They are the newest thing lately and I get a lot of questions and requests about them from clients. But I stay away from them for a number of reasons.
First of all I see no real benefit in using them. I don’t see any substantial savings here on gas . My gas bill’s hot water tank portion is about $15-20 dollars a month with four people in my house. So why would I spend $2,500-3,000 for a fancy hot water heater when I bought the one I have for a few hundred?
The traditional hot water tanks that we all know have a minimal number of parts , no electronics, no motors. They have been proven very reliable over the years, and you all know that. And don’t forget if there is no power in your home they will still work! A tankless requires electricity and gas to work, so if there is no power you have no hot water.
They require almost zero maintenance and they can last 20 years or more sometimes with very rare if any breakdowns. I recommend you replace them every 15 years at least for efficiency reasons though. If you own it you can save $180-200 a year for rental charges and that’s where the real savings are.
If you buy a tankless you will pay probably around $2,500 or more and it will have breakdowns since they have many complex electronics, a ventor motor, an ignition system and a copper heat exchanger that can corrode fast depending on the water quality in your area. If you rent it you are looking at about $27 to 35 a month plus taxes (that’s $366 to $475 a year).where are the savings?
It seems that the last few years a campaign is aimed at the public trying to convince everybody that the environment is dying and we are all in danger and we should be spending a lot of money to conserve energy by buying expensive new appliances that save energy. I agree we should all be saving energy, but at what cost? I think we can do a lot more by simply not wasting it, and by that I mean using it when we need it and sensibly.
I will repost here (without permission of course) an interesting article regarding tankless water heaters .Follow the two links. They are very interesting and informative. They come from trustworthy , reliable sources.