Every tankless I’ve used has been a piece of crap. Constantly breaking down. Heat surging and going cold in the shower. Outright just not heating water. All within 2 years of install. Never again. Tanks only for me from now on.
I ended up getting 2 hot water tanks and putting them in series. Endless hot water doing it that way. I’ve also plumbed it so that if one fails I can adjust a few valves and run on one tank until I can fix/replace the other.
I should note, I live 160km from the nearest city so I can’t just call a guy out to fix things.
Couldn’t you have just run it in parallel and have a T split with valves on the intake and output? In order to drain a side for repairs you could just close the working side off and void it normally. In series just seems like a weird choice to me.
I talked to a plumber and it’s what he recommended. I decided to not to question someone with far more experience than me. Your solution would probably work too.
As a Dutch person I’ve never seen a water heating system with a tank like in the US, we all use boilers and they are fantastic. Boilers are harder to use in “big” homes though.
You haven’t been to Europe then. I have a boiler in my basement which delivers hot water for two bathrooms and a kitchen as long as I want with constant temperature and never breaking down. That’s not even something special just the standard.
If you live in an area with hard water, you are suppose to descale the heater at least once every year by flushing the system with some citric acid solution, otherwise you may get irregular hot water flow.
That’s amazing. I mean, I haven’t seen/heard of a tanked hotwater heater in my country in decades, outside of increasingly infrequent rooftop solar heated tanks.
We’ve got instant gas, but I suppose most are electric now. Been running for decades with only needing to be adjusted between summer and winter temps sometimes.
Tanks are just… Useless. Takes up space with no benefit. Tanks use more power or gas. They fail more often (despite your personal experience).
If your tankless system is lasting less than 20 years, you’re doing something wrong. If your tankless isn’t giving steady water temp nonstop, you’re doing something wrong. I mean, those are two of the main benefits they have over tanks. That, and cheaper to run.
Their only advantage is they’re cheap to buy and cheap to install.
It’s the cheap boots issue.
You save money up front and so you waste money long term.
Dang that sucks. My house came with some kind of Rinnai unit and it’s worked pretty well. I clean it out with a special chemical wash every year or two and it’s been great. Every now and then it decides it doesn’t want to go, but I just unplug and plug it in and it’s good for the next few months.
Every tankless I’ve used has been a piece of crap. Constantly breaking down. Heat surging and going cold in the shower. Outright just not heating water. All within 2 years of install. Never again. Tanks only for me from now on.
That just killed one of my personal goals, thanks.
I ended up getting 2 hot water tanks and putting them in series. Endless hot water doing it that way. I’ve also plumbed it so that if one fails I can adjust a few valves and run on one tank until I can fix/replace the other.
I should note, I live 160km from the nearest city so I can’t just call a guy out to fix things.
Couldn’t you have just run it in parallel and have a T split with valves on the intake and output? In order to drain a side for repairs you could just close the working side off and void it normally. In series just seems like a weird choice to me.
Yeah, series sounds like an awful idea.
Unless they are weak as sht, and the water needs to be heated twice to get up to temperature.
I talked to a plumber and it’s what he recommended. I decided to not to question someone with far more experience than me. Your solution would probably work too.
As a Dutch person I’ve never seen a water heating system with a tank like in the US, we all use boilers and they are fantastic. Boilers are harder to use in “big” homes though.
You haven’t been to Europe then. I have a boiler in my basement which delivers hot water for two bathrooms and a kitchen as long as I want with constant temperature and never breaking down. That’s not even something special just the standard.
If you live in an area with hard water, you are suppose to descale the heater at least once every year by flushing the system with some citric acid solution, otherwise you may get irregular hot water flow.
That’s amazing. I mean, I haven’t seen/heard of a tanked hotwater heater in my country in decades, outside of increasingly infrequent rooftop solar heated tanks.
We’ve got instant gas, but I suppose most are electric now. Been running for decades with only needing to be adjusted between summer and winter temps sometimes.
Tanks are just… Useless. Takes up space with no benefit. Tanks use more power or gas. They fail more often (despite your personal experience).
If your tankless system is lasting less than 20 years, you’re doing something wrong. If your tankless isn’t giving steady water temp nonstop, you’re doing something wrong. I mean, those are two of the main benefits they have over tanks. That, and cheaper to run.
Their only advantage is they’re cheap to buy and cheap to install.
It’s the cheap boots issue.
You save money up front and so you waste money long term.
Or, you buy good boots that last.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
Dang that sucks. My house came with some kind of Rinnai unit and it’s worked pretty well. I clean it out with a special chemical wash every year or two and it’s been great. Every now and then it decides it doesn’t want to go, but I just unplug and plug it in and it’s good for the next few months.