Tankless Waterheater

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Hello!

I am considering putting in a tankless waterheater but am curious to hear from folks who are already using them. I'm specifically interested in whether they heat the water enough. Our cold water is glacial runoff and only about 45 degrees when it gets to the house. Can the tankless waterheater bring the 45 degree temp. up to 120 or so?

- Justin

-- Justin Shelton (justinshelton@netscape.net), November 02, 2000

Answers

I don't have one of those tankless water heaters now, but when I get my own home I plan on installing them. I lived in Germany for a number of years and one apartment I rented had two of them. One newer model was in the bathroom and was fully automatic. It took about 20-30 seconds for the water to get warm/hot, but once it did, there were no problems. The rather small unit heated the water faster than it could be emptied into the tub. The other unit was rather old and was fixed above the kitchen sink. You turned one tap on the sink to fill the basin and then turn a knob to heat the water. Pretty soon it'd be almost boiling, where then you had to turn another knob to release the water and mix it manually with the cold tap water. Both did their job wonderfully and were extremely efficient.

If your house water is that cold, I'd see about using a holding tank to bring the temp up a bit. That could save you a lot of energy. The units I had wouldn't have had a problem though.

-- Chris Stogdill (cstogdill@rmci.net), November 02, 2000.


They are about worht there weight in gold :-) Have used a aquastar it is great. Take a hot shower as long as you want and it won't get cold. And be prepaired to see your gas bill go way down. The gas company replaced the meter they thought it broke the useage went so far down. The second month they called to ask why we about stoped using gas The old tank heater was very inefficient. Anthony.

-- Anthony J. DiDonato (didonato@vvm.com), November 02, 2000.

There was at least one, maybe two threads about tankless water heaters awhile back. If you look through the archives in Misc and Uncategorized, maybe you can find them.

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), November 03, 2000.

I don't have one myself but recently did a little research for a buddy online. Several brands, all kinda pricey, some with copper or stainless heat exchangers(very desireable), two basic versions. One version has a fixed temperature rise, the other is thermostatically controlled. In your case I'd consider the thermostatically controlled one because the desired water temp can be set so there should not be any problem with the cold inlet water getting hot enuf.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), November 03, 2000.

We went with one in our new house and I love the thing. Ours is the big Takagi commercial model, I can take a shower and run the washer at the same time.

The water here is mighty cold too, it comes from a tank way up the canyon, but the heater makes it scalding hot. I'd say go for it.

-- Jorja Hernandez (jorja@color-country.net), November 03, 2000.



Saw these many years ago and would love to have one. My husband says we would have to then purchase a water softener because of our hard water and the "buildup" of mineral "sludge" that we get in the bottom of our hot water tank now. It would probably clog up the coilse in a tankless heater too otherwise. If anyone does have hard water and has one would they please let me know how they are handling their hard water or mineral problems. Thanks !!

-- Helena Di Maio (windyacs@ptdprolog.net), November 05, 2000.

Helena- We have an aquastar tankless heater and we have a lot of lime in our water. A couple times of year we run vinegar into the heater and through the water lines to get rid of the lime build up. Our water comes from storage tanks, so my husband is able to get the vinegar in the system through a valve between the storage tank and the pressure tank (I think). We can tell when it needs to be vinegared because our hot water pressure falls way off and then the heater doesn't work well. Otherwise we love the tankless heater. Never have to worry about running out of hot water!

-- Deb (andersland@webound.com), November 05, 2000.

Deb: How is it your aquastar on energy consumption? Did you switch from a tank heater? Is the aquastar gas-fired or electric? Was the tank gas or electric. I am looking for a fair comparison of current util bills to previous util bills.

-- Bob Blessum (robertblessum@netscape.net), February 09, 2001.

I am also looking into buying a tankless unit. Does everyone on this page still like their units? How much did it cost to install? Thanks, Cynthia

-- Cynthia Wells (gandcwel@earthlink.net), December 05, 2001.

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