instant hot water heater

bill walton

Member
Messages
14
Does anyone have experience with instant hot waterheaters. I'm looking for some recommendations on brands, sizes, etc. to balance against manufacturer claims.

Thanks in advance
bw
 
just use black pipe

down where ya are from the sun shines almost continous,, you migght be bale to just lay black pipe out on the roof or attic area and have hot water for very little cost... saw it dun up in our parts in a rv park party store..they even had enough for the shower room.
 
The very first house I built as a contractor was for a fella who had the plumbers install a instant hot water heater. I can't offer any help as to brand type, etc. but I can say he was extremely pleased with it for years, and I'm sure he still uses it. It was just that, very soon after cracking the hot water valve...you had hot water.

Hope others can be of more help with your questions than I.
 
bill, what little i know says to only go with gas......bosch is pushed locally but 98% of folks opt for a conventional heater with a blanket.
 
That is about all we have here in Japan, no space for hot water tanks.

I love them, ours are all natural gas, and they work great, just turn on the water, instant hot water, and for as long as there is water & gas in the pipes, you got hot water (kind of important with two daughters in the house, or I'd NEVER get a hot shower!! :rolleyes:).

Rinnai is a big brand here, I think they have been in business since th 1920s or so.

Our heaters are Rinnai (though they are branded "Tokyo Gas") and they have only had one problem in 6 years, a mixing valve would stick, they replaced it under warranty.

Seriously, after having one of these, I'd not go back to a "Tank" water heater.

I think that Rinnai can be had in the US.......:dunno:

Cheers!
 
Stu is absolutely right. Rinnai can be had in the US. A coworker of mine had a Rinnai installed a couple years ago. Absolutely loves it. He'll never go back to a tank type. It's a very nice unit. Their website has a sizing helper to get you in the right direction. During the day I am a mechnical enigineer for commercial buildings. I design HVAC and plumbing systems. For a house with a "standard" family, I would not go below 4.5 gpm at the 75 degree rise. I think their website is www.foreverhotwater.com. When my current electric (yikes) tank type water heater dies (which i hope is soon), I plan to install a tankless heater. Most likely a Rinnai. That's just my 2 cents.
 
We were going to go with a LP Gas version when we did the bath update in our bedroom.

But our LP gas distributor recommended not to do it, due to the mineral deposits we have in our well water. Ours is not bad, but some wells in our county are terribly mineral filled.

He said that its possible that the tubes inside would clog up over time.
So we went with an electric 40 gallon tank unit.

Steve, I won't say that a tankless unit would "never" clog up, but I had a gas unit in my apartment for 5 1/2 years in Belgium, and the water had a tremenduous amount of minerals in it, (even worse than Odessa Tx water), and there was never a problem with it. It was my understanding from the Owner that the system had been there for several years before I moved in with no problems. That was the only type system I ever saw over there. I loved it, as you never ran out of hot water. The piping run to my kitchen and bath was short, so it was almost instantaneous hot water and not expensive to use. The GAS models are the ONLY way to go, NOT ELECTRIC, because they use too much electricity, AND after a short while, they cause the water to have a bad smell for some reason, but the gas units don't have that problem.

I really want to install that system in my house, but we have 3 baths plus the kitchen and laundry room and they are scattered from one end of the house to the other, and the piping runs are very long, so I have been trying to determine the best way to economically do it, probably need two smaller units since the house is slab on grade with the plumbing under the slab.

Just my experience, YMMV. If you ever have one of these systems and it works anything like the one I had, I'd wager that you would NEVER go back to a tank type.
 
Norm.

We live in the country. No way to filter our own well water like the city dwellers do to get the minerals out.

So thats all I can do, is go by what my supplier told me.
And he also sells us LP gas for our other tank type water heater, gas stove, dryer. So I feel like he was honest with me.

Yeah, Steve, it may also depend on the type of minerals you have in your water. We had a lot of calcium and some salt, and I don't know what else over there. Another thing that I would like to try here in our area sometime is a gadget that quite a few commercial businesses (and a few homeowners) use to keep the clogging out of ALL the plumbing lines, valves, etc. Basically, it is a fixture that they either install inline or around the inlet water line that has some type of magnets in it, and it doesn't filter the water, but does something to the molecular structure of the minerals, and they just pass on through all the plumbing without sticking to anything. The people I've talked to that have them all said they were real skeptical about them but thought it was worth a try, and all have been real surprised that they work really well. I can't remember what the units are called, and I don't know if they work on all kinds of minerals, or just lime/calcium and salt. They were a little expensive though when they first started selling them so I thought I'd wait til the price came down some, and our water isn't quite as bad as it used to be since they have been mixing some lake water with the well water so it hasn't been quite as pressing a matter as it once was.
 
norman, i`m betting that steves water is very similar to ours in that the concentration of lime is so high that a mr. coffee needs vinegared every month or more. we just replace the heater element in our tank type heater every 18 months or so and scrape out a few pounds of calcified lime from the bottom of the tank while it`s open..maybe that`s why the locals avoid the on-demand systems?
 
We had a Rinnai unit installed last year when we built our house. It powers the laundry and two showers. The water at the tap is not instantly hot. The water has to travel the distance from the heater to the tap, however, we can have both showers going at the same time and not run out of hot water.

I think there is a savings in natural gas with not having to keep a tank of water hot. I know our gas use seems to be down from our old house and it was only 1 bathroom and about 1000 sq.ft., compared to two baths and 2400 sq.ft.

There are other brands, in fact I did about a years worth of research before we put the Rinnai in. There was another brand that seemed to have better "numbers", but I can't remember it now. Anyway, the Rinnai was the only one available in this area.

I was also going to have one put in for the kitchen, but just before we demolished the old house we had to buy a new tank type gas WH for the old house. I had that installed for the kitchen of the new house, but when it goes bad I will convert over to another tankless heater.

We are on well water and we have very acidic water. We use a soda ash injection system that neutralizes the water. I don't know what that will do to the tankless unit, but at least all the parts of it can be changed out.

Karl
 
I was told by a good freind who does HVAC work for a living that you should put in a good conditioner inline of them or atleast a good filter ansd RO system.
 
We were going to go with a LP Gas version when we did the bath update in our bedroom.

But our LP gas distributor recommended not to do it, due to the mineral deposits we have in our well water. Ours is not bad, but some wells in our county are terribly mineral filled.

He said that its possible that the tubes inside would clog up over time.
So we went with an electric 40 gallon tank unit.

Install a water softener ahead of the heater. You will never regret it. Everything in our house, with the exception of one outside spigot, is softened. You use less soap for everything and it is a pleasure to wash and shave with it. Plus it saves on things like your fixtures and heaters.
 
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