Rodger, I'd like to give you a standing ovation on this video. I've worked for the full service gas utility in St Louis, Missouri for 35 years and wish more plumbing contractors were like you . The number of hazardous Appliance reports I've filled out for improper tankless water heater installs ,I'm sure would even make your head spin. Fuel Run sizing and contacting your gas utility about added gas load should be number one on the list before a project like this even get started. You are correct tankless water heaters do last a very long time but not without service and part replacements over the years & when those parts are out of warranty they are very expensive.
@@RogerWakefield in tx I see improperly installed regular water heaters not vented or on a stand a lot, most people don't know how dangerous this is, also T and P connections must be in place, my first home the plumber left without doing this
I went tankless 20 years ago when we bought this home, probably the best plumbing decision we made. We paid $1450 fully installed at the time whereas replacing the tank would have been about $1000. I am certain our ROI is far more than $450. I flush it myself, no big deal
This tankless water heater craze is all over the internet. Little you know that overseas from Denmark to South Africa, for half century people have been living with tankless water heaters . Small ones hanging in the kitchen, large ones hanging in the shower. I lived all my life in the shade of a tankless without knowing it.Needless to say that safety was not a biggy and death by CO is frequent.
We just replaced our 17 year old water heater. We weighed the pros and cons of a tankless but opted for just replacing what we had. $650 total for the tank and the install. (small town America prices here. The company we went with was awesome and explained all the costs upfront. We did have to add an expansion tank. They were in and we had hot water within an hour and a half. Our water pressure has improved drastically since.
in the seattle area you are looking at $1300 on up for a tank and install. I just replaced mine for $605 with a new expansion tank, couple fittings, new gas line and new earthquake straps
Southern oregon here. Just yesterday quoted 1650 to provide and install 50 gallon gas water heater as replacement for same. I think the sizable cost is because we are competing with work they have due to the Almeda fire displacing over 16,000 people and the rebuilding taking place. Also I was told expansion tank is now Oregon code requirement. He convinced me to go to Rheem but he best not show up with Home Depot $450 unit. Thought about tankless but I only pay $40 month for gas including range and water bill is super low also. You know, most of both bills are those chargers you have to pay in addition to actual use fee.
Thanks so much from this homeowner. Just bought a new home with 20+ year old tank. Hoping to decrease energy use, increase hot water, and also freeing up space in that closet! Thanks for the thorough information!
Got tankless installed because I won it at a tradeshow recently. No cost at all, even the install and permit were included. First time owning one. Has some cons compared to tank, but then pros as well. But so far, am happy so far. But as well, if I lose power, I lose hot water. Old one, I still had hot water with power outages
That is something I rarely see mentioned. It didn't occur to me until after the installation was complete that we would be without hot water in the event of a power outage. My tankless is gas, but I still need electricity for the ignitors. I was able to come up with a solution by purchasing a battery power bank powerful enough to start the heaters. That wouldn't work for an electric unit, but since I have other reasons for owning the power bank it was a good solution for me and my gas tankless system.
Great video. Tankless water heaters are more efficient with combustion and stand by heat loss. You only see a benefit with the combustion effeciency (10 - 20%) when you use the heater a lot. If your hot water demand is low then you will never see a cost benefit of an efficient heater. Today's tank water heater are better insulated then ones from a few years ago. Add pipe insulation and your stand by loss is low. Tank water heaters cost less, require less maintenance, repair parts are usually inexpensive and more available. I have wanted to go tankless for several homes but it never made financial and operation sense.
another reason to skip the tankless is the expensive electronics that could and did go out when there are power failures and surges. I had a Takagi 2 years old and the circuit board blew up. cost more for the circuit board than a new tank type heater. The simpler something is the longer it last and the cheaper it is in the long run!!
@@Tony-hx2fj that's because in America your surge protection sucks but in Europe tankless is rather cheap as government can subsided them in most places meaning you can pretty much get them for few thousand same as a tank but more efficient and over all just better
@@0-B1 You're still paying for it, you're just paying for it in perpetuity through the government in your taxes. No such thing as a free lunch. For an expensive, sensitive piece of equipment it makes total sense to spend the extra couple hundred bucks on a surge suppressor at the time of the install, either for the whole house or just in front of the equipment. These are certainly available in America, although not as commonly requested as they really should be given the amount of money they can save on (extremely overpriced) blown boards.
We have tankless water heater in our house for what, 15 years now. It still works perfect. And the few second delay before you get hot water is only an issue in the morning (after like 8 hours of not using hot water) during the day it pretty much kicks in after 2-5 seconds
Great video! This was very helpful towards my consideration of a tankless water heater (my tank just died yesterday after 14 years). I'm going to stick with a tank. I don't use enough hot water to make it worth it. When you mentioned the annual maintenance, that pushed me even further towards sticking with what I have. Thanks!
When I lived in Germany, I had an apartment that had a tankless hot water heater mounted on the wall over the kitchen sink. The bathroom was on the opposite side of that wall. I have to say the hot water was instantaneous. It was great. Obviously the further away from the hot water heater, tankless or not, it will take a while for the hot water to reach the faucets.
Such an excellent explanation, so clear! As a mechanical engineer, I really appreciate how easy this video makes it for me to explain to my wife what the reasons are for making a decision about what kind of water heater to install without getting too technical. Thanks
Excellent comparison between the tank and tankless water heaters.... Helped me make up my mind in the first 5 minutes of your video.... I am definitely replacing my current 21 year old 40 gal Kenmore gas water heater tank, with probably the Rheem 40 gal gas water heater tank.... Thanks!!
There is another reason to go tankless is I took the gas water out of my garage because the motorcycle and car work sometimes caused gasoline to leak. My water heater is now outside.
I like that you stated every application is different and I agree it depends on your situation when making a decision between tanked and tankless. We had two 50 gallon tank heaters in our attic which due to our pressure reducing valve at the meter had to have expansion tanks on them. Despite regular flushing the tank heaters started clunking as they aged and after having two expansion tanks fail we went tankless. It’s quieter and the plumbing is less complicated. We added a circulation pump at the same time and as a result use much less water. We’re happy with our tankless system. I also agree with your life expectancy thoughts and always suggest changing a tank heater at the 10 year mark. Great channel!
I agree with most all of this. I own a plumbing company. Only problem I have is reliability and parts availability. Also temp rise on cold days may not be sufficient if you are using a univalve or have multiple users. I recommend a tankless feeding a tank. Best of both worlds. Reliable and efficient.
Let's not forget the cold water "sandwiching" with a tankless. Thats when the water comes out hot to cold and then back to hot. Can be fixed with a buffer tank (small 5-8 gallon electric water heater not connected to electricity). Not to mention if you come from an area with hard water the exchanger can plug up fast with calcium. Yes a flushing will fix the problem but when you water is very hard you could be doing it every 6 month to every other month. We have lots of boilers for radiant heating in my area and I prefer a side arm tank (indirect water heater) ran off the boiler just by adding a zone valve and a taco control board with priority for the side arm. Many new high efficiency boilers have internal setting to control heating and domestic hot water. I'm not a fan of combi boilers (combination). My favorite boiler is a Crown Velocity Raptor. The Crown Velocity Phantom boiler is decent but still a combi boiler.
I retrofitted my parents tank top to tankless with a Ebay Marey Natural gas 4GPM water heater that cost $350. This thing used 2 D-cell batteries to power the igniter and has worked flawlessly for 6yrs. I loved it so much I put the same unit in my own remodeled house. The only problem with the cheaper version is you have to manually change the temp control as the incoming water temps change during the seasons. Not a big deal at all once you get use to it. Great tip on getting a BTU calculation (which I never did) but I guess I have more than enough gas pressure because I installed that 1" yellow gas line. In the summer, the units works so well that even in the lowest settings, I have to actually slightly close off the gas feed line to the tankless to restrict the gas flow so it doesn't over heat the water. Here in Texas with 100degree days, the ground water gets pretty warm and doesn't need much heating. If it's 20 degrees out, this unit still puts out scolding hot water. No filters or anything and we have VERY hard water down here.
Excellent, informative video. Roger is customer focused--giving you the necessary and honest information to make the right choice for your personal situation and needs. With 20-20 hindsight I can now look back on my decision to go with a tankless water heater 4 years ago. My thoughts: The only really good time to make this decision is prior to building your house. Gas line sizing, venting requirements, code considerations, location placement, maintenance considerations, etc., are all MUCH easier addressed at the very start rather than after the fact. A substantial advantage of a tankless (on demand) water heater is the "unlimited" supply of hot water. If you have an oversized bathtub, you will need a high capacity conventional tank-type water heater--especially if after filling the tub someone else wants to take a long hot shower. With a tankless heater, no problem, no wait. My combined monthly gas bill (north Idaho) for the tankless water heater, radiant floor heating, gas fireplace, and gas range has averaged $51 per month for the last 43 months...and I keep the house toasty. I don't know what portion of that is for the water heater, but whatever it is is very reasonable. My single largest monthly gas bill was $112 for January of 2018, and only one other has topped $100 so far (that one was for January of 2020). No complaints at all. Doing your own annual flushing (or perhaps at 2-years max depending on your water's mineral content and your hot water use rate) is really the way to go if you are mechanically inclined at all. I bought a $60, 1/5 HP pump for this. Cheap. Now, the only annual cost is for 4 gallons of food-grade white vinegar (5% acidic) available at any grocery store--figure less than $20/year. Time required? Under 2 hours. Peace of mind? Absolutely.
Also when sizing your gas line for a tankless water heater make sure you use a CSST chart if you go that way. CSST is roughly half the capacity of the same size iron pipe. On 2 pound gas systems we will generally remove the sediment trap on the high side and add another regulator for the tankless heater. Saves a lot of headaches. If you use a flexible gas connector make sure it has a 200,000 btu or more rating.
Of course it would be feasible to install in your garage Roger! With an NPE-240A you have a modulating gas valve (up to 199k BTU) so existing 1/2" supply is adequate up to 20' maximum. These units are specifically designed for retrofit applications so venting them is quick & easy out the side wall or roof. Integral circulator and buffer tank eliminate cold water sandwich. The warranty used to be 25 years on their stainless steel heat exchanger - so with proper maintenance and upkeep from a pro like yourself you should be able to expect a good +30-40 year lifespan. That's a good 2-4 times the lifespan of your standard water heaters. It's actually not a whole lot more expensive to go tankless than installing a quality high output 50 Gal PDV. In fact once you factor in the cost to value ratio over time - the tankless outperforms any traditional tank and pays for itself over time. The only downside is GPM on larger households where you may have to cascade units which I concede would exceed the value to cost ratio that make it comparable to traditional systems.
Hey Roger, great to hear a balanced review of tank vs. tankless. It's hard to get past the breathless "hype" that you often hear about tankless, and understand that it's not always the right solution - especially considering the greater up-front expense, required annual maintenance, etc. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on how a tankless heater can work with a recirc pump. I recently did a bathroom addition in our basement, and ran a dedicated 1/2" PEX return line from the lav sink to a Grundfos Comfort-Series pump mounted above an existing 50-gal. Bradford-White electric heater. Had to add a check valve on the 3/4" cold water inlet, along with a thermal expansion tank. Works great, but down the road if we wanted to go tankless would this still work?
Hey Rodger literally was just listening to NPR on the episode maybe one of the programs on AI and people's jobs I recognize your voice from your videos would not be surprised if there's more comments on other videos as well on this awesome to hear someone come out about this and saying about really that it's not practical to do things with AI such as Plumbing people think that will be eventually replaced by robots and more there's always going to be things that technology can never replace a human such as the one actually programming and said system yeah sure Ted CPT can program well but it can't just think on its own technology is not capable of human thoughts yet that's where we will never become obsolete information love your description of the process and why free sample a robot or a I probably would not work for replacing the jobless human plumber
You did a great video. Been working on and installing Tankless units going on 15 years. I’ve formulated a three item criteria for people who are thinking about getting a Tankless. 1. Room. Does the client have to have the extra room. Or does client have no other option. 2. Occupancy. Is the client always gone? I have some clients that are never home. The stand by flame wastes a lot of fuel if you’re never home. 3. Water usage. Some people go through water heaters because of either a large family or special needs. Once I finish this, I ask the client one more question. “Are you the type that has to be reminded to change the oil in your car?” This battery Of testing, has kept me out of trouble. A note on flushing. I seldom do just a flushing. The fan. Combustion chambers always need attention. The ignition parts usually need changing every 5 years.
#2 is what's pushing me to want to go tankless. I just can't see the point in keeping so much water hot 24/7 just to run it for 15 minutes a day and possibly not at all for days at a time.
I need to replace my tank type water heater. It sits on the second floor, right above the kitchen; the upstairs baths, and my bathroom is within ten feet of it. I want to go tankless not just because of the savings; I won't have to worry about my bedroom being flooded in case of a water heater meltdown of some sort. Thank you for the input!
I have a tankless water heater, and this is great analysis. I think the only thing you missed or blurred was about filtration. For some brands of tankless water heater, you need to have a full-home water filtration system installed and regularly maintained for the tankless heater's warranty to remain valid. ... Not a huge deal (especially since, as you'd mentioned, it's fairly inexpensive to replace once the initial setup is in place), but still just like a 100-some-dollar-a-year consideration to replace standard cylinder filters.
My 40 gallon gas Kenmore tank lasted exactly 30 years, with hard water and no flushing. Plenty of hot water for a family of 4. Easily and cheaply replaced, and if the new tank lasts even 15 years I'll be happy with the ROI. Efficiency? My summertime gas bill is about $15, and we have a gas cooktop too. Tankless makes no economic sense for me..
I have now installed 2 tankless water heaters. One when I replaced a 75 gallon tank that failed and 2 40 gallon tank types in an attic. I did not want to deal with buying 2 water heaters since both were bad so the economics allowed me to use a tankless. I utilized the 2 roof penetrations for the intake and exhaust. The 75 gallon unit barely fit through the closet door and the newer ones are wider so the tankless worked out great. Have not had any issues to date. Total cost on each unit : $2k installed. On the most recent one I installed a scale inhibition device from 3M upstream of the unit.
Joshua Graham- Do you mind telling us the name or brand? It would be great to do some research. Unlike most of what we buy today, many of the older appliances made years ago were built to last. A lot of the stuff sold nowadays is nothing but good looking high tech Junk.
About 10 years ago I upgraded my entire plumbing set up from galvanized to copper and installed a tankless water heater. I live in Michigan. I paid about $500 for my EZ tankless Setup. It runs on natural gas. There are a few other pros and cons that you have missed. 1. My tank water heater had to vent out the chimney. My tankless water heater uses a two-stage exhaust pipe and could be vented out the side of the house, like a dryer vent. Because of this I was able to put my tankless water heater closer to where I needed my hot water most. I think location should be your biggest factor when making a decision on whether to switch to a tankless water heater. 2. As you mentioned The energy savings is awesome with the tankless water heater. 3. When the tankless water heaters on it is loud. Not ear shattering, but loud enough that if it was behind your bedroom wall, it might bother you. I have mine in the basement near my washer and dryer.
Our last tanktop heater lasted 21 years, the store staff where we got the replacement were quite surprised lol. And yes, the new one was a few inches wider because of the extra insulation, but the house builder was smart, left lots of room around the old one for upgrades.
Hey man...what you're doing here is awesome...as a diy guy I Love seeing pros passing on what to them is literally valuable information so that we can make our lives a little easier...I can say that I learned something...and these days that is invaluable.
Great video. From a service plumber's aspect up here in Canada I would recommend getting the tank type. The cost of parts on a tankless are ridiculous especially if the builder installed something they picked up at home depot. Was working on a Bosch Greentherm tankless today for example and I would have to order parts from BC (I work in Saskatchewan) and it was going to cost the homeowner $2000 in parts and labour to fix their destroyed circuit board and water pump. New replacement is $5000 - $7000. No warranty either through the builder.
(Forgive the caps… but I wanted to make a point) EXCELLENT ANALYSIS and INFORMATION!! Helped me understand my SITUATION and decide for me. Tankless it is… with a fully acknowledged DYI of cleaning annually!!
As a General Contractor who installs about a dozen water heaters a year on a personal basis and has my plumbing subs install about the same numbers for my tenant improvement remodels, I can tell you that staying with a tank is the way to go. Customers do not realize that going tankless involves running electrical to the unit, increasing the ventilation and sometimes having to upgrade the gas line. My plumbing subs do not even recommend them due to servicing.
@@mr.d2993 I did not understand where you were going with that comment? If you know anything about the tankless systems, you would know that anything (or model) made to fit for a family above 1 (maybe 2) requires electricity to be run to the cabinet area. Therefore, no electricity, no well performing tankless system. By same token...if there is a power outage, you may end up having hot water stored in a normal tank system for upwards of 24 hours plus but with a tankless...no water storage and no hot water.
Hey Roger, I am a carpenter by trade, but I try to be a "HandyMan" within my own home to save some coin. Your videos have helped me become more confident in my plumbing ability, Thanks! Again, I sell my carpentry skills, because I'm a carpenter, I never take on jobs outside my classification, but within my own home, the more I can do the better!
I went tankless, But that is because when I redid my basement, Moved the furnace as well it freed up 80 Sq feet in the middle of the basement and now it's 16 sq feet in a corner. That 60ish sq feet is worth a lot of money saved in my 800 sq foot house.
I'm in the same situation. My laundry room is 50 sf. With the washer, dryer and water heater in there it is pretty tight. On the other hand I have a 6ft long closet in my kitchen (I widened the door and put my small upright freezer in there along with storage.) It is the perfect place for the tankless water heater (the shared wall has all of the bathroom plumbing lines in it). Since I live alone I am not worried about running out of hot water.
Our house we bought in February 2020 came with a tankless water heater. I really love it due to the low electricity and gas bills. Only negative from a consumer standpoint is the time it takes to give me hot water.
we have 24 tankless rinnai gas units at the complex i work at....whole place was electric before we made the switch ..gas company ran the new lines for free ...only drawback is the " cold water sandwich" people complain about that but get used to it..going from electric to gas is a huge savings to begin with and so far these have been great..we flush every year and have no problems.
working shlub cold water sandwich can sometimes turn temp down u don’t turn a tankless at 140 and mix more cold water at outlet this makes the flow rate get so low it cycles turn the temperature down to say 120 or 115
Mine died too recently. Today (apr 8th 2020) I had my tankless installed. You might be able to finagle a good Corona Virus install deal as there are many people that need the work! Good luck!
Wish I’d seen this before I changed. May not have made a different choice tho. I have a 3 bed 2.5 bath home so distance to furthest faucet wasn’t an issue. What made me try tankless was approximate cost per month over the expected useable life. Tankless vs tank was maybe $2-3 more expensive per month and it doesn’t make sense to me burning gas and keeping 50+ gallons of water hot 24/7.
Very helpful video and objective. I've had experience with a tankless (not my house) where the water flow would reduce drastically in the shower. This is consistent with his comment about how the tankless reduces the water flow to heat the water. To be fair, however, this was 5 years ago. Perhaps, there have been some advancements since.
I have a tankless system. The biggest problem, really an annoyance, is with low flow faucets. As soon as there is any debris in the filter (which happens every few months where I live), it reduces the flow below .5gpm and the system won't provide hot water no matter how long you wait. Not a huge deal, but it seems like I am cleaning them out all the time.
Whoever does the editing on your videos is amazing. You are charismatic & funny already, but the editing grabs small moments and cranks up the humor that has my genuinely laughing out loud
I went to a tankless water heater, not for the savings but because of the small size. As you mentioned you must maintain them, mine has performed flawless for 10 years only required maintenance and I can shower while the queen does wash
Hey I got 24 yrs on mine. I've only had to replace the element but I'm sure it's time to to replace it. I'm sure it's costing me to much to keep it. Can't be efficient any more.
Depends a lot on the area you live. In my area there is enough particulate in the water that settles into the bottom of the tank to eventually get a foot deep in about 10 years.
I've been watching your videos latly i find them to be very informative. But i feel like you should have talkd about Either adding or if u have an existing recert line a tankless or a tank water heater WILL give you instant hot water At any fixture in your house regardless of how far away from the water heater is . i just installed a tankless at my father house And added a recert line was a lot of work and cost but after i explained to him and his wife they went tankless. My father is disabled and his shower is on the opposite side of the house he had to wait 3 to 4 minutes for hot water. Now its there the second he turns it on. A video on that would be great. I believe if people were more knowledgeable about what a recert line is and does it would be a determining factor in the decision
We love our Navien tankless. Been working pretty much flawless for 10 years now and super efficient with condensing technology. Getting a few parts ordered soon as flow meter is known to fail and flame rods obviously don't last forever but those are minor costs if one can do a bit of maintenance on them once in a while. Those also allow recirculation loops for instant hot water at the tap but obviously the extra plumbing needs to be there to begin with. Will never go back to those huge old dinosaurs again.
My tank hot water heater became my second furnace when my furnace broke and needed replacing over a Christmas holiday weekend. I filled everything in the house with hot water in sub zero temperatures for 3 days keeping my house above 50°. This also worked during power outages.
Depends on how many fixtures you have and if you have hard water. I found that the biggest residential tankless water heater doesnt keep up with the demand. Let's say you have one shower going it is perfect. Once you start another shower and have other hot water taps open the volume of water decreases to heat the water up to temperature. It is done internally with a solenoid valve because the demand is to great for the output capability. Some commercial tankless are able to have a higher demand but it's not much more. In my area the water comes out of my well at 55 degrees so the heater works harder to warm up the water to 120 (that temperature is code in my area). Not to mention if you have very hard water you will be flushing the exchanger very often. In my area we have 30-55 grain of hardness per gallon and many tankless units are flushed every other month. The exchanger are 1/4" tubes that if plugged wont give you the normal heat exchange resulting in less GPM (gallons per minute). Typical tankless water heater out of the box will give you 3.5 gpm at a 70 degree to 120 degree increase. A way to help with hard water is a water softener which than requires a lot of maintenance including adding salt or potassium. Another way is an in line cartridge softener which use a citrus to soften the water but cost are expensive for a new cartridge which would have to be changed every 6 months. There are magnetic water conditioners that help with hard water but it doesnt remove the hardness, it just neutralizes the charge of the hardness resulting in the hardness (calcium) not sticking to your exchanger or fixtures. I'm not a fan of magnetic nor in line water conditioners. Another way is a reverse osmosis (RO system) but the waste can be from 5 to 1 up to 10 to 1. Meaning for every gallon of RO water 5 gallons or 10 gallons of water is waste (dumped into a drain). Not to mention you would need a very big RO system to keep up with the demand of water usage. Hope this helped even just a little.
We have an on demand heater with a circulation pump on a timer. It circulates hot water from 5:30am-7am, then 5:30-6:30pm. The circulation means that hot water gets there quicker, not instantly. When the circulation is on hot water is about 10 seconds away. When the circulation is not on hot water is about 45 seconds away. We can run 3 showers, the dishwasher, the clothes washer, and the kitchen sink at the same time with no loss of heat all day if we want.
I do love our apartments I live in, we do have a tankless system. But yes it take a long time to get hot water to the kitchen, but if I turn on the shower it gets warm faster. But it's great to have a hot shower longer
It's not just a flushing you do, you need to clean the heat exchanger, scale buildup. And depending on state or city, tankless life can drop. But you do need to keep up on yearly maintenance. Miss it a few times, and you'll be calling with no hot water..... hvac industry also does them too. Not just plumbers.
Had a propane tankless for awhile but we have a spring and we put a tank type in to keep it from running dry. Also the bonehead that plumbed the tankless made it extremely difficult to flush.
We've had these for years in the UK we call them combi boilers they were a great inventions however years later when every one had changed over to them the gas companies put the prices up Now the poor old and infirm often die in winter as they are frightened to turn the heating on.
blisterj that's not good. Were the combi's designed to provide hot potable water and hot war for radiant heat? I don't deal with a lot of those here in Texas
Just bought a home where the previous owner had just replaced the tank. She was an old single lady so it made sense she only went with a 40g. I've got kids and between showers and laundry, that 40 is not going to work. Tank is in the attic which I'm already paranoid about so the idea of putting 2 50g tanks up there makes me uneasy. Think I'm tankless. Thanks for the info, you confirmed my decision.
have a tankless I am so tired of waiting on water, also we’ve had some cold days lately (louisiaina, so I’m talking mid 40s in the morning) and of course the wait is longer
From northern BC, canada. Our hot water tank is on its way out, someone mentioned a tankless..... im not so sure about that since we get some pretty cold weather with lots of snow.
Roger! You should run for PRESIDENT! You are the best straight talker in the USA, not just the plumbing industry. Thanks for explaining this, WITH NUMBERS. I agree completely that retrofits into tankless, for low water users, don't make sense. The other tutorials trivialize the change from tank TYPE to tank LESS, but you nailed it. Oh, it took me a while to catch on to what a TANK TOP water heater was ! ;) PS I'm from California and you are the best.
One reason i would've wanted a tankless heater in my old place, is that our tank heater would make the water pressure go down to almost nothing because we had a crappy well system that needed monthly repairs
Thank you Rogers.. Very nice video and clear explanation.. My gas water(tank) is not working today it been 10 yrs no prob. Now, I am getting quote to change it.... I am thinking to change to tankless... After watching ur video..
My Father has a new construction home plumbed in PEX with the tankless on the direct opposite side of the shower in his bathroom. Takes much longer to receive hot water than in any home I've been in, given the short plumbing run and no copper lines. Unlimited hot water is nice but for washing your hands after a tinkle, it leaves much to be desired.
Awesome video, I literally had the BTUs in mind when comparing the two just before I found your video so that is just reassuring that my choice of the tank top was the best choice. Thanks for being honest about how to save us money, not a lot of people will tell you this these days. The whole video was by far the most informational and best in audio quality, I’ve watched close to 30 videos already and have to say even with that mustache you nailed it home better than even the manufacturer videos. I will definitely be coming back to your channel for future use. And lastly that accent adds a nice touch. Keep it up my man.
I replaced my under counter Sears 50 gal water heater with an electric tankless water heater. It mounted on the wall it needed 4 40 amp or 2 75 amp circuits. It is the size of a boot shoe box. No gas or venting required and doesn’t have the scaling issue of a gas type. I had an element go out and picked it up at the local hardware store.
Many thanks for your video on tank vs on-demand water heaters. You made my decision easy. Reluctantly I will buy a new tank water heater though I have a small on-demand at my small house in New Zealand that has been great. I have space and expense issue here, and don’t use much hot water so tank it is. you did a great job of explaining!!! Again , thank you.
great segment roger. have you tried navien? I've literally installed hundreds of them. 100% stainless steel tubing for heat exchangers & piping inside. built in recirculation, 0 gpm flow threshold, 15 year heat exchanger warranty, 2" pvc venting, will use 1/2" gas line up to 20'. I had an install of a 199k btu tankless in palo-alto, CA back in 2013. luckily, the gas line was already oversized enough to handle the entire load. BUT- the existing water heater was two 40 gallon gas wh's in the basement. I just used one of the existing 3" B-vents as a chase to get from the basement, past the 2nd floor & to the attic. once in the attic, I had disconnected the Bvent joints & used the existing b-vent penetration to vent the 2" pvc- easy peasy. they had a recirc. loop- tied that into the recirc port on the navien- BOOM. done. inspection went off without a hitch. the plumbing inspector was so impressed- he took photos & said- "the guys at the office are never gonna believe this". lmao. he had never seen a nevien before.
Best waterheater ever made is the rheem marathon plastic fiberglass tank so it doesn't rust and has a lifetime warrenty on the tank as well. Also heats 50 gallons in 15 mins best electric tank type heater in my opinion sold at least 20 of them and never had a problem
I'll keep my old school gas-fired 40 gallon short water heater. When the neighbor's tree fell on my house and truck and ripped the electrical wires straight out of the meter socket, I had no power for 3 days. It was the dead of winter and we had no power for 3 days. however, the gas water heater continued to work and being able to take a warm shower in the freezing cold, what's a blessing. I had my old gas 40-gallon short replaced in 2005 with a home Depot GE water heater. It was $450 installed, and it lasted almost 15 years, before it failed two days ago. I put in another 40 gallon short gas fired from AO Smith. Hopefully I can get 15 years out of this one. However, the price this time around from everybody was about $1,800 installed.
but what also factor in how long you are going be in the place you are living. If you just end up living there for 10 years it will not save you money more so if you have run new gas line to the house from the main. Do you have kids that will be leaving due to becoming adults, and thus reducing your hot water usage.
Thanks for the video. My 30 year old tank type water heater finally started leaking from the gas control valve and I cannot find a replacement and this was great for evaluating my options
Wayne County, MI here. Just had my tank type water heater bottom rot out. It was 20-21 years old and I never did any maintenance on it. Lots of rust came out. Had about 100 gallons of water on my basement floor. I could’ve likely prolonged the life had I maintained it. However, I can certainly tell the new tank is insulated better. Which should be more efficient as well. I swapped it out myself. Pretty easy but did have to trim the inner door jamb length.
Well done video. One thing I thought you should have mentioned however is that tankless water heaters are basically computers. So if an electronic part or most other parts fail, this could mean you would be out of hot water until you are able to get the part which could be days if you can't find anyone with them in stock.
I intend on staying in my current home forever. I replaced my old natural gas tank water heater, to a tankless system. It was very expensive to install. It has been terribly unreliable! Hindsight, is always 20/20. I would never opt for a tankless system ever again.
@@Casca-su3ty hahaha i know right! There's even a bit of rust on the top cover. Not much but just a thin layer. Most people don't believe me when i say how old it is but yup. crazy.
I'm a HVAC guy and I have installed a lot of tankless water heaters and swapped out old ones. For myself and my own house I would go with a tankless because I can work on them however like you said having a plumber come over every year to flush the system out it's not worth it. I have an electric water heater in my own house and I do flush it out every year however the cost to fixing a wall mount compared to changing out a gas valve or elements is pennies on the dollar ... I'm not knocking your channel but I would never put a wall mount in if I were a homeowner and couldn't change a flat tire
@@raymondboulanger2908 if that is the case, i strongly advise for buying one that works by tuning the gas rather than the water. I am surprised they make them the way you are describing, i imagine people are not very satisfied with the flow in winter
Thank you for this excellent informative video! I really thought I wanted a tankless hot water heater but I had no idea they had to be on gas which in my case is propane. I currently have an electric one and I believe it's possible it's about at the end of it's life and we've started having issues due to our type of water with it smelling like rotten egg when I turn on the hot water in a bathroom that's the farthest away from it. So while I had the $$, I thought it would be best to replace it. Yes I know I can just do something to this part, can't recall the name of it to where the minerals don't build up on it, but if it's almost 10 plus years or more, then why not just replace it rather than figure out how to tear into it for maybe couple more years then have to replace it. Now I have a whole house water purification system which previous owners did not. So I believe I should be able to have a new one last even longer. I have a friend who is a journeyman who was out and he was concerned about the type of.well water we all have in this area and if it would affect the longevity of the tankless water heaters. So that's when I thought I should investigate more. Was also great to learn from you that there is a maintenance that needs to be done for the tankless too, I had no idea about that!!
we converted ours from tank to tankless about 20 years ago, the plumber found out it hadn't been mounted to the wall correctly, although we didn't have any problems with it, we just wanted to get a tankless heating system in its place while we had the money to change it, we call them combi boilers in UK, it does the central heating and hot tap water, cost about £2,000 can't remember the exact price, has a 7 year garantee, it is the second combi boiler we had installed, the cost to repair the previous one was that much that thought it wise to change to a new one. It gets serviced once a year for £48.
In Indiana gas meters operate on 6" of water column. You can have the natural gas company change out to a 2 lbs meter. But you must use pressure reducing valves at all appliances. This helps use in pipe sizing. Also in my rural area of Indiana we have well water. 52 degrees on average year round. 52 degrees to 120 degrees is quite a rise. Lots of power needed.
I was just looking for info, but I noticed you have a patch from HMLA-469 out of Camp Pendleton behind you which is my old unit. Super cool and thanks for the help!
The issue we have here in Colorado is most of our water is mountain run off and mountain reservoirs. The water is so cold coming in the tankless water heaters need to be larger than average for the same usage volume.
Navien can have a 24 foot run of half inch black iron, but that depends on the gas load calculation. Tankless should be the first fixture downstream of the gas meter.
I'm a plumber and I weighed both pros and cons, I went with a conventional water heater, it's a no brainer, a tankless heater is 3 times the cost, of just the unit! There's not enough tankless units in my area so we are not really up to speed on repairing them, I like to keep things simple. I do see the benefit of space saving but that's not enough to make me install one in my house, thanks for your time.
ohhhh.... kept thinking he was saying "Tank Top" water heater... then finally figured it out.... he's saying "tank TYPE" water heater !
😂 me too
Haha, I figured he meant that the water tank was on top of the heating unit, so "tank top". Texas!
Yes, you need the "Texan to English" translator
haha. I'm so glad you posted this before I asked my plumber about "tank top" vs tankless... and made an @as of myself. haha
I regret not putting a Tank Top on a water heater in this video😂😂
Rodger, I'd like to give you a standing ovation on this video. I've worked for the full service gas utility in St Louis, Missouri for 35 years and wish more plumbing contractors were like you . The number of hazardous Appliance reports I've filled out for improper tankless water heater installs ,I'm sure would even make your head spin. Fuel Run sizing and contacting your gas utility about added gas load should be number one on the list before a project like this even get started. You are correct tankless water heaters do last a very long time but not without service and part replacements over the years & when those parts are out of warranty they are very expensive.
Bob Y thank you. I wish more plumbers understood the severity of doing it wrong. Thank you for watching and commenting. I hope you subscribed!
@@RogerWakefield subscribed the minute l watched your video. Keep up the good content and I love your pipe nipple shelving brackets.
@@RogerWakefield in tx I see improperly installed regular water heaters not vented or on a stand a lot, most people don't know how dangerous this is, also T and P connections must be in place, my first home the plumber left without doing this
I went tankless 20 years ago when we bought this home, probably the best plumbing decision we made. We paid $1450 fully installed at the time whereas replacing the tank would have been about $1000. I am certain our ROI is far more than $450. I flush it myself, no big deal
In my state they give big discounts for a new regular water tank to senior citizens. Don’t know if the new type is on the list yet.
What state do you live in?
This tankless water heater craze is all over the internet. Little you know that overseas from Denmark to South Africa, for half century people have been living with tankless water heaters . Small ones hanging in the kitchen, large ones hanging in the shower.
I lived all my life in the shade of a tankless without knowing it.Needless to say that safety was not a biggy and death by CO is frequent.
@@robertodicamerino1940 death by co?
If you flush unit you can replace tanked 350 bucks.. YUP..
We just replaced our 17 year old water heater. We weighed the pros and cons of a tankless but opted for just replacing what we had. $650 total for the tank and the install. (small town America prices here. The company we went with was awesome and explained all the costs upfront. We did have to add an expansion tank. They were in and we had hot water within an hour and a half. Our water pressure has improved drastically since.
in the seattle area you are looking at $1300 on up for a tank and install. I just replaced mine for $605 with a new expansion tank, couple fittings, new gas line and new earthquake straps
@Dave Iaucco expansion tank is for thermal expansion and contraction due to high water pressure from supply
Necessary for pressure over 70
Southern oregon here. Just yesterday quoted 1650 to provide and install 50 gallon gas water heater as replacement for same. I think the sizable cost is because we are competing with work they have due to the Almeda fire displacing over 16,000 people and the rebuilding taking place. Also I was told expansion tank is now Oregon code requirement. He convinced me to go to Rheem but he best not show up with Home Depot $450 unit. Thought about tankless but I only pay $40 month for gas including range and water bill is super low also. You know, most of both bills are those chargers you have to pay in addition to actual use fee.
Thanks so much from this homeowner. Just bought a new home with 20+ year old tank. Hoping to decrease energy use, increase hot water, and also freeing up space in that closet! Thanks for the thorough information!
Did you end up getting a tankless water heater
Got tankless installed because I won it at a tradeshow recently. No cost at all, even the install and permit were included. First time owning one. Has some cons compared to tank, but then pros as well. But so far, am happy so far. But as well, if I lose power, I lose hot water. Old one, I still had hot water with power outages
That is something I rarely see mentioned. It didn't occur to me until after the installation was complete that we would be without hot water in the event of a power outage. My tankless is gas, but I still need electricity for the ignitors. I was able to come up with a solution by purchasing a battery power bank powerful enough to start the heaters. That wouldn't work for an electric unit, but since I have other reasons for owning the power bank it was a good solution for me and my gas tankless system.
Great video. Tankless water heaters are more efficient with combustion and stand by heat loss. You only see a benefit with the combustion effeciency (10 - 20%) when you use the heater a lot. If your hot water demand is low then you will never see a cost benefit of an efficient heater. Today's tank water heater are better insulated then ones from a few years ago. Add pipe insulation and your stand by loss is low. Tank water heaters cost less, require less maintenance, repair parts are usually inexpensive and more available. I have wanted to go tankless for several homes but it never made financial and operation sense.
another reason to skip the tankless is the expensive electronics that could and did go out when there are power failures and surges. I had a Takagi 2 years old and the circuit board blew up. cost more for the circuit board than a new tank type heater. The simpler something is the longer it last and the cheaper it is in the long run!!
@@Tony-hx2fj that's because in America your surge protection sucks but in Europe tankless is rather cheap as government can subsided them in most places meaning you can pretty much get them for few thousand same as a tank but more efficient and over all just better
@@0-B1 You're still paying for it, you're just paying for it in perpetuity through the government in your taxes. No such thing as a free lunch.
For an expensive, sensitive piece of equipment it makes total sense to spend the extra couple hundred bucks on a surge suppressor at the time of the install, either for the whole house or just in front of the equipment. These are certainly available in America, although not as commonly requested as they really should be given the amount of money they can save on (extremely overpriced) blown boards.
We have tankless water heater in our house for what, 15 years now. It still works perfect. And the few second delay before you get hot water is only an issue in the morning (after like 8 hours of not using hot water) during the day it pretty much kicks in after 2-5 seconds
Is it a space saver?
That’s pretty good. But, most people want it Early in the morning.
@@CocoChanelle-1 well, what I usually do. I get up, go to the bathroom, open the hot water, go take a piss, come back to the water and it is hot 😅
@@TheEvapiiShow ok
Great video! This was very helpful towards my consideration of a tankless water heater (my tank just died yesterday after 14 years). I'm going to stick with a tank. I don't use enough hot water to make it worth it. When you mentioned the annual maintenance, that pushed me even further towards sticking with what I have. Thanks!
Exactly. I don’t do anything. Just use it.
When I lived in Germany, I had an apartment that had a tankless hot water heater mounted on the wall over the kitchen sink. The bathroom was on the opposite side of that wall. I have to say the hot water was instantaneous. It was great. Obviously the further away from the hot water heater, tankless or not, it will take a while for the hot water to reach the faucets.
Such an excellent explanation, so clear! As a mechanical engineer, I really appreciate how easy this video makes it for me to explain to my wife what the reasons are for making a decision about what kind of water heater to install without getting too technical. Thanks
The engineer needs a plumber to explain something to the wife..yep..that sounds about right.
Excellent comparison between the tank and tankless water heaters.... Helped me make up my mind in the first 5 minutes of your video.... I am definitely replacing my current 21 year old 40 gal Kenmore gas water heater tank, with probably the Rheem 40 gal gas water heater tank.... Thanks!!
There is another reason to go tankless is I took the gas water out of my garage because the motorcycle and car work sometimes caused gasoline to leak. My water heater is now outside.
I like that you stated every application is different and I agree it depends on your situation when making a decision between tanked and tankless. We had two 50 gallon tank heaters in our attic which due to our pressure reducing valve at the meter had to have expansion tanks on them. Despite regular flushing the tank heaters started clunking as they aged and after having two expansion tanks fail we went tankless. It’s quieter and the plumbing is less complicated. We added a circulation pump at the same time and as a result use much less water. We’re happy with our tankless system. I also agree with your life expectancy thoughts and always suggest changing a tank heater at the 10 year mark. Great channel!
What’s your favorite “top” of “pop”?
Mine is PVC
I agree with most all of this. I own a plumbing company. Only problem I have is reliability and parts availability. Also temp rise on cold days may not be sufficient if you are using a univalve or have multiple users. I recommend a tankless feeding a tank. Best of both worlds. Reliable and efficient.
Let's not forget the cold water "sandwiching" with a tankless. Thats when the water comes out hot to cold and then back to hot. Can be fixed with a buffer tank (small 5-8 gallon electric water heater not connected to electricity). Not to mention if you come from an area with hard water the exchanger can plug up fast with calcium. Yes a flushing will fix the problem but when you water is very hard you could be doing it every 6 month to every other month.
We have lots of boilers for radiant heating in my area and I prefer a side arm tank (indirect water heater) ran off the boiler just by adding a zone valve and a taco control board with priority for the side arm. Many new high efficiency boilers have internal setting to control heating and domestic hot water. I'm not a fan of combi boilers (combination). My favorite boiler is a Crown Velocity Raptor. The Crown Velocity Phantom boiler is decent but still a combi boiler.
I retrofitted my parents tank top to tankless with a Ebay Marey Natural gas 4GPM water heater that cost $350. This thing used 2 D-cell batteries to power the igniter and has worked flawlessly for 6yrs. I loved it so much I put the same unit in my own remodeled house. The only problem with the cheaper version is you have to manually change the temp control as the incoming water temps change during the seasons. Not a big deal at all once you get use to it. Great tip on getting a BTU calculation (which I never did) but I guess I have more than enough gas pressure because I installed that 1" yellow gas line. In the summer, the units works so well that even in the lowest settings, I have to actually slightly close off the gas feed line to the tankless to restrict the gas flow so it doesn't over heat the water. Here in Texas with 100degree days, the ground water gets pretty warm and doesn't need much heating. If it's 20 degrees out, this unit still puts out scolding hot water. No filters or anything and we have VERY hard water down here.
this is how i know im getting older lol. I appreciate this type of content so much more
Jaffy, we are grown-ups now... :)
Lol, still watching the vid right now!
Excellent, informative video. Roger is customer focused--giving you the necessary and honest information to make the right choice for your personal situation and needs. With 20-20 hindsight I can now look back on my decision to go with a tankless water heater 4 years ago. My thoughts: The only really good time to make this decision is prior to building your house. Gas line sizing, venting requirements, code considerations, location placement, maintenance considerations, etc., are all MUCH easier addressed at the very start rather than after the fact.
A substantial advantage of a tankless (on demand) water heater is the "unlimited" supply of hot water. If you have an oversized bathtub, you will need a high capacity conventional tank-type water heater--especially if after filling the tub someone else wants to take a long hot shower. With a tankless heater, no problem, no wait.
My combined monthly gas bill (north Idaho) for the tankless water heater, radiant floor heating, gas fireplace, and gas range has averaged $51 per month for the last 43 months...and I keep the house toasty. I don't know what portion of that is for the water heater, but whatever it is is very reasonable. My single largest monthly gas bill was $112 for January of 2018, and only one other has topped $100 so far (that one was for January of 2020). No complaints at all.
Doing your own annual flushing (or perhaps at 2-years max depending on your water's mineral content and your hot water use rate) is really the way to go if you are mechanically inclined at all. I bought a $60, 1/5 HP pump for this. Cheap. Now, the only annual cost is for 4 gallons of food-grade white vinegar (5% acidic) available at any grocery store--figure less than $20/year. Time required? Under 2 hours. Peace of mind? Absolutely.
Also when sizing your gas line for a tankless water heater make sure you use a CSST chart if you go that way. CSST is roughly half the capacity of the same size iron pipe. On 2 pound gas systems we will generally remove the sediment trap on the high side and add another regulator for the tankless heater. Saves a lot of headaches. If you use a flexible gas connector make sure it has a 200,000 btu or more rating.
This was a great presentation. Maybe with practice I can give this presentation to my customers.
Of course it would be feasible to install in your garage Roger! With an NPE-240A you have a modulating gas valve (up to 199k BTU) so existing 1/2" supply is adequate up to 20' maximum. These units are specifically designed for retrofit applications so venting them is quick & easy out the side wall or roof. Integral circulator and buffer tank eliminate cold water sandwich. The warranty used to be 25 years on their stainless steel heat exchanger - so with proper maintenance and upkeep from a pro like yourself you should be able to expect a good +30-40 year lifespan. That's a good 2-4 times the lifespan of your standard water heaters. It's actually not a whole lot more expensive to go tankless than installing a quality high output 50 Gal PDV. In fact once you factor in the cost to value ratio over time - the tankless outperforms any traditional tank and pays for itself over time. The only downside is GPM on larger households where you may have to cascade units which I concede would exceed the value to cost ratio that make it comparable to traditional systems.
You could offset the cost a little with a 50 gallon storage tank and let the tankless feed the tank. Done it for some commercial work
Hey Roger, great to hear a balanced review of tank vs. tankless. It's hard to get past the breathless "hype" that you often hear about tankless, and understand that it's not always the right solution - especially considering the greater up-front expense, required annual maintenance, etc. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on how a tankless heater can work with a recirc pump. I recently did a bathroom addition in our basement, and ran a dedicated 1/2" PEX return line from the lav sink to a Grundfos Comfort-Series pump mounted above an existing 50-gal. Bradford-White electric heater. Had to add a check valve on the 3/4" cold water inlet, along with a thermal expansion tank. Works great, but down the road if we wanted to go tankless would this still work?
Make sure you get one designed for a pump or with one built in.
Hey Rodger literally was just listening to NPR on the episode maybe one of the programs on AI and people's jobs I recognize your voice from your videos would not be surprised if there's more comments on other videos as well on this awesome to hear someone come out about this and saying about really that it's not practical to do things with AI such as Plumbing people think that will be eventually replaced by robots and more there's always going to be things that technology can never replace a human such as the one actually programming and said system yeah sure Ted CPT can program well but it can't just think on its own technology is not capable of human thoughts yet that's where we will never become obsolete information love your description of the process and why free sample a robot or a I probably would not work for replacing the jobless human plumber
You did a great video. Been working on and installing Tankless units going on 15 years. I’ve formulated a three item criteria for people who are thinking about getting a Tankless.
1. Room. Does the client have to have the extra room. Or does client have no other option.
2. Occupancy. Is the client always gone? I have some clients that are never home. The stand by flame wastes a lot of fuel if you’re never home.
3. Water usage. Some people go through water heaters because of either a large family or special needs.
Once I finish this, I ask the client one more question. “Are you the type that has to be reminded to change the oil in your car?” This battery Of testing, has kept me out of trouble.
A note on flushing. I seldom do just a flushing. The fan. Combustion chambers always need attention. The ignition parts usually need changing every 5 years.
#2 is what's pushing me to want to go tankless. I just can't see the point in keeping so much water hot 24/7 just to run it for 15 minutes a day and possibly not at all for days at a time.
standby flame? tankless heaters don´t need that
I need to replace my tank type water heater.
It sits on the second floor, right above the kitchen; the upstairs baths, and my bathroom is within ten feet of it.
I want to go tankless not just because of the savings; I won't have to worry about my bedroom being flooded in case of a water heater meltdown of some sort.
Thank you for the input!
A tankless water heater can leak too.
My tankless leaked. Fortunately I was home that day
I have installed a tankless water heater for about 35 years is an Ursus Trotter... And is the best, I would recommend to use it
Tank vs Tankless... One is grateful, the other isn't.
@@aicram62 she didn't
ErrrrrrrrrrrRIMSHOT!
Badum TISSSSS
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤮
My God that's good
I have a tankless water heater, and this is great analysis. I think the only thing you missed or blurred was about filtration. For some brands of tankless water heater, you need to have a full-home water filtration system installed and regularly maintained for the tankless heater's warranty to remain valid. ... Not a huge deal (especially since, as you'd mentioned, it's fairly inexpensive to replace once the initial setup is in place), but still just like a 100-some-dollar-a-year consideration to replace standard cylinder filters.
My 40 gallon gas Kenmore tank lasted exactly 30 years, with hard water and no flushing. Plenty of hot water for a family of 4. Easily and cheaply replaced, and if the new tank lasts even 15 years I'll be happy with the ROI. Efficiency? My summertime gas bill is about $15, and we have a gas cooktop too. Tankless makes no economic sense for me..
Fr
I have now installed 2 tankless water heaters. One when I replaced a 75 gallon tank that failed and 2 40 gallon tank types in an attic. I did not want to deal with buying 2 water heaters since both were bad so the economics allowed me to use a tankless. I utilized the 2 roof penetrations for the intake and exhaust. The 75 gallon unit barely fit through the closet door and the newer ones are wider so the tankless worked out great. Have not had any issues to date. Total cost on each unit : $2k installed. On the most recent one I installed a scale inhibition device from 3M upstream of the unit.
I have a vintage water heater from 1978, still working good after 40+ years, and it still lives on.
Joshua Graham- Do you mind telling us the name or brand? It would be great to do some research. Unlike most of what we buy today, many of the older appliances made years ago were built to last. A lot of the stuff sold nowadays is nothing but good looking high tech Junk.
guillermone1 it’s a General Electric brand.
Is it electric water heater tank?
Thanks
About 10 years ago I upgraded my entire plumbing set up from galvanized to copper and installed a tankless water heater. I live in Michigan. I paid about $500 for my EZ tankless Setup. It runs on natural gas.
There are a few other pros and cons that you have missed.
1. My tank water heater had to vent out the chimney. My tankless water heater uses a two-stage exhaust pipe and could be vented out the side of the house, like a dryer vent. Because of this I was able to put my tankless water heater closer to where I needed my hot water most. I think location should be your biggest factor when making a decision on whether to switch to a tankless water heater.
2. As you mentioned The energy savings is awesome with the tankless water heater.
3. When the tankless water heaters on it is loud. Not ear shattering, but loud enough that if it was behind your bedroom wall, it might bother you. I have mine in the basement near my washer and dryer.
Our last tanktop heater lasted 21 years, the store staff where we got the replacement were quite surprised lol. And yes, the new one was a few inches wider because of the extra insulation, but the house builder was smart, left lots of room around the old one for upgrades.
Tank top lol
Hey man...what you're doing here is awesome...as a diy guy I Love seeing pros passing on what to them is literally valuable information so that we can make our lives a little easier...I can say that I learned something...and these days that is invaluable.
Great video. From a service plumber's aspect up here in Canada I would recommend getting the tank type. The cost of parts on a tankless are ridiculous especially if the builder installed something they picked up at home depot. Was working on a Bosch Greentherm tankless today for example and I would have to order parts from BC (I work in Saskatchewan) and it was going to cost the homeowner $2000 in parts and labour to fix their destroyed circuit board and water pump. New replacement is $5000 - $7000. No warranty either through the builder.
Here in the US tank water heaters are not fix you throw them away they are disposable.
They have a new type now that’s supposed to be an easier swap.
That's what all oldschool plumbers say they're always skeptical of new stuff
(Forgive the caps… but I wanted to make a point) EXCELLENT ANALYSIS and INFORMATION!! Helped me understand my SITUATION and decide for me. Tankless it is… with a fully acknowledged DYI of cleaning annually!!
Thanks for sharing! Glad I could help you out
As a General Contractor who installs about a dozen water heaters a year on a personal basis and has my plumbing subs install about the same numbers for my tenant improvement remodels, I can tell you that staying with a tank is the way to go. Customers do not realize that going tankless involves running electrical to the unit, increasing the ventilation and sometimes having to upgrade the gas line. My plumbing subs do not even recommend them due to servicing.
caiobabe for new construction it’s the way to go.
Tankless running electrical to it? an electrical tankless, yes, but gas tankless I'm not so sure.
@@mr.d2993 I did not understand where you were going with that comment? If you know anything about the tankless systems, you would know that anything (or model) made to fit for a family above 1 (maybe 2) requires electricity to be run to the cabinet area. Therefore, no electricity, no well performing tankless system. By same token...if there is a power outage, you may end up having hot water stored in a normal tank system for upwards of 24 hours plus but with a tankless...no water storage and no hot water.
If there is a power outage I still got hot water, I don't know of a gas system that needs electricity.
@@mr.d2993 Agreed.
Hey Roger, I am a carpenter by trade, but I try to be a "HandyMan" within my own home to save some coin. Your videos have helped me become more confident in my plumbing ability, Thanks! Again, I sell my carpentry skills, because I'm a carpenter, I never take on jobs outside my classification, but within my own home, the more I can do the better!
I went tankless, But that is because when I redid my basement, Moved the furnace as well it freed up 80 Sq feet in the middle of the basement and now it's 16 sq feet in a corner. That 60ish sq feet is worth a lot of money saved in my 800 sq foot house.
I'm in the same situation. My laundry room is 50 sf. With the washer, dryer and water heater in there it is pretty tight. On the other hand I have a 6ft long closet in my kitchen (I widened the door and put my small upright freezer in there along with storage.) It is the perfect place for the tankless water heater (the shared wall has all of the bathroom plumbing lines in it).
Since I live alone I am not worried about running out of hot water.
Our house we bought in February 2020 came with a tankless water heater. I really love it due to the low electricity and gas bills. Only negative from a consumer standpoint is the time it takes to give me hot water.
I'm a licensed plumber and really appreciated this explanation of the pros and cons of a tankless vs tank type water heater.
I'm a UA-cam neurosurgeon
I love your show. I'm from Maryland and we have customers on well systems. Tank less is not a good idea for well systems. Once again love your show
we have 24 tankless rinnai gas units at the complex i work at....whole place was electric before we made the switch ..gas company ran the new lines for free ...only drawback is the " cold water sandwich" people complain about that but get used to it..going from electric to gas is a huge savings to begin with and so far these have been great..we flush every year and have no problems.
working shlub cold water sandwich can sometimes turn temp down u don’t turn a tankless at 140 and mix more cold water at outlet this makes the flow rate get so low it cycles turn the temperature down to say 120 or 115
@@tonyruss4290 yea..we set them at 120 and havent touched them...
Thank you, very informative. My water heater just died & am considering tankless. This answered all my questions.
Mine died too recently. Today (apr 8th 2020) I had my tankless installed. You might be able to finagle a good Corona Virus install deal as there are many people that need the work! Good luck!
Wish I’d seen this before I changed. May not have made a different choice tho. I have a 3 bed 2.5 bath home so distance to furthest faucet wasn’t an issue. What made me try tankless was approximate cost per month over the expected useable life. Tankless vs tank was maybe $2-3 more expensive per month and it doesn’t make sense to me burning gas and keeping 50+ gallons of water hot 24/7.
Very helpful video and objective. I've had experience with a tankless (not my house) where the water flow would reduce drastically in the shower. This is consistent with his comment about how the tankless reduces the water flow to heat the water. To be fair, however, this was 5 years ago. Perhaps, there have been some advancements since.
This is the most scientific, informative and most entertaining homeowner tutorial videos I've ever seen. Thank you for this amazing video!
I have a tankless system. The biggest problem, really an annoyance, is with low flow faucets. As soon as there is any debris in the filter (which happens every few months where I live), it reduces the flow below .5gpm and the system won't provide hot water no matter how long you wait. Not a huge deal, but it seems like I am cleaning them out all the time.
Whoever does the editing on your videos is amazing. You are charismatic & funny already, but the editing grabs small moments and cranks up the humor that has my genuinely laughing out loud
I went to a tankless water heater, not for the savings but because of the small size.
As you mentioned you must maintain them, mine has performed flawless for 10 years only required maintenance and I can shower while the queen does wash
I've lived in my house about 21 years. Still have the same tank water heater that was originally installed.
18 and counting for me but figured I'd do a bit of preemptive research.
20 on mine looks like shes about done.
I bet you that wasn’t a “Made in China”...
Hey I got 24 yrs on mine. I've only had to replace the element but I'm sure it's time to to replace it. I'm sure it's costing me to much to keep it. Can't be efficient any more.
Depends a lot on the area you live. In my area there is enough particulate in the water that settles into the bottom of the tank to eventually get a foot deep in about 10 years.
I've been watching your videos latly i find them to be very informative. But i feel like you should have talkd about Either adding or if u have an existing recert line a tankless or a tank water heater WILL give you instant hot water At any fixture in your house regardless of how far away from the water heater is . i just installed a tankless at my father house And added a recert line was a lot of work and cost but after i explained to him and his wife they went tankless. My father is disabled and his shower is on the opposite side of the house he had to wait 3 to 4 minutes for hot water. Now its there the second he turns it on. A video on that would be great. I believe if people were more knowledgeable about what a recert line is and does it would be a determining factor in the decision
We love our Navien tankless. Been working pretty much flawless for 10 years now and super efficient with condensing technology. Getting a few parts ordered soon as flow meter is known to fail and flame rods obviously don't last forever but those are minor costs if one can do a bit of maintenance on them once in a while. Those also allow recirculation loops for instant hot water at the tap but obviously the extra plumbing needs to be there to begin with. Will never go back to those huge old dinosaurs again.
My tank hot water heater became my second furnace when my furnace broke and needed replacing over a Christmas holiday weekend.
I filled everything in the house with hot water in sub zero temperatures for 3 days keeping my house above 50°. This also worked during power outages.
Question: if you were building a new custom home, would you put in tankless? Thanks
Depends on how many fixtures you have and if you have hard water. I found that the biggest residential tankless water heater doesnt keep up with the demand. Let's say you have one shower going it is perfect. Once you start another shower and have other hot water taps open the volume of water decreases to heat the water up to temperature. It is done internally with a solenoid valve because the demand is to great for the output capability. Some commercial tankless are able to have a higher demand but it's not much more. In my area the water comes out of my well at 55 degrees so the heater works harder to warm up the water to 120 (that temperature is code in my area).
Not to mention if you have very hard water you will be flushing the exchanger very often. In my area we have 30-55 grain of hardness per gallon and many tankless units are flushed every other month. The exchanger are 1/4" tubes that if plugged wont give you the normal heat exchange resulting in less GPM (gallons per minute). Typical tankless water heater out of the box will give you 3.5 gpm at a 70 degree to 120 degree increase. A way to help with hard water is a water softener which than requires a lot of maintenance including adding salt or potassium. Another way is an in line cartridge softener which use a citrus to soften the water but cost are expensive for a new cartridge which would have to be changed every 6 months. There are magnetic water conditioners that help with hard water but it doesnt remove the hardness, it just neutralizes the charge of the hardness resulting in the hardness (calcium) not sticking to your exchanger or fixtures. I'm not a fan of magnetic nor in line water conditioners. Another way is a reverse osmosis (RO system) but the waste can be from 5 to 1 up to 10 to 1. Meaning for every gallon of RO water 5 gallons or 10 gallons of water is waste (dumped into a drain). Not to mention you would need a very big RO system to keep up with the demand of water usage. Hope this helped even just a little.
We have an on demand heater with a circulation pump on a timer. It circulates hot water from 5:30am-7am, then 5:30-6:30pm. The circulation means that hot water gets there quicker, not instantly. When the circulation is on hot water is about 10 seconds away. When the circulation is not on hot water is about 45 seconds away. We can run 3 showers, the dishwasher, the clothes washer, and the kitchen sink at the same time with no loss of heat all day if we want.
Great setup.
I do love our apartments I live in, we do have a tankless system. But yes it take a long time to get hot water to the kitchen, but if I turn on the shower it gets warm faster. But it's great to have a hot shower longer
It's not just a flushing you do, you need to clean the heat exchanger, scale buildup. And depending on state or city, tankless life can drop. But you do need to keep up on yearly maintenance. Miss it a few times, and you'll be calling with no hot water..... hvac industry also does them too. Not just plumbers.
those are combo boiler water heaters, and to work on a boiler since it is all water and gas plumbers are the ones that work on them the most,
You may want to add, that all the extra expense is labor. Most people wont pay a plumbers hourly rate when the can do it themselves.
Most people will also do it incorrectly, and may damage the unit or even kill themselves with carbon monoxide
@@1985Satisfaction yep. We have to rely on these geniuses.
It's not ALL. Materials aren't free, in fact they've used covid as an excuse to double the prices in the last year.
Had a propane tankless for awhile but we have a spring and we put a tank type in to keep it from running dry. Also the bonehead that plumbed the tankless made it extremely difficult to flush.
We've had these for years in the UK we call them combi boilers they were a great inventions however years later when every one had changed over to them the gas companies put the prices up Now the poor old and infirm often die in winter as they are frightened to turn the heating on.
blisterj that's not good. Were the combi's designed to provide hot potable water and hot war for radiant heat? I don't deal with a lot of those here in Texas
@@RogerWakefield yes Roger exactly the same thing same process no different our gas cost in the UK is quite high as the gas companies are greedy.
Just bought a home where the previous owner had just replaced the tank. She was an old single lady so it made sense she only went with a 40g. I've got kids and between showers and laundry, that 40 is not going to work. Tank is in the attic which I'm already paranoid about so the idea of putting 2 50g tanks up there makes me uneasy. Think I'm tankless. Thanks for the info, you confirmed my decision.
have a tankless
I am so tired of waiting on water, also we’ve had some
cold days lately (louisiaina, so I’m talking mid 40s in the morning) and of course the wait is longer
Have you considered adding a recirculation pump/line to the system?
I'm in southeastern Ontario Canada- was thinking of a thankless but your comment has me really thinking now. Thanks!
From northern BC, canada. Our hot water tank is on its way out, someone mentioned a tankless..... im not so sure about that since we get some pretty cold weather with lots of snow.
Roger! You should run for PRESIDENT! You are the best straight talker in the USA, not just the plumbing industry. Thanks for explaining this, WITH NUMBERS. I agree completely that retrofits into tankless, for low water users, don't make sense. The other tutorials trivialize the change from tank TYPE to tank LESS, but you nailed it.
Oh, it took me a while to catch on to what a TANK TOP water heater was ! ;) PS I'm from California and you are the best.
I am thinking about running for President... Would you wore for me? I am glad you liked the video!!!
One reason i would've wanted a tankless heater in my old place, is that our tank heater would make the water pressure go down to almost nothing because we had a crappy well system that needed monthly repairs
Wouldn´t an auxilliary tank to hold water from the well before entering the house provided a good waterhead pressure for the pipes
Thank you Rogers..
Very nice video and clear explanation..
My gas water(tank) is not working today it been 10 yrs no prob. Now, I am getting quote to change it....
I am thinking to change to tankless...
After watching ur video..
The plumber's cough closeup was priceless. Good advice too!
My Father has a new construction home plumbed in PEX with the tankless on the direct opposite side of the shower in his bathroom. Takes much longer to receive hot water than in any home I've been in, given the short plumbing run and no copper lines. Unlimited hot water is nice but for washing your hands after a tinkle, it leaves much to be desired.
Awesome video, I literally had the BTUs in mind when comparing the two just before I found your video so that is just reassuring that my choice of the tank top was the best choice. Thanks for being honest about how to save us money, not a lot of people will tell you this these days. The whole video was by far the most informational and best in audio quality, I’ve watched close to 30 videos already and have to say even with that mustache you nailed it home better than even the manufacturer videos. I will definitely be coming back to your channel for future use. And lastly that accent adds a nice touch. Keep it up my man.
I replaced my under counter Sears 50 gal water heater with an electric tankless water heater. It mounted on the wall it needed 4 40 amp or 2 75 amp circuits. It is the size of a boot shoe box. No gas or venting required and doesn’t have the scaling issue of a gas type. I had an element go out and picked it up at the local hardware store.
Excellent straight forward advice! I wish you were here in Austin Tx., I would use your services.
Many thanks for your video on tank vs on-demand water heaters. You made my decision easy. Reluctantly I will buy a new tank water heater though I have a small on-demand at my small house in New Zealand that has been great. I have space and expense issue here, and don’t use much hot water so tank it is. you did a great job of explaining!!! Again , thank you.
I'm doing great then. I have an AOsmith 50 gal. with a power vent that's been in 16.5 years and still going strong.
Hi, does power vent tank make a lot of noise? Thanks
great segment roger. have you tried navien? I've literally installed hundreds of them. 100% stainless steel tubing for heat exchangers & piping inside. built in recirculation, 0 gpm flow threshold, 15 year heat exchanger warranty, 2" pvc venting, will use 1/2" gas line up to 20'. I had an install of a 199k btu tankless in palo-alto, CA back in 2013. luckily, the gas line was already oversized enough to handle the entire load. BUT- the existing water heater was two 40 gallon gas wh's in the basement. I just used one of the existing 3" B-vents as a chase to get from the basement, past the 2nd floor & to the attic. once in the attic, I had disconnected the Bvent joints & used the existing b-vent penetration to vent the 2" pvc- easy peasy. they had a recirc. loop- tied that into the recirc port on the navien- BOOM. done. inspection went off without a hitch. the plumbing inspector was so impressed- he took photos & said- "the guys at the office are never gonna believe this". lmao. he had never seen a nevien before.
Currently building a new home with a tankless hot water heater. I am not familiar with them, so this was an excellent video. Thank you!
Best waterheater ever made is the rheem marathon plastic fiberglass tank so it doesn't rust and has a lifetime warrenty on the tank as well. Also heats 50 gallons in 15 mins best electric tank type heater in my opinion sold at least 20 of them and never had a problem
Thank you from this new homeowner! We are sticking with the tank :)
I'll keep my old school gas-fired 40 gallon short water heater.
When the neighbor's tree fell on my house and truck and ripped the electrical wires straight out of the meter socket, I had no power for 3 days.
It was the dead of winter and we had no power for 3 days. however, the gas water heater continued to work and being able to take a warm shower in the freezing cold, what's a blessing.
I had my old gas 40-gallon short replaced in 2005 with a home Depot GE water heater. It was $450 installed, and it lasted almost 15 years, before it failed two days ago. I put in another 40 gallon short gas fired from AO Smith. Hopefully I can get 15 years out of this one. However, the price this time around from everybody was about $1,800 installed.
Yep, given the choice is rather have hot water that lights and electricity. This is why I don't like water heaters with power vents.
8:45 That statement does it. I'm going tankless. Thanks!
but what also factor in how long you are going be in the place you are living. If you just end up living there for 10 years it will not save you money more so if you have run new gas line to the house from the main.
Do you have kids that will be leaving due to becoming adults, and thus reducing your hot water usage.
@@DubhghlasMacDubhghlas hmm. Those are really good points too. I've got a cheap tankless heater. I hope it serves well.
@@yumann I hope it works out well for you.
I am not plumber but those things probably should factor into tank or tankless.
Thanks for the video. My 30 year old tank type water heater finally started leaking from the gas control valve and I cannot find a replacement and this was great for evaluating my options
Seems like most people I've known get close to 20 years out of a water heater and most never bother flushing or replacing the anode rod.
Where are you from because here in FL. They maybe last 6 years
@@andrewmonroe155 Michigan.
Wayne County, MI here. Just had my tank type water heater bottom rot out. It was 20-21 years old and I never did any maintenance on it. Lots of rust came out. Had about 100 gallons of water on my basement floor. I could’ve likely prolonged the life had I maintained it.
However, I can certainly tell the new tank is insulated better. Which should be more efficient as well. I swapped it out myself. Pretty easy but did have to trim the inner door jamb length.
Well done video. One thing I thought you should have mentioned however is that tankless water heaters are basically computers. So if an electronic part or most other parts fail, this could mean you would be out of hot water until you are able to get the part which could be days if you can't find anyone with them in stock.
This guy rocks! Concise and easy to understand, thank you!!!
I intend on staying in my current home forever. I replaced my old natural gas tank water heater, to a tankless system. It was very expensive to install. It has been terribly unreliable! Hindsight, is always 20/20. I would never opt for a tankless system ever again.
Which one did you get? What’s the brand name ?
Noritz@@andreilesiuk9538
Man my tank is around 28 years old & its still working. Pretty crazy
Matt's Horsemanship yeah, mines a 1993 install. Still going.
Liers ! No way ! impossible
@@Casca-su3ty No lie. I hope it continues for another 5 years.
@@MattyDemello you should remove it and place it in the museum of plumbing
@@Casca-su3ty hahaha i know right! There's even a bit of rust on the top cover. Not much but just a thin layer. Most people don't believe me when i say how old it is but yup. crazy.
I'm a HVAC guy and I have installed a lot of tankless water heaters and swapped out old ones. For myself and my own house I would go with a tankless because I can work on them however like you said having a plumber come over every year to flush the system out it's not worth it. I have an electric water heater in my own house and I do flush it out every year however the cost to fixing a wall mount compared to changing out a gas valve or elements is pennies on the dollar ... I'm not knocking your channel but I would never put a wall mount in if I were a homeowner and couldn't change a flat tire
they dont work by slowing the water in the heat exchanger, they modulate the flame
No, they restrict flow to enable burner to heat water. Flame is NOT regulated / modulating.
@@raymondboulanger2908 if that is the case, i strongly advise for buying one that works by tuning the gas rather than the water. I am surprised they make them the way you are describing, i imagine people are not very satisfied with the flow in winter
Thank you for this excellent informative video! I really thought I wanted a tankless hot water heater but I had no idea they had to be on gas which in my case is propane. I currently have an electric one and I believe it's possible it's about at the end of it's life and we've started having issues due to our type of water with it smelling like rotten egg when I turn on the hot water in a bathroom that's the farthest away from it. So while I had the $$, I thought it would be best to replace it. Yes I know I can just do something to this part, can't recall the name of it to where the minerals don't build up on it, but if it's almost 10 plus years or more, then why not just replace it rather than figure out how to tear into it for maybe couple more years then have to replace it. Now I have a whole house water purification system which previous owners did not. So I believe I should be able to have a new one last even longer. I have a friend who is a journeyman who was out and he was concerned about the type of.well water we all have in this area and if it would affect the longevity of the tankless water heaters. So that's when I thought I should investigate more. Was also great to learn from you that there is a maintenance that needs to be done for the tankless too, I had no idea about that!!
Is that a Pharoahe Monche riff?? I'm impressed.
we converted ours from tank to tankless about 20 years ago, the plumber found out it hadn't been mounted to the wall correctly, although we didn't have any problems with it, we just wanted to get a tankless heating system in its place while we had the money to change it, we call them combi boilers in UK, it does the central heating and hot tap water, cost about £2,000 can't remember the exact price, has a 7 year garantee, it is the second combi boiler we had installed, the cost to repair the previous one was that much that thought it wise to change to a new one.
It gets serviced once a year for £48.
Roger: (Coughs)
Video: DUN DUN DUN DUN
In Indiana gas meters operate on 6" of water column. You can have the natural gas company change out to a 2 lbs meter. But you must use pressure reducing valves at all appliances. This helps use in pipe sizing. Also in my rural area of Indiana we have well water. 52 degrees on average year round. 52 degrees to 120 degrees is quite a rise. Lots of power needed.
I was just looking for info, but I noticed you have a patch from HMLA-469 out of Camp Pendleton behind you which is my old unit. Super cool and thanks for the help!
My brother Rich Cardona gave it to me. Thank you for your service!
@@RogerWakefield oh awesome. He was one of our pilots! I think I was in Afghan with him in 2012. And Thank you for uour appreciation!
A simple sand trap (water in the top and water out the bottom . and backflush occasionally . it will amaze you how clean it can be
That intro to hard to be talking about water heaters🤣
I know right!! I'm like whaaaat??
Right!!! 😂😂
The issue we have here in Colorado is most of our water is mountain run off and mountain reservoirs. The water is so cold coming in the tankless water heaters need to be larger than average for the same usage volume.
Most new tankless can run on a 1/2" gas line provided it's no more than 24'. So if the gas line is near the meter it'll work.
NO, it will suck so much gas from the other like stove or dryer when you are taking a shower, so no 1/2inch gas.
Navien can have a 24 foot run of half inch black iron, but that depends on the gas load calculation. Tankless should be the first fixture downstream of the gas meter.
I’ve seen some at HD which claims they don’t need an upgraded line... so not actually true?
I'm a plumber and I weighed both pros and cons, I went with a conventional water heater, it's a no brainer, a tankless heater is 3 times the cost, of just the unit! There's not enough tankless units in my area so we are not really up to speed on repairing them, I like to keep things simple. I do see the benefit of space saving but that's not enough to make me install one in my house, thanks for your time.
Did you install a power vent or natural drafted one? Is power vent tank noisy? Thanks
best video, basically if i want a tankless water heater im better off buying a new house lol