Tankless water heaters

[Squintz]

http://www.buytankless.com/
http://www.tanklesswaterheaters.com/stiebeleltron.html

I saw the buytankless.com water heater on DIY Network. Space is an issue in my townhouse so im thinking about replacing my 80gal water heater with a tankless heater. I was wondering if any of you have ever experienced one of the tankless heaters. What are all the pros and cons of such a heater.

 

[zack]

They use them all over the place in Europe and Asia... brilliant little machines in terms of efficiency, not sure about reliability.

 

[Rupp]

Squintz,
I do not have direct knowledge but my sister in law who lives in Nashville, Tn just bought a hugh home that has 2 of these and she had told us that they love it. It was substantially more up front but they like the fact that they are mounted nearer their bathrooms and don't have to wait for hot water for a long time.

 

[tech-home]

I was thinking the same thing. Here is a link of the one I was looking at after researching for awhile. I just haven't got my but in gear because of the hassle of installing one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...3860597253&rd=1

If memory is correct they sell these at lowes but prices are alot better on ebay.



BrianD

 

[Squintz]

I was hoping to replace my entire hot water heater with one unit. If any has done this for a normal size town house with 2 and a half baths, dishwasher and washing machine id like to know how often the regret not having their tank heater.

I'm more interested in this because i could really use the space that my current heater is hoging. I dont caer about the instant hot water part but it must be atleast 104 degrees and stay hot once it gets to temp.

Right now i dont run out of hot water and i never want to be in a situation where i do run out of hot water. Only downside i can think of so far is that if the electricity goes out i wont even have a reserve of hot water. That might not be a big issue if i ever invest in a generator for the house.

 

[DavidL]

squintz - u got the juice in your power panel for the H2O heater? 50+ amps 220v is a lot of juice.

 

[Squintz]

To be honest Dave im not sure that i do.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

squintz - u got the juice in your power panel for the H2O heater? 50+ amps 220v is a lot of juice.

Wow, 50 amps! Make sure your wiring can handle that current as well as your typical 3C12 will not cut it in this case!

 

[Squintz]

It states on all the sites that i have read that a master electrician needs to replace the existing wiring and add three 50 amp breakers. I'm not sure if my electrical panel can handle this but when the time comes i will figure that part out. From everyone i have talked to about it they are not bad at all. I may want to add an aditional heater in line with my master bathroom so that my shower and whirl pool tub will reach temp. Since the one I want is $700 and i may need to buy more than one unit im looking at the possibility of spending over a grand on the system. This is something that is gonna have to wait until probably february 2006.

Thanks for all your input

 

[DavidL]

three 50 amp breakers? U sure that isn't two? You will also need around 8 awg or thicker wire between the panel and the heater. No X10 switching this baby. You can begin to tell if you got the panel by seeing if you have two full size breaker slots open in your existing panel. This is where the two hots (red / black) go. Then, dependent on local code you will probably need a white wire to go to the neutral bar and the copper or grey wire to go to the ground bar.

Figure in some bucks for the wiring as well. $20 in breakers, and $2 or so a foot for the wire. And 1/2 a day of time to install it - dependent on how close water pipes / location / electric panel are. Also, depedent on loacl code, permit fees for the plumbing and maybe for electrical permit too.

I bought a much smaller one for my barn. It consumes 40 amps of 220volts. Havent' hooked it up yet (3 yrs in the box ). That's the next major project is to put the plumbing in the barn. I am pretty sure by looking at it (it's pretty small) that it won't keep up with a shower. But, it will probably be great for the sinks.

 

[jlehnert]

Any way you could get a natural gas or LP version instead? If you already have either of the above, it would get around the problem of upgrading the electrical system.

 

[Squintz]

nope no gas. If the breaker box can handle it then runing the wires wont be hard. I do have the extra slots for the breaker But im not sure what the max amps of the box is. it probably writen on the box but i have not checked it out yet.