Tankless Water Heaters

plumberboy

i have a question i am currenty dealing with a tankless problem. when hot water only is ran we get plenty of hot water, but when the cold water is turned on (ex. in the shower) u lose all hot water, anyone have any suggestions for this. i have my own opinions about these units but a ong outstanding customer demanded that he tries one of these out

ChrWright

Which unit?

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rbsremodeling

Turn the unit upside down and re install it. That always works for me

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Grumpyplumber

You either made the mistake of installing a Bosch for $200 less and are now learning the hard way that you get what you pay for...or, you piped it in wrong.
The inspector would have called you on the piping.

Just my guess.

Grumpyplumber

Wanna place a bet that it's not a Bosch/Aquastar?

rbsremodeling

Its probably piped in wrong. Hence my turn it upside down snide comment. I see it alot

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Grumpyplumber

Spidey sense is a'tinglin'...apparently so was PWG's.

ChrWright

I hear crickets... why the silence "plumberboy"?

If that is your REAL name...

If you want your question answered you're going to have to pony up some more info...

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
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rbsremodeling

Interestingly enough every time I check this tread an ad for Rinnai water heaters pops up. Things that make you go hmmmm

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tinner666

"Interestingly enough every time I check this tread an ad for Rinnai water heaters pops up." At a loss with this comment. Never seen a pop-up or any advertising on this site.

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Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.

ChrWright

He's talking about the banner ads top, bottom & side.

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
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jcalvin

Since plumberboy isn't going to feed any more info, I'll ask a spin off question. Looking for an small electric water heater to run one sink in my garage. I only need the hot water occasionally and I can't see the sense in paying an arm and a leg for it. I don't mind if it takes a while to warm up and most likely won't use more than a 2-3 gallons when I do.

Do I need a tankless or will a small 2gallon water heater be enough. If you say tankless, please specify a good brand.

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Cal


You hired WHO

rbsremodeling

If the hot water usage is small I would put maybe a instant hot under the sink or a mini like 6 gallons Eemax sells a nice one and I think insinkerator

http://www.eemaxinc.com/resminitank.htm

If you need the whole she bang go with Rinnai

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JamesNLA

Tankless is a bit much for your needs. Undersink Instant hot is good for filling a cup of tea, but not to wash your hands or anything like that. Get a small electric 3 gallon jobbie. If your rarely going to use it, hook it up to a snap switch and just trun it on maybe 30 minutes before you need it. That figure will be determined by something called recovery rate. Check the paper work it comes with for that.

To the OP, you installed it wrong, but I ain't tellin what you did

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-Adrock

Plumbing expert

It sounds like the tankless water heater may be electric. There are many problems with tankless heaters. Lets consider the engineering principles. There is a limited amount of energy applied to the water heater. The flow of water varies through the water heater as various fixtures are used while the electric (energy) input to the heater is always the same wattage. So if the water flow is less, such as with the flow from a Lavatory at about 1 gallon per minute (gpm), the water seems warm. If the flow increases with a shower at 2.5 gpm the water will feel cooler. With a shower flowing it exceeds the ability of the heater to heat the water to a desirable temperature. it is a linear relationship the more flow there is the cooler the water will be. Also at very low flows around 1/2 gpm or less there may not be enough flow to trip the flow switch that turns on the electric heating element so at very low flows they may not produce hot water.

The bottom line is instantaneous water heaters are not suited for applications with more than one fixture where the flows can change.

it is generally cheaper to install a storage type heater which costs significantly less than instantaneous heaters. Then you do not have to worry about temperature fluctuations associated with instantaneous heaters.

If someone was in a shower and it actually had enough energy to provide enough hot water for a shower (these models are extremely expensive), then if someone else turns on a fixture then the flow changes through the heater causing the bather to sense a sudden drop in temperature Thermal shock) which could lead to a slip & fall injury.
Signed,
Monroe Michigan Plumbing Engineer

ChrWright

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
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Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

ChrWright

Am I the only one who has a problem with the gross generalizations made by our newest supposed "Plumbing Expert"???

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
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Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

rbsremodeling

So your disputing water heater technology with a plumbing engineer??

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ChrWright

Rrrrrrrrrright... That certainly sounds like an "engineer".

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
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Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

KillerToiletSpider

Hot water is over rated.

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