Tankless Water Heater, yes or no?

Well the ol' water heater has a leak in it, which is disappointing because I picked it out myself 12 years ago, installed it and it's been great. It's a 65 gallon high efficiency fast recovery heater, running out of hot water has never been an issue even with a corner jetted tub and a super shower with 7 heads.

Anyhoo, I'm looking at a tankless. Of course the main consideration is to keep up with the GPM, gallons per minute, so if you can estimate each faucet at 1.5, each shower head maybe about the same, dishwasher and anything else, you should have your GPM rate. Then if your BTU can keep up, which mine should, we have electric stove, electric dryer, so it's really the furnace and my garage gas heater.

But, does anybody have a tankless water heater? How do you like it, has it lived up to the hype? Do you have soft water, so maintenance is very little?

Hmmmm...a "super 7-headed shower" huh? My wife would never leave the bathroom.

Maybe that's your problem...

I don't have one in my house, but I wish I did. I rent a lot of condos (I have to work out of town a lot) with those tank-less heaters. They produce instant hot water and are a lot more energy efficient. I would highly recommend getting one. They take up less room as well.

The only disadvantage I know about is that two different showers can't run at once; at least for the ones in the condo.

I have several friends that have them...and a couple that don't but wanted them.

The ones that have them, so far so good, they like them. Also have stayed in a number of AirBnB's on vacation (in Europe) that had them and no issues for hot water.

The ones that wanted on demand but couldn't have it, interestingly enough, had solar and needed to show that they had "stored energy" as a back up in case their electrical failed. Interesting that a barrel of hot water sufficed for the emergency storage of energy...

They are good, except when for some reason they chose to turnoff the main burner, and you have to close the shower off and start over. Unless you need looong showers, they are not essential. A modern storage heater is not losing much energy keeping your 40-60 gallons of water warm.

I have a Rheem 9.5 GPM that I got from Home Depot. Have had it for 2 years with no problems. I love it and would never go back to a tank. I have had 2 shower going at the same time with no problem. The water pressure does drop a little when using 2 things at the same time.

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Originally Posted by hikster11

I have a Rheem 9.5 GPM that I got from Home Depot. Have had it for 2 years with no problems. I love it and would never go back to a tank. I have had 2 shower going at the same time with no problem. The water pressure does drop a little when using 2 things at the same time.

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What size is the hot water line coming out, 1/2 or 3/4 inch?

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Originally Posted by kiwi_outdoors

They are good, except when for some reason they chose to turnoff the main burner, and you have to close the shower off and start over. Unless you need looong showers, they are not essential. A modern storage heater is not losing much energy keeping your 40-60 gallons of water warm.

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No, but, when that water heater decides to give up the ghost....and it leaks...that's a lot of water damage, especially if you're not home.

I lived in a duplex rental and my water heater rusted through the bottom. I felt bad...as, the slope drained into the other unit. Total carpet etc replacement. Suuuuuucked. Landlord covered the whole thing, but, still...

I can tell my house has had a water heater leak...floor in the bathroom adjacent to the water heater is hollow and creaky sounding, and, my home inspector confirmed it'd had an issue. I've not bothered to dig into it...not sure what I'd find, ,but, no moisture now and no rot...so...ugh...

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Originally Posted by Sombeech

What size is the hot water line coming out, 1/2 or 3/4 inch?

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3/4 water lines going in and out. 3/4 gas supply line

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I'll be thinking hard about tankless next time around. I have some rental units and not having to worry about that water leak sure would be nice.

My coworker had a tankless and got rid of it about a year later. When it worked, it worked great.

But the times it didn’t were the deal breaker.

So his wife would be showering and then next you know he would a scream because the shower instantly (not gradually) went ice cold for a few seconds and go right back to hot again. He called up the vendor and said that this is a fairly common issue and is not a “defect” and will not be able to return it or exchange it.

The happened less than a dozen times after that but just enough to annoy the wife and my coworker enough to return the unit.


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I just went through this remodeling my house and I went with a tank for a bunch of reasons. But bottom line I was told if you don't run out of hot water don't go through the additional expense of going tankless. YMMV

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

I just went through this remodeling my house and I went with a tank for a bunch of reasons. But bottom line I was told if you don't run out of hot water don't go through the additional expense of going tankless. YMMV

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Yeah, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I get that. My problem is I've got a HUGE water heater that I love and it will cost close to the same price to replace. Plus, it's rusted out the bottom and leaking now, the thought of low maintenance tankless sounds good right about now.

For those who have run out of hot water in the past with tankless, I wonder if it's been a gas issue, insufficient supply for the required BTU? I've got 3/4 " lines going directly to my custom shower and jetted tub, I wanted to make sure it would keep up with all those GPMs. So it wouldn't be the 3/4 inch water line coming out, I assume it would have to be a disruption in the gas supply.

Good feedback though, thanks

What makes you think tankless is low maintenance in comparison? I just replace my water heater every 20 years, you can't beat that for low maintenance.

Supposedly if the water is soft, you won't need to descale it. But I've been hearing a lot of feedback and this is not the case. My brother in law descales his every 4 months and has soft water.

That right there has made up my mind.

Last month, I was proud of myself for changing out the ice maker filter in the fridge after 12 years. It's supposed to be every 6 months.

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For those who have run out of hot water in the past with tankless, I wonder if it's been a gas issue, insufficient supply for the required BTU?

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For what it's worth, I never ran out of hot water with a tank-less heater, which is not true about our tank heater. The water was always immediately hot with the tank-less heater and never ran out.