Outbacker

I currently have a 6 year old 40 gal water heater that has a 6 year warranty. So I am doing some research into a natural gas tankless water heater to replace the tanked one. I am looking for comments, experience and recommendations. The one I am looking at is Bosch, but I am open to suggestions. Any lessons learned from them as well as advice for what to look for would be appreciated.

Cheers.

tomtoolman12345

The only downside to the tankless water heater is if you want the water on a slow trickle you will not have any hot water. you have to have a certain amount of water to pass through the heater before you can get hot water. Other than that they are an amazing peice of equipment

handyguys

The biggest downside to me is instalation complexities. NG tankless require larger gas lines and different and larger venting. Those factors could really add to the cost. For me it would be a purely economic decision.

Cost to run current conventional WH minus cost to run tankless over a year = s
cost of new tank = x
cost of tankless = y
y-x=z
z/s= years to recoup costs

Figure life expectancy of tank style is 10 years and tankless is 15 (just a guess)

Can you get a payback in under 10 years? For me a 5 year payback would make sense. a 10 year would not.

There are, though, family harmony benefits that may take cost out of the picture. No running out of hot water - Priceless? You decide. Under sizing the tankless and having only lukewarm water when multiple fixtures are running? Frustrating.

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Outbacker

I ended up putting in a 9 year water tank. After I did all the calculations (time vs. cost), I think I figured out it would take something like 35 years before it would start to pay for itself, providing nothing went wrong with it for the 20 years after the warranty on it expired. A new home during construction is the best time to get one installed, and though I could get it done, it just was not worth it.

glennjanie

Hello Outbacker:
Your analysis is a shocker to me; I have always taught the opposite but I had never really put a pencil to it. Thanks for your detailed study, It changed my mind.
Glenn

jasonkoll

The tankless water heaters were actually intended as space savers. So, the biggest advantage of installing a tankless water heater is that you are going to save a significant amount of space. So, if this is your concern then you should go ahead and install one. But, realize that the cost of a tankless water heater and installation are going to be significantly more than a traditional water heater. You will almost certainly have a higher gas bill per month as well. But the water heater will heat just about all the water you need for most applications. If you were thinking a bigger unit like a 2+ person, you will probably be in the 199,000 BTU range. That is enough to heat about 7 gallons per minute to about 105F with an incoming water tempurature of 45F.

bowanna03

there is a lot of upkeep also i had looked into one and the installer told me they have to do an acid flush every year that cost between $150-$200 and that the certified installers are the only ones who could do this alot of maintenance