discussion Rants etc.....

[Sagath]

Tankless prices are way down from 10 years ago. A couple 50gal gas tanks are over a grand each, my cost, after taxes.

A decent tankless is 2-3 grand. Rinnai also makes a condensing - combination furnace / hot water tank which works amazingly well. One vent/combustion air penetration and over 97% efficient.

The number 1 thing before installing tankless is knowing your water quality. Hardwater clogs up tankless in a hurry.

I think what surprised me the most about tankless heaters is that I have yet to see a new home with them. Before we bought this second house we even looked at the 1m+ show homes in Summerside. I knew we couldn't afford them but if we sold the rental there was ones nearby that would have been in range and we were there already so why not look. All 3 1m+ show homes none of them were tankless, IIRC both were dual 50gal tanks i could be wrong on that part but definitely not tankless.

Edmonton has hard AF water. Its full of limestone from the rockies. I would suspect thats why tankless isnt big here.

I know I wouldnt consider installing one here.

 

[Izerous]

Edmonton has hard AF water. Its full of limestone from the rockies. I would suspect thats why tankless isnt big here.

I know I wouldnt consider installing one here.

When we replaced the hot water tank I did have a more detailed discussion with the plumber/gas fitter at the time. Tankless he said works here fine as long as you either treat it yearly (extra cost) or if you install a water softener before it, also adding to the upfront cost.

 

[Sagath]

When we replaced the hot water tank I did have a more detailed discussion with the plumber/gas fitter at the time. Tankless he said works here fine as long as you either treat it yearly (extra cost) or if you install a water softener before it, also adding to the upfront cost.

Makes sense, but also explains even further why we dont see them here, even on +1m homes.

$2-3k Tankless + yearly out of pocket cost (or) +$? water softener
or
$0.5-1k 50 gal.

Easy to see why contractors are skimming the top.

 

[Izerous]

Yeah the chimney vent 50gal tank ended up being ~900 installed. A bit more to convert to direct vent but avoided that for now since I want to reconfigure the basement a bit and didn't want to have to redo those vents yet again.

But tankless with rebates + water softener was going to be much closer to 4k I think in the end maybe it was even higher than that.

 

[sswilson]

I can only assume that over time tankless greatly reduces energy use/waste since it's an on-demand system. (Almost reminds me of the small tanks they had in Germany while we were over there... but those weren't on-demand, they just weren't on 24/7 thus had to be flashed up 1/2 an hour (or so) prior to taking a shower.....)

 

[gingerbee]

damn, I was just looking at tankless ones too and thought that would be nice did not even think about the hard water we have in all of Orillia.
But I gotta say $900 installed hell the damn tank I am looking at is a Rheem and its $1200 forget installed, I am pretty sure we're looking at closer to $2000 installed and we already have a direct vent

I would love the savings a tankless would give but our hot water bills are only $70 a month so might not be that much of a savings lol

 

[clshades]

When we replaced the hot water tank I did have a more detailed discussion with the plumber/gas fitter at the time. Tankless he said works here fine as long as you either treat it yearly (extra cost) or if you install a water softener before it, also adding to the upfront cost.

It's a 30 minute bath in vinegar. It's pretty easy if you have the pump and three short hoses.

 

[Izerous]

I would love the savings a tankless would give but our hot water bills are only $70 a month so might not be that much of a savings lol

I had to go step downstairs it is a Bradford White so not quite as fancy as other brands. The plumber was a referral from my realtor and he has been great to deal with on a couple occasions.

The long ROI is hard to justify, its why I didn't go through with the solar quotes either. Solar panel install ROI was 15+ years, a little sooner if I replaced the gas hot water tank with an electric model. Means the only remaining gas draw would be the furnace. But even with solar panels months that you produce extra energy you still pay the silly admin fees. And at least in Alberta grid + panels your only allowed to produce 10% over your anual consumption. So it isn't like you can produce double what you consume and collect a check every month. And our relatively low electric rates make it that much harder to see a return.

 

[gingerbee]

Ya I was also thinking about looking into solar since we have a south-facing roof which they say is good ( like I have any clue lol ).
well for 900 installed sounds like a hell of a deal but ours would be our HVAC guys installing ours, not a plumber. kinda through our agent as well its her husband who owns an HVAC company ( gas fitter who built up his own company not just some person who runs a business ) plus he always checks up on jobs himself, only complaint I had from our AC install was the markup on our Sensi thermostat was higher then I would have liked

 

[JD]

It's a 30 minute bath in vinegar. It's pretty easy if you have the pump and three short hoses.

Yeah I don't mind doing it, it's more remembering to do it

My original Navien unit kept failing on the water flow sensor, I think it was just a poor design. I have a newer model Navien now that's been fine. I wouldn't say the water here in East York is "soft" by any means either, my humidifier gets pretty gross in the winter. Even though this newer Navien says its lower emissions, it still can smell a bit rich outside if it's short cycled. Not sure if that's common or not...

Granted we replaced furnace and went tankless together, but our gas bill dropped drastically in doing so. Also nice having "unlimited" hot water. Don't think it's paid off though, especially having to replace it once already, though I guess I could have just kept buying new flow sensor yearly. The gained floor space was helpful though since the tank was right in the path into the storage space.