I searched, didn't see any threads about this. Hope I didn't miss something. Anyone have one of these? Worth it, etc.? Do they really work with a house full of people, kids who take long showers, etc. ? LIfe expectancy? Do they wear out after 10 years or so (like regular water heaters do)?
I wanted one but couldn't install it because my flue was too small (that sounds bad ). The Bosch unit at home depot had a 25 year warrentee. Supposed to be significantly more efficient as well as providing endless hot water. Art S.
Thanks Art. The concept sounds intriguing. Last year, Southern Company had a promotion in which they gave you a rebate on your gas bill if you purchased one of these. I didn't because my current hot water heater isn't that old yet. But unless these tankless heaters turn out to be a bust, I'll probably get one the next time. My understanding is that they don't burn *any* fuel until you ask for hot water - they're not running all day when you're away from the house - thereby saving you lots of $$$ over the long run.
I have one at my beach house and it works great. Never a problem with getting hot water. The biggest issue (if you think it is) is that it takes a couple of minutes to start getting hot in the bathrooms that are the furthest away from the heater. Other than that its great. I believe mine is a renai or something similar to that. It takes up hardly any space and you don't pay to keep a tank of water heated all year long. I am happy with it.
These are good units. They are used a lot for specific uses that putting in a tanked water heater would be a problem. A master bathroom, for example. If the unit is located near the supply area it should be almost continous, quick hot water. If you are waiting awhile for your hot water to reach your faucet then you might want to put a circulating pump in. This will keep hot water in the lines. EDIT : Jeff, you have a G500 and a G500 Cab.? Couldn't decide? lol
I installed 2 of the Bosch units in my new house. They rock! They allow you to take a hot shower for as long as you like without ever running out of hot water. One unit will probably not allow a shower,dishwasher, and clothes washer to run at the same time with hot water, how many times does that really happen? I have one unit solely for my master bathroom, (2 sinks, big tub, stand alone shower) and another unit for the upstairs bathroom, kitchen, laundry, garage. No complaints so far! Dave
they are a great product. As one mentioned, with 1 unit you can't run like 3 different appliances using hot water at the same time..........but that's the only disadvantage I've ever seen/heard. VERY EFFICIENT vs. Standard tank heater
Almost sounds too good to be true. Based on what I'm hearing, I could probably go with a single unit for my whole house. At most we would have two high water consumptions going at the same time (two showers, or washing machine + shower), etc. Appreciate everyone's comments and advice. Now I'll start doing my homework for real on these products.
I had a Renai (sp) at my Laundromat, costs about $1700 insatalled. It served 54 washers! I swear by them! I thinking about installing one in my house. for all the same reasons. But I'll have to switch over to Ngas or LP. ps. I also have seen the one Home Depot sells. looks good but I'm sold right now on Renai.
You're right about it not using energy when there is no demand. That's why its more efficient, it doesn't try to keep a large tank of water hot all the time. However, during the on time it uses triple (or more) energy that a standard water heater. I was told the the hot water delay between a standard water heater and a tankless one is 15 - 30 seconds. The rest of the delay is due to house plumbing.
I don't think there's really much savings, probably consume roughly about the same energy in the long run I would think, but i'm not to sure. It really comes down to convenience ie: hot water all the time...
Besides saving the square footage of the closet you need for a conventional unit, I heard it put best this way: "Keeping 200 gallons of water constantly heated in a conventional water heater, is like leaving your car running in the driveway all the time, in case you want to run to the store!" ROTFLMAO! Other than that pearl of wisdom, no idea....we don't have one in the Divorcee's dome tent.........
I only used them in Europe, but they worked great. Endless hotwater. But they have those toilets with the platforms....I don't get the wisdom in that design.
In the UK they are called Combi-boilers and I believe that many new builds use them. 1. They are supposed to be more fuel efficient. 2. There is no need for a cold water tank in the loft of the house because they work on mains pressure 3. No need for a hot water tank in the airing cupboard as the water is heated on demand 4. Can improve the flow of showers - because the water is at mains pressure When my old boiler packs up I will probably switch to one of these - it will free up a ton of space. I trust my quaint old English expressions (airing cupboard, loft etc) translate to American...
Do some research (there are plenty of good web sites out there) and you'll find this is a quickly growing market in the US, with many new suppliers and manufacturers coming into the market every month. Just looking briefly right now compared to what I saw four years ago when I bought ours I find a lot more info out there. Meanwhile, this is technology that is old-hat in much of Europe. When our three year old conventional water heater (with 10 year warranty, arrrgh!) started leaking a few years back, I did some research and decided to go with a tankless water heater built by Envirotech. They offered several different models, and I had to do a little figuring of our hot water flow rate demands, supply-side water temp, desired output water temp, and power availability, to determine the model that would work best for us. Dont skimp on these calculation, or youll end up with a unit that doesnt meet your needs adequately or efficiently. We've had ours now for four years, and have had almost no problems with it. Only time we had a problem was when we had guests staying with us and managed to run several high flow hot water devices simultaneously (something I never thought would happen when doing initial calculations), causing the unit to get too warm and shut down the heater. A 30 minute wait to let the unit cool odd, a simple reset and more judicious scheduling of water use that night cured the problem. And that was an extraordinarily odd day of heavy demand on the unit (a dishwasher, laundry, and two sinks were running at one point and most for an hour before the unit gave up). We had to go with an electric model due to lack of available fossil fuel sources, and as a result had to do some additional electrical wiring to meet the demands of the unit. But we have seen a drop in our electricity bills since installing the unit, despite the ability to now run hot water seemingly endlessly. Our only constraining factor now is limited water source (we also have to make our own water from seawater using desal unit and can only store 1,500 gallons). And we actually use more water now with the tankless heater since we never run out of hot water.
Mark, this is the way to go if you are replacing an existing water tank heater. Think about it. Up in your attic sits a bomb. It is called a water tank under pressure. There is a bleed off value. But sometimes these values get stuck. Want to guess what happens then??? Dale
There are units that can also service a hot water heating system. I looked at this when my heating boiler started going bad up in MA -- with a couple of units, I could have regained a lot of closet space, and stopped paying to keep water hot when it wasn't needed. In MA, it wasn't such a bargain, though, as the gas company there (nstar) implemented a monthly minimum charge, so I was paying for the gas whether the water heater used it or not. (Besides, the boiler just needed a circuit board replaced.) But read your utility bills closely. Some have charges to discourage conservation, some are hit with pretty high (percentage wise) city taxes, etc. The automatic billing options are protection for the local politicos (regulation board) re-election hopes.
