way you look at it. As LanceT said, you're not buying a toaster here.
Rinnai RL94iP Propane Tankless Water Heater is one possible option.....seems it could be cheaper at Home Depot than online. Go figure.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

LanceT said:


> Unlikely an installer will want to install something you bought. They get no mark up and will offer no warranty. And if you just bought some random stuff off eBay, will it even be CSA. You're not buying a toaster here.


Most probably will....and charge you more than if they sold you a unit. If, and it's a big if, it's new, CSA approved and they do all the work. It's their certificate on the line.


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

No the cost associated with gas or propane was just to high to run pipes and then a venting for the unit where electric would have been about $4200.00 all in except we live in a older unit so the cost then to convert our electric panel is what we could not get over.


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

Clearly the best thing to do would be to talk to a professional who knows the various units, local regulations and can determine what is best for your home. If by chance you are doing a major renovation, plan to stay for a long time and have room for some extra piping, heat exchangers and some pumps, look at a gas boiler system and run everything off of that. Hot water tank, fan coil/forced air, in-floor hydronic, hot tub, garage heat, etc. can all be run off a simple boiler no bigger than an average tankless water heater. Incredibly efficient and draws less than 2 amps of electricity, just gotta get over the cost of the initial investment.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Ship of fools said:


> No the cost associated with gas or propane was just to high to run pipes and then a venting for the unit where electric would have been about $4200.00 all in except we live in a older unit so the cost then to convert our electric panel is what we could not get over.


I installed mine for way less than $1000.00. It may have been $1000.00 including the two 100 lb. propane tanks I bought. The price goes up when you have to pay someone else to do the work for you. The two 100 lb. tanks last 4 months. That includes a gas dryer and kitchen range.


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

That would be okay if I lived in a house but being that we have a 750 sq/ft townhouse it wouldn't justify the cost.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> I installed mine for way less than $1000.00. It may have been $1000.00 including the two 100 lb. propane tanks I bought. The price goes up when you have to pay someone else to do the work for you. The two 100 lb. tanks last 4 months. That includes a gas dryer and kitchen range.


Did you have the gas dryer and stove before you put in the tankless? Were they ng or propane? If you got them after the conversion then you should add the cost of them and plumbing them in too. If you had them before then there could be the cost of converting everything over to propane. And did you have a certified gas fitter get your permit and certify the job? If the job isn't certified that could cause really big problems with your house insurance. Especially if you live in the country.


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