Has anyone gone from a traditional tank style water heater to a tankless one?

How has it compared?

Glad you made the move, or wish you could go back?

How have your engery bills changed, if at all?

^^^wears a tankini^^^

I would be interested too.

Also, do they provide hot water faster than a traditional water heater?

Yes, wondering about ^^^ that too.

I see the purchase of one or the other in my future this weekend... after another luke warm shower this morning, it appears the thermostat element is shot in mine, and pilot light is not staying lit either.

We knew when we bought the house last year that it was on it's last legs, and I think this is it.

change out the thermo element, costs about $30 and will take about 10 minutes. Clean the pilot light with a wire brush...

I want to do this. Lived in houses with this kind of set up where the water was run over a coil attached to the oil burner that heated the house; there was no hot water tank. We NEVER ran out of hot water. I am interested to find out if these new tankless heaters work as well.

New one either way... current one is 20 years old and uses well water (and the previous owner had the filter set-up all wrong, so most likely gunked and aged further as well). New one is simply needed anyways.

I want one too Jay!

The amount of water that our current tank holds is the exact same capacity as the jacuzzi in the bath. Once I fill that, there's no hot water left.

We have drained our heater to get the (well water) sedement out of the bottom and that seems to help too.

A friend just put one in - the tankless system - when building their new place, and they love it.

Also, there is a drain faucet near the bottom of your water heater. You should attach a hose to it and drain it once a year. It'll increase its lifespan and efficiency.

f you will be draining the tank completely, you must turn off the water supply and turn off the thermostat so that the heater will not be damaged by heating an empty tank. Either turn off the circuit breaker for an electric model or turn the gas control to "Pilot" for gas models. To turn off the water supply, turn off the valve on the pipe where it enters the water heater. If there is no valve then you will have to turn of the water at the water main. Open a hot water tap in a shower to prevent a vacuum when draining the tank completely.

You can drain water into a bucket or you can connect a garden hose to the valve to drain the water to a sink or to the outside. When you are ready to drain the water, place the bucket beneath the valve or place the hose into a sink. Remember, the water will be very hot, so be careful. Turn the valve counter-clockwise to open it. A couple gallons should be adequate to remove the sediment build-up, you can judge by the clarity of the water. Initially, it will be dark or rust colored and then will lighten as the sediment is drained out.

When you are done turn the valve clockwise to stop the water. Wipe away any water with a rag and recheck the valve in a minute or two for any leakage. Tighten the valve closed with a wrench if necessary. In our experience the valve can be difficult to close completely and so water will continue to drip from it. For that reason we recommend that you have slip-joint pliers or a similar tool at hand to turn the valve completely off. However, be careful not to over-tighten or you may damage the valve, especially plastic models.

If you turned off the water supply, circuit breaker or set the gas valve to "Pilot", restore them back to their normal positions now.

Thank you for the cut and paste of a totally irrevelent answer to the question asked. It was very helpful, and something I am already well aware of.

But if we could focus on people's expereince with a tankless water heater over a traditional water heater, that would be great!

We replaced our hot water heater with a tankless water heater (a Rinnai) last fall. So far have been happy with it. I'd have to check our bills to see what the savings have been so far.

The speed with which you get hot water depends entirely on the length of the run of pipe to that faucet. That's also true of traditional hot water heaters. The heater switches on as soon as hot water is called for, and it's at the temp you set the heater for. It's very quiet.

Are there different brands?
Are some more efficient than others?
HG what made you decide to make the switch?

Yes, and what was the installation like??

is there a waiting period for more hot water? with a tank model, when it's used up, there is a period before you will get any real amount from a faucet until it can heat some more water

basically, is there almost always hot water available?

I had a tankless hot water heater for years in two different houses. We were always having to reset the furnace to make it work if the weather changed; cold to hot, hot to cold. We recently replaced our boiler with a new heating system that is called System 2000 (you can find it on the Interent). It has a small, effiecient holding tank for hot water, so that the boiler does not have to come on everytime we call for hot water. The hot water is endless and SO much better than our old tankless. We have reduced our heating bill by 50% since we changed over. I can't say enough good things about that system.

The premise of the tankless is an endless supply of hot water and it's only heated as you need it - therefore saving energy. I would LOVE this, but since ours is only 2 years old I don't think we'll be replacing it. However, if I ever did replace I would get the tankless. I know they're pricey, but I think well worth it. I now our neighbors love theirs.

OK



There are different brands. We looked at the specs on models from 3 different brands when we were getting estimates.
From the models I looked at, there aren't big differences in efficiency, it's mostly capacity, cost and reliability.
We were replacing a heater and an air conditioning unit, and just decided to replace our 20 year old hot water tank at the same time. The contractor that did the work gave us an attractive price, and we qualified for some of the energy tax benefits.


Ours was dead simple. The tank hot water heater we replaced was near an outside wall, had the correct size gas line for the tankless heater, and a vent system in place. Basically all they had to was take out the tank heater and install the tankless one in the same spot. I also gained utility closet space in the deal.


With the tankless hot water heater you will never run out of hot water, it's heating it as it comes into the house and sending it on its way. When you first turn on the hot water tap, like I said, you'll wait while the hot water runs the length of the pipe to reach the faucet.

30% tax break may apply (check with your tax advisor)

I replaced my water heater a few years ago and really wanted a tankless one. At the time, it would have been about 3 times the cost of a traditional 50 gallon gas heater when installation costs were included. I couldn't justify the additional expense.

I talked to a vendor selling and installign these last year--I'm interested in it and want to get one when mine needs replacing (but my current one is in great shape).

The hot water it supposed to be nearly instant (needs tiem to get from the heater to your faucet) and they are flash heaters from what the vendor explained. He also said you coudl have 4 people showering at the same time and not run our of hto water. The units he had were smaller--maybe half the size or less than a traditional tank.

I'm interested in them mostly in a effort to go green (spend energy heatign onyl the water you need and not keepign an entire tank hot 24/7). But in addition, it would be nice to fill the bathub completely full and nto run out of hot water and still be able to have hot water to rinse off with

If you get one, let the rest of us knwo how it is

We looked into this two years ago....darn it I can't remember the price but our particular installation was going to be complicated since our current water heater is located in the interior of the house. We would have either had to install a venting system or reroute the plumbing so we scrapped the idea.

Also, based on the location of the unit, we would have prolly had to wait quite awhile for the hot water to reach the tap so it really didn't seem like it would be all that much more efficient anyway.

I have heard that they are great systems but I guess it really depends on the particular house you're putting it in.

Good luck JJ, let us know what you decide and how it works out.

We switched to a tankless water heater a couple of years ago, it was the best decision we ever made. We never run out of hot water, no more waiting 20 minutes or more between showers, water heats up in a few seconds - no real wait.

it's supposed to be pretty warm this weekend, I'm thinking of wearing a tank top

When we finished our basement last year we had a Rinnai installed. I love it! The endless hot water supply is awesome. Just this week, my son took a shower, while I had a load of laundry going and I took a shower and there was not a lack of hot water at all.

I am not sure what the installation process was like b/c we had a friend that is a plumber that installed it.

My hubby builds custom green homes and they always use Rinnai's in the new homes. I know that there is one made by Bosch, but doesn't work as good.

Just get a geothermal heat pump and use that to heat your water!