Need to Re-plumb - Pex and tankless water heater

[tlawler]

In my first house, I had a tankless gas fired w/h. We were on a well and the tankless would only get the water up to about 110 degrees. I installed a small 30 gallon electric tank water heater to feed the tankless and disconnected one of the elements and turned the thermostat as low as it would go. Then I installed one of those heat recovery systems on the a/c and circulating through the tank. This preheated the water using very little electricity and allowed the tankless to put out up to 150 degree water for the dishwasher and washing machine. I think tankless water heaters are great and we saved a ton on our electric bill. But I agree if you go tankless, go gas.

 

[Drm50]

I have installed a few of the $500 variety tankless and owners
we're not happy. These were 220v/ 30amp and require dual
220 circuts to run. They ended up going back to conventional
electric tanks. There are models that will do the job but they
cost much more and run on 400amp service. The ones that run
on natural gas are cheaper to operate but maintenance on the
electric makes up for it. Personally I prefer conventional electric
tank. Depending on your water supply they usually average
8-10yrs and at $400 for a 50gal of dependable service that's
hard to beat.

 

[gsn]

The liability exposure associated with these little wonders is astounding especially on the service side for the non installing contractor-the exposure for the gas/propane units to me is incomprehensible.

To even begin to provide some protection for yourself you would have to literally re install the unit verifying all oem recommendations were followed, including the usually required water quality testing-no customer would pay for this and no customer would pay for the at least yearly required service.

Can't explain the popularity of these things, then again I can't understand why anyone would want to sleep either under/or in the same room that has an evaporator coil in it. Yes I know that a window unit is kinda-sorta the same as a mini in this regard but at least with a window job you can take it out and properly/thoroughly clean it-quite unlike a mini.

 

[gsn]

water coolers and ice machines anyone?-its amazing what I have seen inside these things-scary really.

Every wonder just why that Keurig coffee coming out of that water bottle via the pump is so tasty??

 

[gsn]

Had to go to training on this product, it was fascinating:

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