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point of source tankless heater for tub

12 years ago

Well, I have picked my Sanijet tub and am now trying to figure out how I can supplement my existing one year old water heater with a point of source tankless electric water heater for tub only. Can anyone recommend some brands that are reliable and low maintenance as well as decent performers? Also if Mongo or one of our resident plumbing gurus could explain does the heater go in line with existing water supply to tub or a parallel loop or a separate line into the tub. I will also take Olychick's advice and insulate space around bottom of tub during construction.

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Comments (6)

User
12 years ago
In no particular order - Takagi, Rinnai, and Noritz are the main players in this arena.

They all require periodic maintenance to flush the exchangers out - unless you have conditioned water feeding it.

Be sure to check your gas meter and supply system before embarking on this route. These can consume a lot of gas. Install will be dependent on your current piping layout and size heater you select.

Do you need / want this because your current heater is to small ?
lazypup
12 years ago
Now I am confused...The post specifically says they are looking for an electric heater. Why would they need to check the gas meter and gas supply line to install an electric heater?
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We installed a tankless about a year ago and have only regretted it one day- when we lost power. The savings are far above what we expected, we no longer worry about running a load of laundry before giving our daughter her bath, and we've never run out of hot water. As far as filling the tub with a heater producing 5 gal/min, won't you be mixing the hot with cold, therefore filling more than 5 gal/min? I have NO professional experience in this sort of thing, so I may be wrong. We did get a rebate from the gas company when we installed it, and some sort of tax credit, so we are recouping cost long before we expected to. Good luck with your decision.
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Donno if this helps, but we bought a 2 bath house with the old,disconnected hot water tank still in place, very close to the kitchen, and laundry room. it had been replaced with a tankless propane (rural) unit, 30 feet from the kitchen and 50 feet from the bathrooms. It was plumbed to the bathrooms first, and in series, thence to the kitchen. The first fix was to have a tee to the kitchen end installed at the tankless unit. We are leaning towards the electric point of use system for the kitchen, to fill in and then thermally cut out when the tankless gets hot water to it, though the plumber, upon speaking with the electrician, recommended we go with a recirc sysstem, which i think is rediculous, given our main heater is tankless. If I had it to do from the beginning, i’d skip the propane and use a combo solar pre-heat to a heat storage tank in our cellar (we‘ve installed a battery backed up 12 kv solar pv system) and electric point of use units for both the bathrooms and the kitchen and laundry room. As it is, we’re going to go with at least one electric point of use heater.
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golfschnell
Original Author
12 years ago
Correct I am looking for an electric point of use heater. My existing water heater is a 65 gallon hi efficiency gas water heater which will almost fill the tub if no one else in house needs hot water but I would like an inline to supplement so I don't have to empty the tank and so I can periodically add very hot water to keep water tosty hot for long soaks. I can't use hot tubs very well due to skin allergies to the chems you have to put in them so this is my alternative to ease a bad back. I put a point of source in my mom's house for a bathroom sink that was very far away from her water heater and underperforming. That and recirc pump solved the problem. I was hoping somebody made one for indoor spa tubs for those of us that like to be on the edge of lobsterville.
weedyacres
12 years ago
If you're looking for a good deal on one, we've got a brand new one that we ended up not using (insufficient breakers on our panel) in a remodel but couldn't return once it was out of the box to the internet vendor from whom we purchased it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Great deal on water heater
User
12 years ago
sorry guys/gals _ I had a brain spasm and am an idiot.

You wouldn't need to check the gas supply for an electric tankless.

Also forget the brands I mentioned because they only make gas units.

Electrics of size to fill a tub (3-5 gallons a minute) will draw huge amperage on your electrical system. That pos for the sink only flows about 1 gallon a minute I'm betting. You'd need to have an electrician evaluate your system to see if it's feasible.

You could probably design something that uses a smaller elect. to feed the 65 gallon, but you'd have to run a bunch of calculations to find what size would make sense. This is not the venue for that.

I'd consider a tempering valve as a simpler solution. Super heat your water and let the valve mix in cold to make the water a usable hot temp to flow out to the rest of the house. You will extend the volume of the 65 gal unit this way with no increase demand on the gas system and very little electrical work or demand.
dstock66_yahoo_com
12 years ago
Does the sanijet tubs really stay warm without a heater?

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