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Good to hear about Poole's Plumbing. They were one of three estimates we got. It was just under $3000 to install Rennai tankless unit on outside wall near HVAC unit. I think it is the 9.8 gpm unit.
Guess I should call them and set up an install date.
Good to hear about Poole's Plumbing. They were one of three estimates we got. It was just under $3000 to install Rennai tankless unit on outside wall near HVAC unit. I think it is the 9.8 gpm unit.
Guess I should call them and set up an install date.
Did they give you a ballpark estimate of a payback over your current setup, being replaced as-is?
Did they give you a ballpark estimate of a payback over your current setup, being replaced as-is?
No. Our current set up does not provide nearly enough hot water. The second person to shower this morning had it turned to pure hot and still didn't have enough warm water to wash her hair. The third one got a cool shower. Will not come close to filling our walk-in tub. So tired of running out of hot water. Tired of replacing tank every ten years. Just want hot water and don't want to fuss about it.
So far, this thread is pretty much Rah! Rah! Rah! Rinnai.
Does anyone have experience with any other brands of tankless water heaters?
The reason I ask is that many of the brands I see have fairly short warranties. They brag about them lasting 20 years or more. I'd like to actually see warranties that are at least that long.
Note, however that it's an electric model. Supposedly they're going to have a gas model available sometime in the first quarter of 2012.
I'm getting ready to drink the tankless kool-aid and I want to make sure that whatever I buy is going to 1) last a long time, and 2) be covered by a good warranty in case something goes wrong.
We have always used Jody Simmons from Custom Plumbing for all our plumbing issues (remodel, repair) with GREAT success. When the very old water heater stopped working (first thought it was just too long showers...then realized it was dying) and he installed a on-demand and we LOVE it. I don't think it is a Renaii, but all I know is that we have had two showers, dish washer and clothes washer all going at the same time with no issue. Before we could only have one thing at a time. We do have the issue with waiting for hot water WAY upstairs in our bath, but we had that getting hot water up from the basement from the old tank too.
So far, this thread is pretty much Rah! Rah! Rah! Rinnai.
Does anyone have experience with any other brands of tankless water heaters?
The reason I ask is that many of the brands I see have fairly short warranties. They brag about them lasting 20 years or more. I'd like to actually see warranties that are at least that long.
Note, however that it's an electric model. Supposedly they're going to have a gas model available sometime in the first quarter of 2012.
I'm getting ready to drink the tankless kool-aid and I want to make sure that whatever I buy is going to 1) last a long time, and 2) be covered by a good warranty in case something goes wrong.
Our current home has a Noritz and our previous home had the Rinnai. Both have worked fine. The bigger issue is the GPM rating. The builder installed a lower GPM unit on our current home and we do have issues if we are running 2 showers.
So far, this thread is pretty much Rah! Rah! Rah! Rinnai.
Does anyone have experience with any other brands of tankless water heaters?
...
No experience - yet. But based on research, including this thread and based on our needs, we have ordered a Navien NR-240A. (The older CR models seem to have had issues that the NR addresses.)
It has a 98% efficiency heater, can use PVC pipe, supposedly has lower operating costs than regular tankless water heaters. The clincher for me was that it has a recirculating pump with a small buffer tank (to avoid letting water run until it heats up in distant showers, and the cold water 'sandwich' that can happen if you don't have one).
Interesting. It has stainless steel heat exchangers. Stainless steel isn't the most efficient metal for transferring heat. I wonder if the corrosion resistance outweighs that.
I wonder what the mini buffer tank is made out of. Hopefully stainless steel as well. It would really suck if the heat exchangers lasted forever but the buffer tank eventually rusted through.
No experience - yet. But based on research, including this thread and based on our needs, we have ordered a Navien NR-240A. ... It has a 98% efficiency heater, can use PVC pipe, supposedly has lower operating costs than regular tankless water heaters. ....
Quote:
Originally Posted by wkrick
Interesting. It has stainless steel heat exchangers. Stainless steel isn't the most efficient metal for transferring heat. I wonder if the corrosion resistance outweighs that.
Any fuel-burning boiler that runs at better than about 93% is what is called a condensing boiler.
They use a heat exchanger that extracts heat from the exhaust to pre-heat the incoming air, thus boosting the boilers efficiency. The down side is that everything touched by the exhaust must be resistant to acid.
This heat exchanger extracts SO much of the waste heat that the temperature of the exhaust flue isn't hot enough to keep the water (generated from the fuel burning) a vapor. The water vapor 'condenses' into liquid water. That liquid water combines with another waste product of the fuel, sulfur, and forms sulfuric acid.
While this is the same process as in huge power plants that generate 'acid rain', for a smaller boiler it's contained and neutralized so it won't hurt your drains.
So, the condensing boiler's heat exchanger and vent pipes MUST BE acid-resistant, (normal steel or copper will get eaten away very quickly). Typically, a stainless steel is used for the heat exchanger, and PVC plastic piping is used for the exhaust flue. The stainless steel section raises the boiler cost quite a lot, but then you save some in the labor and materials for a plastic flue over a metal one. The specific economics depends on the material and installation labor costs and the costs of fuel, but a condensing boiler saves so much energy that they are often a good choice.
We are considering a tankless system to replace our water heater, which has a small leak and needs replacing.
Does anyone have experience with a specific plumber in this area for installing a tankless system?
Has anyone installed (or heard of this) a tankless system outdoors? One plumber has told us we don't have the right sort of ventilation for the tankless unit in our garage, where our tank currently is. I don't understand what the 'right' sort of ventilation is, anyway.
I'm hesitant to put it outdoors. It's counterintuitive to put your water heater outside; but even more, I think it will just be unattractive.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
We considered it to all the way till I got the price to install. After I open the emailed bid and picked my self up off the computer room floor we decided to add a couple more hundred dollars and buy a Used car!
Sticker shock aside. Ours was to be installed in our crawlspace aka spiders den under the house. It needed to have a wall height of at least 4 feet to mount it and vent it to the outside air. It was going to be a natural gas one. In the case of natural gas, venting is pretty important. Without a vent to the outside....well its like if you were a fish and they took your water away.....not good!
For us it was a no go! I guess one can say we are hooked on a tank-is-more.....not tank-less!
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