On Demand - Tankless Hot Water

[hammersley]

Ok OK - I just learned about this system today. Man it looks great. Does anybody have one? I like the idea of having unlimited amounts of hot water and no cost for keeping it hot 0 only pay to heat it, which is what you do anyway. I understand their are considerable savings in energy cost and the units are small.

 

[Deezul1]

I have used a small one for a garage sink where I didnt want to install a big water heater and it was wonderful. My friend put a whole house unit in his home and liked it a lot.

 

[Bob V]

hammersley, a guy I work with put one in his house. He seemed to like it but he hasn't said much about it lately. He actually lives out your way. If you want I might be able to have him give you a call.

Bob Verhoef

 

[illflem]

I have a undersink one in the shop that heats one gallon. It is intended to give you hot water until the hot water arrives from a far away tank. Mine is connected to a cold water line so it does run out of hot water but is fine for washing your hands but not much more.

 

[JWhitcomb]

Be prepaired to pay big money for a whole house unit. Check out Real Goods on the web.

 

[The patriot]

I was going to put one of these in about 5 years ago. I was told by several contractors to steer away from them. They said that they were high maintenance, and prone to clogging.

I think the only company at the time was a german firm,(hard to get parts) but they may be made domesticaly now.

The one I was looking at was gas fired. I remember it being pretty expensive.

Eric

 

[Amianthus]

I have one.

I have one and I love it. Or I should say the wife loves it. She can spend an hour in the shower and never run out of hot water. Ever want to was the truck with hot water? This is your unit.

I have had mine for 3 years and it has only given me trouble once. The main shutoff for the gas supply stuck. After some lube, it works fine. No other problems whatsoever. It will add up to 90 degrees to your incoming water. Ours is around 45 degrees right now, so we get hot water to the tune of 120-130. Plenty hot! Easy to install (relatively speaking). There is also a 20 year warranty on the tube bundle. I would highly recommend a water softener though, if you don't already have one. You can see the one I have at www.cechot.com These are the ones you see at Menards (where I got mine) and Home Depot.



The only downside to it is that you can't use more than one hot water faucet at a time. You can but it is really slow. So don't try to take a shower while the old lady is doing laundry. If you get the bigger (3/4" unit), you may be able to get away with it. I have the regular (1/2" unit), and it sometimes gets tight on supply. But if you have a large family, you can't go wrong.



My energy bills definately reflected the savings. Although, my previous heater was electric. I think it has paid for itself by now. I've saved over $20 a month. I don't think you'll be disappointed.



If you have any more questions, let us know.

 

[C Schomer]

I've worked on a few and install a few in new homes. Best to design for them from the get go because they take a bigger gas line and flue. They usually don't work out for retrofit too well because you're stuck with a small one to go with the existing gas and vent and low output. I haven't crunched the numbers for a while but it takes about 100kbtuh input to keep up with one shower. They're expensive and from what I've seen - a breakdown or two and the savings are gone! They have some expensive part in them too. Craig

 

[Bob V]

I thought we were talking about the electric ones?