Point of Use Water Heater

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Pennsylvania
I want to install a point of use water heater for the future sink in my shop. Basically, this sink will just be used for cleaning brushes, watering plants, washing hands, etc. This will not be inline with another water heater; it will be the sole source of hot water. I don't know anything about these heaters but I see they come in different sizes, 2, 4, 6 gallon. Could I get some advice on these things? What size do you think I'd need for what I'd be using it for?
 
Rob,
When we remodeled in late 2000 we put in a 1/2 bath right inside the entry door from the garage. Thought that it would help with the grand kids tracking clear through the house. I put the 2 gal in the cabinet under the sink because of the long run from the main 90+ water heater. It has been a good one so far. Saves on water also. Mine reheats in less than 3 minutes. Washing brushes you might want to consider the 4 gal though.
Hope it helped,
Chuck
 
I have a 2 gallon in the shop sink. Works well for washing hands, rinsing out the coffee pot.
Anything else. it runs out of hot water pretty quick.
But I don't use it for washing dishes :eek: or anything like that.
 
Two questions that bias my suggestion...

If you only use the shop occasionally, I suggest a 2 gallon, so it reheats fast when you turn it on, and you can leave it off when the shop is not in use.

If you have heat on much of the year, even at a low level, it doesn't matter, so get a larger unit. The extra cost is usually very small, the extra capacity may occasionally be helpful, and if you leave it on all the time (since reheat will take much longer) the heat loss will contribute to the heating of the shop.
 
I don't have a continuous/instant hot water heater but on forums I have heard a few people say they love them but more people who say they don't last long... sometimes as little as a year or two (scary for something that expensive).

To get the fast heat transfer, people agree that the water goes through small passages over the heating element. My hypotheses to explain the various comments is that water with a low mineral content is probably fine, but if you have hard water (minerals or sediment) the fine passages near the heater probably plug too soon, leading to short life. Some who recognized that the heater was plugged said that they weren't successful cleaning it out.

So, although I haven't used one, based on forum discussions, my bias is not to try.
 
That is all we have here in Japan, ours is gas fired and is now nearly 8 year old, the warranty is for 12 years.

I love them, with a wife and two daughters at home, I'm often the last one in the shower, and if we had a tank, I'd be having short showers!! :eek:

Cheers!
 
HI.

When we built in 2002, I had a tankless electric on-demand heater installed for the two bathrooms in the bedroom area. My unit is large, 36 Kw, and delivers plenty of hot water. As soon as the unit senses that there is a water flow through the unit, it kicks on. Ii has three stages that act independently so it uses only enough electricity to heat the water to the preset 120 degrees. Temp is not adjustable. I bought my unit over the Internet from a company in Florida called Tankless Inc. They have sizes from single faucet up through heating swimming pools.
 
For continuous use, I would think the problem is power. Unless you run a special circuit, all you'll have is a 15 amp 110V circuit, or about 1650 watts, and some of that will be wasted (nothing is 100% efficient). With a bit of research, you can compute how much water you can draw continuously at a certain tempertaure (knowing the input tempertaure). Otherwise, you have to depend on the storage capacity of the unit, which is why they make different sizes.

But this is probably nothing that you didn't already know.

Mike
 
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