Learn Me Water Heaters

Hello everyone,,

So yeah, I've [gone and copied a thread, and I've spammed other forums, so I've been deactivated].

Following, but for different reasons.

We have a 23 (!) year old Sears Kenmore gas water heater that is still going pretty strong, but we are going to replace it in the spring due to age. Our house is a Cape Cod where the only shower is two floors straight up from the heater in the basement, so having enough warm water for a morning shower after a cold Wisconsin night is a real concern.

Curious on any general advice provided here. Since we are planning to move on from this house in <5 years we are probably just going to replace with a similar gas heater, but I'm curious about what is/isn't worth spending the money on as far as features or warranty, buying through the plumber vs big box store, etc.

This is the original actual thread:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/learn-me-water-heaters/154896/page1/

I went tankless gas last year and am never going back. It is the size of a proton pack and hangs on the basement wall, vented via PVC pipe outside the house. It replaced a 12 year old 75-gallon gas water heater. We have two externally mounted gas water heaters on our rental houses and have over a decade of zero issues so far.

When I replaced my WH about 12 years ago, I went with a Rennai tankless gas-fired unit.  It's mounted on the basement exterior wall and directly vented.

I love it.  We have a 4-bedroom, 2-bath house with 3 people currently living in it.  The nice thing about tankless is that nobody ever takes a cold shower.  You can literally have 100 people in a row shower and everybody will get hot water.

It does take a little getting used to, because you have to get its attention before it starts making hot water, and if you don't draw enough, or not continuously, it will turn off.  It takes 60-90 seconds to get hot water at the tap, which is maybe twice what it took when I had a 40 gallon tanked unit.  The biggest difference is when I'm washing dishes - I have to run the hot water continuously instead of brief splashes as necessary, to keep it in action.  Other than that, it's seamless.  And my gas bill went down a bit since I replaced it.

I'm waiting on a dude to come give me an estimate on a tankless gas WH.  My main concern (that I'm having trouble figuring out on my own with confidence) is how much gas my meter and main trunk can support.  Tank water heaters are pretty low draw items in the grand scheme.  They run a smaller flame for a longer time.  Tankless can sit for a day without being used, but then turn on the hot water and suddenly they are sucking 5 times as much fuel to support the instant hot water.

Typical 30-gallon tank heaters are in the 35,000 btu range.  A 5gpm tankless can easily be in the 150,000 range

EvanB said:

This is the original actual thread:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/learn-me-water-heaters/154896/page1/

Thanks, I was sitting here thinking.......this looks really familiar.