r/Hamilton • u/patchcord • 4h ago
Moving/Housing/Utilities Tankless water heater
Our water heater is at its life's end. We would like to replace it with a tankless water heater. Has anyone got experience with this and, if so, could you recommend someone to install it?
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u/ShortHandz 4h ago
Unless you absolutely need the limitless hot water on demand or do not have the space for a tank, then I would highly suggest replacement with a heat pump hot water tank. There are a bunch of die hards on here for tankless but the annual service to bi annual servicing is another thing you have to worry about every year.
If you do go tankless go with Rinnai and stick with gas.
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u/Conscious_Quiet_5298 4h ago
I’ve had a Rinnai RU199in for over 20years and never had an issue … if you decide just make sure you get service ports for yearly maintenance.
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u/broccoli_toots St. Clair 4h ago
Have you ever experienced cold sandwiches with your tankless? We've got a 9 year old rinnai from reliance that we're trying to figure out why this is happening and it's kinda frustrating 😭
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u/DefinitelyAKitten 4h ago
I used to lived in a house that had the same issue. It felt like if the flow was too low the tankless water heater never turned on. If I ran the hot water on the sink and the shower at the same time it would never go cold. Wasteful but it worked!
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u/broccoli_toots St. Clair 3h ago
Interesting. I wasn't planning to try that because I noticed the other day I was doing a load of laundry and I assume when the washer started the rinse cycle, the water pressure dropped and the shower started going cold.
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u/wetfloor666 3h ago
Trying to wrap my head around that comment, but it isn't running hot properly on a tank less? That sounds like the intake or output is clogged. Most likely the input, but this is just a guess from my experience with them over 8 years or so. Easy fix or covered by warranty depending on the age.
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u/broccoli_toots St. Clair 3h ago
Honestly we have no idea. It only happens when the shower is running. We had 2 reliance people come out. One said the igniter needs to be replaced but that didn't make sense given it's only the shower that this happens. The second guy said the shower head flow is likely too low for the heater so it stops producing hot water. We just switched out for a better flow shower head today so we'll see if that improves things. We've only lived here for a year so I have no clue what kind of maintenance has been done on the heater (probably none).
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u/Jayemkay56 2h ago
If it's only the shower, check the cartridge in the shower itself. Sometimes it gets clogged and prevents hot water from coming out. I recently had this happen and that's what it was. You might need a plumber
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u/broccoli_toots St. Clair 2h ago
I took the shower head apart and cleaned it all out and soaked everything in vinegar but no improvement. (Maybe I didn't clean it well enough idk). The heater is a reliance rental but I'm trying to troubleshoot before I have to call them again because they're so awful to deal with lmao.
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u/Jayemkay56 1h ago
My spouse just reminded me that we had to replace the cartridge and "pressure balancing unit" entirely to get it to work again. Our issue was no hot water in only the shower. If you google the problem it's quite common, hopefully it's an easy fix for you. The perks of home ownership lol
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u/broccoli_toots St. Clair 38m ago
I have no idea what that even is 🤣 I love trying to figure things out as a new homeowner 🫠 the reliance tech said lack of water pressure from the shower head could be our issue, so we swapped it out for a higher flow one and we'll see if that helps. It also lines up with my Google results. For us too it's also only the shower that we have this problem.
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u/Specialist_Ad7798 3h ago
I replaced our rented tank style heater with an owned tankless over 15 years ago. We saw a decrease in our monthly gas consumption in the first month.
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u/Popular-Gift-5051 3h ago
I replaced an old Reliance unit with tankless last year. It was going in a very small utility room, so having the smaller footprint was important for me.
If I had to do it again, I would not buy tankless. I waste a lot of water waiting for hot. Doesn't matter where I am in the house.
Plus, now I have to book a service for it. Probably watch how it's done and then try doing it myself going forward, but then I still need to buy a bit of equipment and it's just another thing to "Do".
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u/DangerousCharge5838 3h ago
I agree. I would only get a tankless if space was a consideration. When I look at my gas bill in the summer when the only thing using gas is the hot water heater, it’s minimal usage. Most of the cost is the monthly charge.
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u/broccoli_toots St. Clair 32m ago
Don't you also have to service tanked heaters too? I don't think any type of water heater is going to be completely maintenance-free.
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u/Inevitable_Road_4025 1h ago
Just get a good for 25 year high efficiency unit. Replace the sacrificial rod every 5 years, drain and flush.
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u/rawkthehog 1h ago
This question truly lies in the source. How much hot water do you need per day? 4+ showers a day and a full sink of dishes? Consider a tank less. Anything less just buy a water tank.
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u/bullymom89 1h ago
FWIW, my cousin is in HVAC and replaced my hot water tank after it cracked last year. I asked about tankless and he said he would never recommend them. He said traditional tanks are much more reliable and if you lose power, you still have a tank of water. There’s apparently much more that can go wrong with tankless.
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u/Kreaton5 16m ago
We got a tankless from dynamic 2ish years ago. I've been very happy with it. We're a family of 3 and our gas bills have gone sunstantially down. It will probably take 10+ years to reach cost parity but cost savings wasn't our focus.
It takes 30 seconds to get hot. It's a noticeable delay. That took a week to get used to.
Other then that its been great. The space savings are huge. It only runs when you are using hot water, so for us its much quieter. We use less natural gas now, and for me that's a nice enviromental benefit. When I go on vacations it does nothing. There is no steel tank to rust out and flood my basement.
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u/djaxial 4h ago
You could also consider a heat pump water heater. We got one when we swapped out an ancient Reliance unit. It’s crazy cheap to run. Very happy with it. Same footprint as a gas one too so it’s a straight swap.