Rinnai Tankless Water Heater

[JasperDog94]

Does anyone have one of these? Did you see a savings on your energy consumption? The main reason I'm looking into them is because we have a hot water heater in the attic. Some friends of ours had one in their attic and it leaked, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

[44INAROW]

Originally posted by JasperDog94
Does anyone have one of these? Did you see a savings on your energy consumption? The main reason I'm looking into them is because we have a hot water heater in the attic. Some friends of ours had one in their attic and it leaked, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

both of our hot water heaters are in the attic. Not sure the logic of that, I am sure someone had a reason for doing it that way.. Husband bought this huge "trough" looking thing to set them in "just in case"

[BIG BLUE DEFENSIVE END]

I have heard nothing but good things about the brand, but hot water heaters can fail, especially the upright kind with the tank. What happens is over time the water rusts out the tank and fails, but since it is tankless I have no clue how would one fail other than stop working.

[Ranger Mom]

Originally posted by JasperDog94
Does anyone have one of these? Did you see a savings on your energy consumption? The main reason I'm looking into them is because we have a hot water heater in the attic. Some friends of ours had one in their attic and it leaked, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

I have some friends who have one and they swear by it!!

The only downfall is you can't run several appliances using hot water at the same time....like the dishwasher, washing machine and then take a shower.

We are on a water well and can't do that at our house anyway, so I wouldn't see any difference if we had one.

The thought of hot water on command....(especially after raising 5 kids and having the hot water run out after 3 had taken a shower) sounds wonderful!!!

[cr180t]

paul harvey talked about this one and he highly recomends it so it must be good huh

[STANG RED]

Tankless water heaters are great, and work well in warm climates where the water isnt real cold. But real cold water in the winter may not get heated as much as some would like. Also, hard water will plug them up over time. Better put a water softener in front of it if you have hard water.
I plan on putting two in my house when my existing water heater needs changing. I have one bathroom that backs up to the kitchen. So I plan on putting a whole house model in for that. And I'll use a little smaller version for the master bath that is at the opposite end of the house.
NOTE: If your going with electric, you better make sure your electric service is big enough to handle it. Some whole house electric models require a dedicated 80amp 220v circuit. Many houses do not have this capacity without having a complete service upgrade, which will cost you $1,500 to $2,000. You better have at least a 200amp service if your going to add an applience like this. And if you have a total electric house, even that might not be big enough.

[rangerjim]

Don't know our brand but we put in a tankless water heater a couple of years ago and love it. An endless supply of hotwater is great. They do take a lot of energy to run (I think 3 30 amp fuses) but it does save money. Hard to tell how much but they only run when running hot water. We have a 40 gallon tank on the kids side of the house and they are always running out.

Ours is on the wall and I built a cabinet around it and it looks like a small medicine cabinet. One other plus is that I got a tax break for installing it, i think around $250. Not bad considering it cost about $500 to buy and install.

[BwdLions]

The benefit of having endless hot water, no water heater leaks causing damage to your house (especially if it's located upstairs or in the attic because it's a matter of time before it leaks), drastic decrease in your electric bill because you don't have heating elements keeping the water in your old water heater hot constantly, and you don't have to worry about changing elements or draining a tank. You'll love it.

[icu812]

Get a gas or propane tankless water heater instead of electric if you can. Also, you may need a couple instead of one so you can have hot water quickly and don't need to wait for the hot water to go from one area of the house to another. They save the most $ when your not using it alot because you don't have to heat water in a tank that your not using. If you use alot of hot water (big family) the saving won't be as great but you will have hot water for everyone to shower as long as they want.

[waterboy]

I don't know why any builder would put hot water heaters in the attic in the first place, but as long as a combination y-drain is put on the pan and the pop-off valve running to the outside, water damage should not be a problem with standard hot water heaters......unless a catastrophe happens, like the liner completely broke, which is extremely rare (I personally haven't seen it but I know it has happened before). I have seen it over and over where a builder's plumber did not put a drain on one, or both, and later caused home damage. I'm not saying this has happened to you, but I'm just saying..........duh!:doh: I say go for it if you can afford it on the tankless.