EVERYBODY CHIME IN PLEASE

[Scrambler1]

The company I work for in Ga sells the Takagi brand. Just finished building our new house with one in it and it is GREAT. Can take a shower as long as you want w/o running out of hot water, can have 10 people stay over and all take showers in the morning, and also have instant (extremely) hot water at the kitchen sink for coffee. It is far more difficult to add this system to an existing house but for a new house you can't beat it. The high end systems like Takagi have a recirculating pump that keeps the water moving in the pipes (maintaining a lukewarm temp) which is why the water for your shower is almost instantly hot.

If you are looking to add to an existing house you need to talk to a plumber about your options. Be sure you find a plumber who is familiar with these systems, if they don't lay out the piping correctly your performance will suffer. Water might not be hot enough, slow to get to the tap etc. Another advantage for a new house is I don't have 3 huge utility closets for water heaters.

The electric ones work better for a bonus room or addition that isn't used all of the time. They do draw alot of power. You can turn them off when no one will use the area, but almost instantly hot and ready to use when needed.

Joe

 

[fast fred]

i have been useing them for a long time ....heres the ones i have been useing and iam very happy with them.........
www.tanklesswaterheater.com/eemaxheaters.html

 

[Soapy]

I have used them for almost 25 years in various applications. I have had them at my house and also at my carwashes. For home application here are the cons. 1. Most will only heat 4 to 5 gallons of water per minute. They will generally heat the water up about 70 degrees over incoming temp. at these flow rates. If you are use to having a shower with a 2.5 gpm shower head they work fine, if you like a higher flow shower or have multiple water users at the same time the tankless water heater won't keep up. 2. The tankless units that I use "Paloma" are gas with a 199,000 btu burner. If you check they have about a 70% effeiciency rating when heating. Many of the new gas waters with a tank acheive 95% effeciency. I have found at my carwashes that these type of tank heaters are cheaper to operate than my tankless units. My tank style heater is a Voyager sealed combustion unit that draws air form the outside through a pipe and exhaust through a pipe also. THis is nice since it does not draw heated air from the room that needs to be drawn in from the outside.
Be sure to check the temperature rise acheivable and the flow rate of any tankless heater you are considering.

 

[jelms]

Seems that every hot water solution has it's pros and cons, but as a person that had a hot water tank disintegrate and ruin a lot of my pipes with that white particulate I will be going with a tankless system when I tear down my house and rebuild a new one.

It seems that the electric draw is huge, but since I have gas maybe I might be better off.

-jeff

 

[HV SRT]

I own a plumbing co. If you have gas then tankless might be the way to go. If you have a shower with more than two heads it won't put out enough hot water.Most tankless WH put out 5 to 7 G.P.M. each shower head puts out 2.5 G.P.M. Also if you have a jetted or soaking tub most valves put out 10 to 16 G.P.M. so it will take longer to fill the tub. In short if your hot water demands are low than tankless is the way to go. I have a 75 gal. gas WH with a recir. system in my house. I have 3 teens that take long showers and 4 shower heads in the master shower. If I went tankless I would need 2 units. And with a recir. system the up front cost would out way the 25 to 30 0/0 energy savings you get from tankless.