December 29, 2004

• I'm building an addition. Does anybody have experience with electric tankless water heaters? I'm thinking about getting one or two, but they draw a lot of amps, and I'm not sure how well they'll work.
• You are limited to electric? Gas is better.
• Is the design similar to those insta-hot faucets? I ask because I've had nothing but bad luck with the shitty suckass insta-hot faucets.
• When I traveled in Central and South America, I had rather unpleasant experiences with these. When you turned the faucet on full blast, the heater hardly made a dent in the temp. When you turned it down to a level where the water had any heat at all, there wasn't enough to "de-lather" your shampoo-y head. Besides all that, it was kind of nerve racking to see big ass wires attached to the shower nozzle. Shades of a Hollywood slasher flick, but in Espanol.
• Okay if you live in the tropics. Otherwise, not much use unless you're a masochist.
• Cool Tools was all over the gas models. We're going to use them in the new place.
• Basically, the problems described above will come about when the installer of the unit does not plan ahead & calculate the water usage of the household. Squidranch probably encountered units that were far too small for the water usage, due to the cheapness factor. You have to calculate how much water you are going to use, & install a unit that will do the job. I'm not a plumber, but I was an interior decorator/general builder's mate for a while, & dealt with some of these units a couple of times. I forget how you calculate the water usage, but sure a Google search will turn up the info. I actually think that, properly installed, they do a good job, plus save a fair bit of money in the long run, also actually last much longer than tank units. The gas types are more efficient & quicker, but cost a tad more to run because of the pilot light. The electric ones don't heat up so fast, IIRC.
• Nostril is addressing a question I`ve wondering for a while. In the US, is it cheaper to heat water with gas or the electric on demand heater in todays fluctuating energy enviroment. Likewise, what is the cheapest portable electric space heater to operate to achieve the same level of comfort. I use the electric stand up oil filled heaters, but I`m always confronted with the claims of the electric ceramic heaters being cheap to operate. It`s hard to draw an actual comparison between the two, since they don`t run all the time and one,the oil filled, does retain heat even when the elements are off. With natural gas prices rising like they have, is it still sensible to use the gas furnace, or swithch to full electric?
• I've had great luck using tankless heaters in both Mexico and Florida. In both cases, they were rated for the proper amount of water, and in no way were they anything like I imagine when I hear "Besides all that, it was kind of nerve racking to see big ass wires attached to the shower nozzle." These are separate units which live in a utility closet near the bathroom. I liked them well enough that I'm considering using them in my house the next time I need to replace the water heater.
• Here in Portugal this is about the only type of water heater you'll find - either gas or electric. We've had no problems with it - in fact, showering at the other end of the apartment from the water heater unit, it only takes about 2 minutes for the water to be hot enough to shower, and about 3 minutes for it to be burning your skin if you're not careful! Our model is gas, and also heats our radiators. I'm not sure what natural gas prices are where you are at, but our natural gas bill is about 9 euros a month in the summer and 75 euros in the winter (because of the radiators being on nearly continuously!). When we lived in Southern California, we had a standard water heater and our gas bill was about $50 a month (no radiators in the winter!). So, it appears it is cheaper than a standard tank model.
• Hey everybody, thanks for the help. I'm going to keep looking. So far they look pretty expensive up front, for models that would heat a shower with electricity. I'll comment again with what I find.
• In much of the US, gas is cheaper than electric. It is here in the flyover zone, anyhoo. I've only had one experience with a tankless heater, and it wasn't good. Temperature was inconsistent, and never got hot enough to suit me. I talked to a plumber once about them, and he said they can be damned hard to set up to run properly.
• Saw the CoolTools link a little while ago, and have been considering a tankless ever since, not just because of energy costs, but because of experiences recently with the traditional heater tanks. Turns out most recent model water tanks have a serious design flaw. There's a pipe that runs down the center, that has to do with flow control and water replenishment. This pipe is made of plastic. Over time the plastic used degrades in hot water. Myself and a friend had to have our tanks serviced when we separately noticed that the hot water wasn't lasting as long as it used to. In both cases it was because the pipe in question had eroded until it only extended a small portion of the depth of the water tank. Another friend really got shafted by this flaw. The bits of plastic pipe made their way into his water pipes and got stuck, blocking water flow. He had to have a number of walls ripped open and piping replaced.