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tankless (on-demand) water heater brand advice

17 years ago

I am researching tankless water heaters and so far have yet to find one that receives glowing raves. I would love to hear from people who have had personal experience with specific brands of tankless water heaters at home.

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Comments (11)

mduett
17 years ago
I am extremely happy with my Takagi TK1-S. I did quite a bit of research before settling on this brand. I bought mine from Plumbingstore.com for much less that even wholesales prices at local plumbing supply distributors. The performance of my tankless has been fantastic! I am able to use my upstairs shower while the downstairs tub is being filled and not fear having the tub empty a hot water tank during the middle of my shower!
islandbound
17 years ago
Mduett, how much did your Takagi cost, and have you had it long enough to compare your electric bills? (assuming its an electric model)
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It would be good to step back a bit. Other than the Bosch unit that had so much trouble (AquaStar?), I don't think that the brand of the unit is the most important issue. You first need to be clear on what your needs are and what venting and other issues you may have. To determine what your needs are, you need to approximate the temp of the inlet water in the winter--In very cold climates that can be around 33 degrees. Then you need to determine what you want to raise that temp to. In most cases the design temp is 105 degrees because that's the temp of a shower (even though the heater will likely be set at 120). The difference is the temperature rise. Then you determine what faucets you are likely to use at the same time and you add the gpm rating of those together. Once you know the temp rise and the flow in gpm, you can find a heater that will do that. They publish charts that show how many gpm they will heat at a given temp rise. What you will find is that the most of the heaters have a similar energy factor and so a 200,000 btu input heater, for example, will heat about 4.5 gal a minute at a 72 degree rise. Once you go over the 200k btu input, there are fewer brands available, but still several. Be aware that the condensing units (that take the flue temps below condensing point) get very expensive and have the issue of the condensate being corrosive. At this time, I wouldn't use one unless there was a compelling reason to do so. (The little additional energy savings isn't a compelling reason, Solving a venting problem because you can use PVC pipe might be) All of that said, I thing the Rheeem/Rudd/Paloma units are a quality unit at a reasonable price. The cost of 200k btu Rheem is ~$1100 with the basic vent kit. If your gas company will install it for $1500, I would do it. That includes the cost of capital, by the way. Most of the units are available as an indoor unit or a outdoor unit. The outdoor units are suitable for warm climates and don't need a vent. Most of the indoor units also offer an outdoor air intake.
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What are your priorities? Low cost to operate? Propane is an expensive fuel, but cheaper than electricity usually. You should confirm that. If you send me the cost of a gal of propane and a kw/h of electricity I will compare it for you. Something else to consider would be a heat-pump water heater. They work well in hot climates because they pull the heat from the air to heat the water. Great in the hot climates, not something you want to do in a northern climate. I believe they qualify for tax credits also. Here's a link to an example... I'm not endorsing it, you would need to do your own homework. Here is a link that might be useful: Heat pump water heater.
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Typical panel services are 200 amps. You want to install 2 something's that pull more than half of your available service. That's not doable with a standard service, much less solar. And why 2? A well placed propane unit of the appropriate size is more than adequate for whole home usage.
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Quite honestly I don’t like any of them, we install them because people want them. I have 50gal water heater at home and love it. It’s kind of like having that V8 pickup truck, will not be super-efficient but doesn’t brake either and goes through anything, and when it does break, it’s easy to fix. There are only 2 things that can break in my heater, heating element or a thermostat, each costing less than $20 to fix. Also I can buy new one for $600-700, Navien will run me $4-5k. So all the efficiency is not that efficient on my wallet in the end. Don’t mean to steer you away, but you asked :)
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mduett
17 years ago
Islandbound, My Takagi was $800 and my Oct gas bill(all Takagi tankless are either NG or LP) was lower than last it was last Oct.
jca1
17 years ago
Based on my experience with their customer support dept., and their excellent products I'd reccomend a Rinnai unit.
metal
17 years ago
I would suggest Rinnai as well. Takagi, Rheem, Noritz, and Bosch make good units as well.
baxxter
17 years ago
I just posted a longer post in another thread wherein I stated that I think the gas savings may be way overstated.

I keep my 16+ year old 40 gallon water heater on year round.
My estimate is that it only takes about 3 to 4 therms per month to keep my water heated 24/7.
My use is very minimal.......daily showers.....and a couple dishwasher loads per week....and I keep my temp at that which allows 100% hot water showers.
Anyway, I average only 7 therms per month yearly average.
And that includes the hot water I use, plus keeping it heated all the time.
7 Therms here costs about $7. So I'd estimate that only about half of that is to keep the tank heated when not in use. Certainly it can't be more than $5......allowing just $2 for 30 showers and about 8 dishwasher loads.
gzec
17 years ago
I installed bosch NG around 4 yrs ago in a small house. It worked fine. I did it because I saved a lot of space in my work room and liked the idea of not heating water when I wasn't using it on business trips and such. Never had a problem with not having enough hot water. It was only a couple of people living in the house. Not a huge demand.
Katy
17 years ago
In all my reading on this site I have never heard anyone mention the noise level of the heaters. I was just talking to a friend of mine. She had been considering a tankless but she was told they are noisy. Anyone have this problem?

Katy
mopguy
17 years ago
we offer the Chronomite tankless water heater. They vary in cost from $199 to $449 depending on which features you need.
You can view the details on the Chronomite instant hot water heater models at airdelights.com.
Katy
17 years ago
I found the site below and thought it could shed some light on the tankless units. This quote is from that article:

"Bradford White has Rinnai manufacturing its "Everhot" tankless water heater line. It IS the Rinnai line with the BW name on it. State and A. O. Smith have Noritz manufacturing theirs."

Katy

Here is a link that might be useful: tankless 101
ojaijohn
17 years ago
I've had the Takagi TK-2 for about two and a half years. Purchase price was $800.00 and self-install added about $50.00. Noise level is the same as a tank unit. The only time I hear it is if I walk past while the cooling fan is running. The closet it sits in backs a bedroom and no sound comes through the wall.

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