Hot Water Heaters: Tank vs Tankless

AprilZ81 · January 2016

Our water heater is old and I've started noticing that the hot water is running out sooner (could be I'm taking longer showers because it warms me up) and there is more temperature fluctuations when using hot water.

I'm starting to do my research on what we need and how much it will cost and we will probably replace it at the same time as we do our bathroom remodel (which should be next month).

I've always had a tank but I'm willing to consider a tankless system since this is a long term house for us. I've read several articles that the tankless may be more energy efficient in some ways but energy bills still go up (running water longer to wait for it to heat up, more gas used, etc.) and I don't want to buy into the hype.

Priorities:

-Hot water as fast as possible.

-Enough capacity for two showers to run at the same time

-Save money over the long run.

-No/low maintenance

-Long lasting unit.

Do any of you have a tankless system? What do you like or hate about it?

short+sassy · January 2016

Oddly enough, I recently had a mystery shop where I had to discuss tankless vs. tank hot water heaters with an associate at a big box store. I was shocked at the price difference! A tankless, including installation, ran $2500 vs. about $800 (including installation) for a tank.

For me personally, that is too costly. Even for a forever home. BUT, there are only two people in my family and we only have one bathroom. Our water gets hot fairly quickly anyway. I could certainly see it possibly being worthwhile for someone with more hot water needs.

cbee817 · January 2016

We don't have one but did look into it. The biggest problem with a tankless at our house is that our HWT is in the middle of the basement next to the furnace. To go tankless, it needed to move to a wall to support the system- it just didn't seem worth that plus the added expense of a tankless. Our HWT was really old and there was hardly any hot water for a 4 minute shower. When we replaced it, the plumber showed us how calcified and corroded everything was and since installing a new one in 2012, we've had really good water temps. It's actually set at the lowest heat level and the water gets really hot. We have to be careful because the girls blast just the hot water when they're washing their hands- always need to reinforce to turn both hot and cold on to get warm water.

Xstatic3333 · January 2016

I have a tankless and love it! The best part is that the hot water never runs out, although that can tempt us into long, wasteful showers. We can also do dishes while one person is showering, while we couldn't before. Our energy bills went down significantly, but our tankless is much more efficient than our previous model (it's 92% HE model). We got a $200 rebate from our energy company for switching to HE, which was a drop in the bucket, but nice. I have no cons to share except for the initial price.

AprilZ81 · January 2016

short+sassy said:

Oddly enough, I recently had a mystery shop where I had to discuss tankless vs. tank hot water heaters with an associate at a big box store. I was shocked at the price difference! A tankless, including installation, ran $2500 vs. about $800 (including installation) for a tank.
For me personally, that is too costly. Even for a forever home. BUT, there are only two people in my family and we only have one bathroom. Our water gets hot fairly quickly anyway. I could certainly see it possibly being worthwhile for someone with more hot water needs.

Cost aside for now, what were your impressions between tank and tankless? If the price were closer would you actually consider it?

Right now there are only the two of us but we are hoping for children (sooner than later) and our parents come and stay with us every few months so the shower demand does go up.

The tanks themselves by my initial pricing aren't THAT different (maybe about $300) and I haven't priced out installation yet.

AprilZ81 · January 2016

My brother in law owns an HVAC company and he just told me that they (tankless) suck. He said they are super unreliable and expensive. So it looks like unless I get some people who say they love theirs we will stick to the tank heaters.

short+sassy · January 2016

AprilZ81 said:

short+sassy said:

Oddly enough, I recently had a mystery shop where I had to discuss tankless vs. tank hot water heaters with an associate at a big box store. I was shocked at the price difference! A tankless, including installation, ran $2500 vs. about $800 (including installation) for a tank.
For me personally, that is too costly. Even for a forever home. BUT, there are only two people in my family and we only have one bathroom. Our water gets hot fairly quickly anyway. I could certainly see it possibly being worthwhile for someone with more hot water needs.

Cost aside for now, what were your impressions between tank and tankless? If the price were closer would you actually consider it?

Right now there are only the two of us but we are hoping for children (sooner than later) and our parents come and stay with us every few months so the shower demand does go up.

The tanks themselves by my initial pricing aren't THAT different (maybe about $300) and I haven't priced out installation yet.

All else considered, even if the prices were closer, I just didn't see them being enough of an advantage for me. But then, I think my tank hot water heater is fine. If we used more hot water than we do...or if it took a long time for our water to get hot...I could see being a lot more receptive.

MrsRap720 · January 2016

I wanted to add that since you'll be redoing your bathroom soon that may make a difference in the flow of your hot water. We replaced our hot water heater shortly after we bought our house in 2012 and redid our master bathroom last April - we noticed a bit of a difference in how long the hot water lasted after we replaced the HWH, but noticed a HUGE difference after the bathroom was redone with the new plumbing and a new shower head that didn't spew the water as much as the old one. For a temporary solution, you might want to see if you can raise the temperature of the water - ours is on one of the lower settings, but we could definitely make it hotter if we wanted to.

hoffse · January 2016

If we were building, we would probably go with tankless from the beginning, just because our hot water usage is really lopsided. We use a lot during the weekends with multiple loads of laundry and extra dishes (since that's really the only time we cook), and then very little during the week. It can make showering on the weekends a problem if we don't time it correctly.

I know you work from home, so if you are able to keep up with laundry better than we can, I'm not sure there would be a huge advantage in tankless for you, at least not until kids are old enough to be showering every day on their own. Baths typically use significantly less water than showers.

One thing about tank heaters is I think there are increased restrictions on the size of tanks you can buy. Ours died a year ago, and I know we paid for a bigger one. Our plumber said he would no longer be able to install the larger ones after April of 2015. I don't know if that's true, and I didn't look into it since we had the option for a bigger one at the time, but that's what I was told.

AprilZ81 · January 2016

hoffse said:

If we were building, we would probably go with tankless from the beginning, just because our hot water usage is really lopsided. We use a lot during the weekends with multiple loads of laundry and extra dishes (since that's really the only time we cook), and then very little during the week. It can make showering on the weekends a problem if we don't time it correctly.

I know you work from home, so if you are able to keep up with laundry better than we can, I'm not sure there would be a huge advantage in tankless for you, at least not until kids are old enough to be showering every day on their own. Baths typically use significantly less water than showers.

One thing about tank heaters is I think there are increased restrictions on the size of tanks you can buy. Ours died a year ago, and I know we paid for a bigger one. Our plumber said he would no longer be able to install the larger ones after April of 2015. I don't know if that's true, and I didn't look into it since we had the option for a bigger one at the time, but that's what I was told.

That reminds me I need to do a load of clothes!

Our current tank is in the unfinished portion of our basement next to our furnace. The size of the new unit should be of little/no issue because we have space to fit a larger unit if we need to. I know a lot of the yick-yak over the new tanks is that they may not fit into smaller utility closets found in a lot of smaller and newer homes.

simplyelise · January 2016

AprilZ81 said:

hoffse said:

If we were building, we would probably go with tankless from the beginning, just because our hot water usage is really lopsided. We use a lot during the weekends with multiple loads of laundry and extra dishes (since that's really the only time we cook), and then very little during the week. It can make showering on the weekends a problem if we don't time it correctly.

I know you work from home, so if you are able to keep up with laundry better than we can, I'm not sure there would be a huge advantage in tankless for you, at least not until kids are old enough to be showering every day on their own. Baths typically use significantly less water than showers.

One thing about tank heaters is I think there are increased restrictions on the size of tanks you can buy. Ours died a year ago, and I know we paid for a bigger one. Our plumber said he would no longer be able to install the larger ones after April of 2015. I don't know if that's true, and I didn't look into it since we had the option for a bigger one at the time, but that's what I was told.

That reminds me I need to do a load of clothes!

Our current tank is in the unfinished portion of our basement next to our furnace. The size of the new unit should be of little/no issue because we have space to fit a larger unit if we need to. I know a lot of the yick-yak over the new tanks is that they may not fit into smaller utility closets found in a lot of smaller and newer homes.

I think hoffse was referring to changes in federal regulations about the size of water heaters.

Consumer Reports has a decent write-up: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/03/read-this-before-replacing-your-water-heater/index.htm

AprilZ81 · January 2016

simplyelise said:

AprilZ81 said:

hoffse said:

If we were building, we would probably go with tankless from the beginning, just because our hot water usage is really lopsided. We use a lot during the weekends with multiple loads of laundry and extra dishes (since that's really the only time we cook), and then very little during the week. It can make showering on the weekends a problem if we don't time it correctly.

I know you work from home, so if you are able to keep up with laundry better than we can, I'm not sure there would be a huge advantage in tankless for you, at least not until kids are old enough to be showering every day on their own. Baths typically use significantly less water than showers.

One thing about tank heaters is I think there are increased restrictions on the size of tanks you can buy. Ours died a year ago, and I know we paid for a bigger one. Our plumber said he would no longer be able to install the larger ones after April of 2015. I don't know if that's true, and I didn't look into it since we had the option for a bigger one at the time, but that's what I was told.

That reminds me I need to do a load of clothes!

Our current tank is in the unfinished portion of our basement next to our furnace. The size of the new unit should be of little/no issue because we have space to fit a larger unit if we need to. I know a lot of the yick-yak over the new tanks is that they may not fit into smaller utility closets found in a lot of smaller and newer homes.

I think hoffse was referring to changes in federal regulations about the size of water heaters.

Consumer Reports has a decent write-up: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/03/read-this-before-replacing-your-water-heater/index.htm

Thanks for the link! I highly doubt we would go above 50 gallons so we shouldn't have any issues. The new tanks are a little bigger but we have the space so that won't be an issue.

csuave · January 2016

We went tankless when we built new. Cons are it cost more and we have to wait 30-40 seconds for water to turn hot. This leads to hand and face washing in cold water. I'm happy with it because of the efficiency aspects. It is nice to not be heating an entire tank just for the 2 of us. And when we have company it is nice to not run out of hot water.

We could have easily gone either way because both have pros and cons.

julieanne912 · January 2016

We have a tankless, we paid an upgrade charge to get it (forget how much it was, I think it was in the $400 range). H was dead set on it, because right before we put our old house on the market, our tank water heater (which was less than 6 years old), crapped out and leaked in the basement (thankfully it was drained well so it didn't get over to the area where we had stuff).

I like it because, like others have said, we never run out of hot water. H likes to take long HOT showers, and I'm a multi tasker with chores... ie I like to run the dishwasher the same time as the clothes washer on hot. We can do all 3 with this, we couldn't with the tanked water heater.

My only con is that it takes awhile to heat up first thing in the morning (which is when I shower). I actually turn it on, go to the bathroom, then get in, and it's warm by then, so it's not like it takes forever. And, once the water is hot, it stays hot, so I can wash my hands in hot water after I put my makeup on, since the shower had been on.

I can't comment much on the cost, because it went into a new house, so we have no "before and after" comparison. But I can't imagine the cost to run it being something to worry about, especially since tanked water heaters require a lot of energy to heat up that big tank of water.

blondie42107 · January 2016

I remember seeing some good info on This Old House - maybe Google that.

I have builders in my family and while they don't push either way, they both think tank less are great options.

And yes, lot of natural gas/energy providers offer rebates!

HarryCanary · January 2016

We looked into this when we replaced our hot water heater last year. When we ran the numbers, it looked like it would take ~15 to 20 years of energy savings to recoup the additional cost of the tankless unit. So consider how long you plan to be in the house and how long you expect the heater to last when making your decision.

The most interesting thing I learned while researching is that the tankless heaters make the most sense for people who don't use a lot of hot water. If you don't use a lot of hot water or don't use it often, then the same water in the tank gets heated, cooled, and re-heated, resulting in energy costs. If you're using the hot water frequently, though, the tankless doesn't really save you money.

Erikan73 · January 2016

My parents just recently had their 2nd tankless installed. The first one lasted about 30 years with a few minor repairs every few years. They don't waste water sitting in a tank being heated. They are having much better luck with this newer one as it's more efficient then the first one. Keep in mind when they go their first one this was a totally new thing in this country and they were more efficient then a tank but didn't heat water up as fast. Their new one is working amazingly and love how hot the water is. But there is a huge price difference between the two. We wanted to go tankless but because of having to reroute gas lines to be in compliance with city codes, it would have cost us $3100.00 to have one installed, we opted to replace our regular tank for $500. For my parents it wasn't as expensive because they already had one installed so they didn't have to have any pipes moved. But it was still at least twice the price of a regular tank. They enjoy it.

short+sassy · January 2016

Erikan73 said:

My parents just recently had their 2nd tankless installed. The first one lasted about 30 years with a few minor repairs every few years. They don't waste water sitting in a tank being heated. They are having much better luck with this newer one as it's more efficient then the first one. Keep in mind when they go their first one this was a totally new thing in this country and they were more efficient then a tank but didn't heat water up as fast. Their new one is working amazingly and love how hot the water is. But there is a huge price difference between the two. We wanted to go tankless but because of having to reroute gas lines to be in compliance with city codes, it would have cost us $3100.00 to have one installed, we opted to replace our regular tank for $500. For my parents it wasn't as expensive because they already had one installed so they didn't have to have any pipes moved. But it was still at least twice the price of a regular tank. They enjoy it.

Wow, that's amazing! I would never have guessed they were so dependable and long lasting.

Hot Water Heaters: Tank vs Tankless

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