Anyone have an experience with tankless water heaters?

[bigb]

Has he tried something like this

It helps reduce the calcium deposits. I've been using one and haven't yet flushed my system. When I do flush I plan on using one of the pumps I have for brewing and doing straight vinegar for an hour or two.

I wondered if your RO system would mean you didn’t need to flush it very often, if at all.

 

[Scat]

I wondered if your RO system would mean you didn’t need to flush it very often, if at all.

I would think this to be the case.

 

[Gameface]

I wondered if your RO system would mean you didn’t need to flush it very often, if at all.

My RO system doesn't feed the whole house.

 

[Gameface]

So just another update.

Nothing has really changed. Tankless water heater still kicking serious *** and making life easier.

I need to do a flush, but now about 3.5 years after install I haven't done one yet and I'm overdue to replace that calcium reducing cartridge.

I did have an issue where the unit was shutting off. A quick google search of the error message that is displayed by a succession of blinking red lights told me that it was the flame sensor. A youtube video later and I was pulling the flame sensor and cleaning it off with a dollar bill. I must have not done too good a job the first time because a couple weeks later and it started happening again. I cleanit it better and it has been about a year since I've had to mess with it.

 

[Ron Mexico]

I just sold my house but I installed one in there. It was a Gas one that was great. It cut my bills down and I could run every faucet full blast in my 3 bathroom house and they were all hot indefinitely. The only thing that struggled was the washer. Since I had a high efficiency one it just does a little water at at time.

 

[Gameface]

I just sold my house but I installed one in there. It was a Gas one that was great. It cut my bills down and I could run every faucet full blast in my 3 bathroom house and they were all hot indefinitely. The only thing that struggled was the washer. Since I had a high efficiency one it just does a little water at at time.

Ahh, I never really thought about the washer. I wash my clothes in cold water most of the time, but towels, sheets and stuff like that I wash with hot water.

 

[Scat]

@Gameface What brand and model did you get? There are all of these online calculators to determine the size of tank-less heater and they seem to over estimate what I need. We only have two people living here now and at the very most would be running a shower, kitchen faucet, dishwasher and clothes washer at the same time and that would be a rare occurrence.

 

[Gameface]

@Gameface What brand and model did you get? There are all of these online calculators to determine the size of tank-less heater and they seem to over estimate what I need. We only have two people living here now and at the very most would be running a shower, kitchen faucet, dishwasher and clothes washer at the same time and that would be a rare occurrence.

The brand I got is Takagi but recently I saw the exact same unit with different branding. I can't remember where I saw it.

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[Gameface]

So this is the exact unit I bought although I didn't buy it from Amazon, I found it considerably cheaper somewhere else.

Amazon product ASIN B00DDPZ4AK
I have a three person household with three bathrooms and this unit, @160,000 BTUs is the smallest BTU unit Takagi sells (or at least sold at the time) and I have more issues with water pressure, hot or cold, than with the tankless heater keeping up.

 

[FactorX]

A guy at work was telling me about pex. Sounds awesome.

It really is awesome. The shark bites fittings just push on (self seal) and can be removed (reused) if needed in seconds. They are a bit costly however if your doing more then one room they sell a crimp tool and the fitting are dirt cheap. The tool is between 40-60 bucks and more then pays for itself in relatively short time. Only negative I can see is it's putting plumbers out of business. Because the PEX is flexible a lot of times you can move up and around things without even using fittings.

 

[Gameface]

It really is awesome. The shark bites fittings just push on (self seal) and can be removed (reused) if needed in seconds. They are a bit costly however if your doing more then one room they sell a crimp tool and the fits are dirt cheap. The tool is between 40-60 bucks and more then pays for itself in relatively short time. Only negative I can see is it's putting plumbers out of business. Because the PEX is flexible a lot of times you can move up and around things without even using fittings.

Yeah I used pex and some of the sharkbite fittings but a lot of elbows with crimp fittings. Been rocking my tankless heater for almost 4 years now and I love it!

There is no chance that I would ever purchase a tank water heater ever again. If a tank needs to be replaced I'd replace it with a tankless heater.

I say that but I also know that some places don't have gas plumbed to their residence. From what I've heard electric tankless heaters are not in the same ballpark. So, if for some reason I found myself someplace where I didn't have gas plumbed to my residence... I'd look into how I could have a 480V power supply installed so that my tankless would rock harder than ever!

 

[Scat]

Welp, I ordered and received my tankless water heater. Installation has been a bitch. There are a lot of factors that aren't discussed or taken into consideration when looking into them. Like natural gas line pressure. I had a half inch line running to my old water heater. New tankless water heater needs 3/4" to meet the 180K BTU at maximum usage. This means to keep my other gas powered appliances running properly I had to upgrade the gas line coming into my house from 3/4" to 1". Just gone done replacing nearly 25' of gas line tonight. I also had to run an electrical line and install a socket near the new heater. Tank heaters do not require any electricity. Venting. Tankless heaters need to have an air source and be vented. I can use the old venting but it is 2" and the tankless heater requires 3". I'll be upgrading that tomorrow. For maximum efficiency and best performance I will also be running a 3" air intake through the foundation of the house tomorrow. Once that is all done I can mount the new heater, run the water lines and hook up the vents and gas and I will be golden. All told, including the cost of the heater, this is going to cost about three times what a traditional water heater would cost to install. It damn well better be worth it!

 

[Gameface]

Welp, I ordered and received my tankless water heater. Installation has been a bitch. There are a lot of factors that aren't discussed or taken into consideration when looking into them. Like natural gas line pressure. I had a half inch line running to my old water heater. New tankless water heater needs 3/4" to meet the 180K BTU at maximum usage. This means to keep my other gas powered appliances running properly I had to upgrade the gas line coming into my house from 3/4" to 1". Just gone done replacing nearly 25' of gas line tonight. I also had to run an electrical line and install a socket near the new heater. Tank heaters do not require any electricity. Venting. Tankless heaters need to have an air source and be vented. I can use the old venting but it is 2" and the tankless heater requires 3". I'll be upgrading that tomorrow. For maximum efficiency and best performance I will also be running a 3" air intake through the foundation of the house tomorrow. Once that is all done I can mount the new heater, run the water lines and hook up the vents and gas and I will be golden. All told, including the cost of the heater, this is going to cost about three times what a traditional water heater would cost to install. It damn well better be worth it!

I got lucky. I've been running mine off the same 1/2" line that was feeding the tank.

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[Scat]

Completed installation last night. An easy switch out this was not. That said, the only real mishap was not getting a PEX clamp secured on an elbow. Opened up the valve to feed water to the system and POW! I was shooting water about 20' across the basement. A big mess but easy fix. My only complaint thus far is how long it takes to actually get hot water coming out of the tap, especially when the lines are cold and hot water hasn't been run for a while. Probably didn't take as long as I imagined but it certainly takes a bit and definitely not as fast as a traditional water heater. I'll give it a few months before I give it a thumbs up or down.

 

[bigb]

Completed installation last night. An easy switch out this was not. That said, the only real mishap was not getting a PEX clamp secured on an elbow. Opened up the valve to feed water to the system and POW! I was shooting water about 20' across the basement. A big mess but easy fix. My only complaint thus far is how long it takes to actually get hot water coming out of the tap, especially when the lines are cold and hot water hasn't been run for a while. Probably didn't take as long as I imagined but it certainly takes a bit and definitely not as fast as a traditional water heater. I'll give it a few months before I give it a thumbs up or down.

The time to get to the tap should be only marginally longer than with a ranked water heater. The only difference is that second it takes to heat the water.


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[Gameface]

The time to get to the tap should be only marginally longer than with a ranked water heater. The only difference is that second it takes to heat the water.


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That's been my experience. I have a few faucets that take forever and they took forever before I put the tankless in. If it takes 2 more seconds on the 2min it has always taken I don't really notice.