# Electric Tankless Water Heater Suggestion



## mcgowinjr (Jan 10, 2019)

Hey guys amd looking to buy an electric tankless water heater for my home. I have gone through a lot of reviews and am still a bit confused. Am thinking of going for ecosmart eco27 or Rheem model. Last review i read was from Top10den. https://top10den.com/best-electric-tankless-water-heaters 
Has anyone bought based on there reviews before?


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

The unit requires 3 40 amp circuits, most services will require upgrade. I would never recommend.

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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Suggestion ?? Don't.


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## diplodock (Dec 28, 2018)

I have a lot of experience with tankless water heaters, both gas and electric. I put them in about half my rehabs.

Pros - takes up less space, more efficient, unlimited hot water

Cons - generally more expensive up front, requires high amperage or a large gas line

Key when buying is to size it right; you’ll see a table on the spec sheet showing how much it will heat water at various flow rates. Take the max concurrent usage of hot water in the house and add that together to figure out what flow rate you need to size for. For example, 2 showers at 2.5gpm each, and 2 faucets at 1.5gpm each would put a house at a peak concurrency of 8gpm. Lookup ground water temp in your area during the coldest time of year, for example 50 degrees. For this example you’d want to find a water heater that is rated to heat 8gpm up by 70 degrees (to get 120 degree water)

You’ll also need to make sure you have either enough electrical amps available (these water heaters can take 60-80 amps) or if gas that you have enough gas volume, often 1/2 in pipe required for the larger units.

A standard gas tank water heater gas line will not have the capacity, and you’ll have to re pipe back to where it’s big enough.

If you know all these things upfront and purchase correctly they are really really great units. I’ve had good experience with both electric and gas Rheem models. An RTE-13 in a studio and an RTG-64DVLN in a 4bed/2bath single family house.


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

My suggestion would also be not to do it.


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## DanS26 (Oct 25, 2012)

Tankless WHs in theory and in laboratory conditions do save energy.

But for the average 4 person American family they waste energy. The reason is the "cold water sandwich" effect. Every person in that family will be gun shy of the cold water blast and will stand and wait outside the shower until they are dead certain that the cold water blast is well past.....a lot of hot water goes down the drain wastefully.

And yes after you are certain that the cold water blast is past, you will not run out of hot water.....but don't turn off the hot water even for a few seconds to soap up....you will be repaid with a real wake up call.

You have been warned.


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## Oso954 (Jun 23, 2012)

> Has anyone bought based on there reviews before?


No, and I would suggest you ignore it.

The site is an Amazon Affiliate site. The objective is to pump Amazon products and to get you to buy from Amazon, so he makes money.

The actual writer is a 24 year old network engineer. What does he know about plumbing or water heaters? My guess is he is copying (or rephrasing) a lot of it from the Mfg brochures.

Some of his info is outdated. He refers to the Eco27 as “Ecosmarts most powerful tankless hot water heater.” Ecosmart makes the Eco 36 which is 9kW more powerful.(uses 4x40amp breakers)


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## tmittelstaedt (Nov 7, 2018)

Well for starters at least 1 of the Rheem units he lists links to an Amazon listing that says unavailable. So not only does he not know what he's talking about he's too dam lazy to keep his site updated.

The tankless heaters are fine for point of use specific situations like for example you got a beach house that you visit once a month and you don't want to keep a water heater hot when you aren't there - you put a point-of-use tankless heater on the shower so that when you get to the house you can turn the water heater on and not have to wait 6 hours for it to heat up before taking a shower.

However a better way is to put a high current 240v contactor in series with the power going to the water heater and a home automation light switch on it and then you can turn the water heater on 6 hours before getting to the house.

The other monkey wrench to throw in all this is that the heat from the water heater escapes into the home that you are already paying money to heat - with the result that you pay less money on furnace bills - so explain again how the tankless water heater is supposed to save money? 

You are better off with the tank water heater. The new ones have good insulation and the savings is minimal on tankless.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

> You are better off with the tank water heater.


I'll have to disagree. I replaced our tank electric with a propane tankless about a year ago and have had excellent results. I plan on installing a demand recirculator on it to cut down on the cold water plug, but otherwise it saves money over the tank type. Face it I only heat water when I tell it to. With a tank, the water is constantly being heated while you sleep, while you are at work, while you are shopping, etc. Not very cost efficient in my book.


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## pwcopy (Aug 27, 2017)

Electricity is the most expensive way to heat water. Would recommend against it unless you have no gas service.

When I built my 3BR/2BA home in 2001, I wanted a high-efficiency demand water heater. I bought a Bosch Aquastar 125X gas heater and had the plumbing contractor install it. Because of its compact size, it could fit in the half-basement under the house along with the other mechanicals. A tank heater would have taken up space in the garage.

Other than changing the igniter batteries every couple of years (2 alkaline D cells), the heater has performed without fail, and not required a single repair or maintenance of any kind. Unscrupulous plumbers will try to sell you annual cleaning. NOT needed. If the unit gets regular use, there's no time for buildup.

The "sandwich effect" mentioned by another poster is no longer an issue if you install one of the new models that has built-in recirculation. I'm considering replacing my current heater with one of these. I have lived with the "sandwich effect" all these years with NO increase in water use.

Millions of homes all over the world use these types of heaters. If they were as wasteful and unreliable as other posters would have you believe, how did they become the preferred method of water heating almost everywhere but the U.S.?


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## DanS26 (Oct 25, 2012)

OP.....do you want to buy an appliance that adapts to you or do you want an appliance that you have to adapt your lifestyle to it?

I think the answer is obvious.


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## LawnGuyLandSparky (Nov 18, 2007)

DanS26 said:


> OP.....do you want to buy an appliance that adapts to you or do you want an appliance that you have to adapt your lifestyle to it?
> 
> I think the answer is obvious.



The OP is just spamming the board to direct people to his/her sales site.


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## tmittelstaedt (Nov 7, 2018)

chandler48 said:


> I'll have to disagree. I replaced our tank electric with a propane tankless about a year ago and have had excellent results. I plan on installing a demand recirculator on it to cut down on the cold water plug, but otherwise it saves money over the tank type. Face it I only heat water when I tell it to. With a tank, the water is constantly being heated while you sleep, while you are at work, while you are shopping, etc. Not very cost efficient in my book.


The only way a tank water heater would be constantly heating water while you sleep, etc. is if the water, once heated, loses the heat through poor insulation. And THAT would only be a problem if the water heater itself was in an unheated part of the house unless your home was in a hot climate where you were spending money on air conditioning. And in a hot climate the water coming into the house is already a lot warmer so a tankless does a lot less work.

To look at energy efficiency you have to consider the total system which is the home, the average yearly temp, where the water heater is located and how well insulated the water heater is (what the standby losses are)

Also a gas fired tankless water heater is an entirely different animal than an electric tankless. You are putting a heck of a lot more heat energy into the water a lot faster although because you are burning fuel, you are losing some of that heat in flue gasses.(called firing losses. The typical natural gas firing loss is about 20%, propane, because it's hotter, is probably 22-25%)
Because of that, the gas fired tankless can generally keep up with even heavy demands just fine.

If the OP has to go tankless then he should be going gas-fired tankless as you did.

Lastly on the cost efficiency discussion I will point out in virtually all homes, the VAST majority of heat in hot water is lost REGARDLESS of what type of water heater. Where does it go? Down the drain. You are quibbling over little acorns on the tank vs tankless cost discussions. If you really want to save money then put in a drainwater heat exchanger like a PowerPipe or something like that and preheat the water going into the heater with the heat coming out of the drainwater.


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## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

DanS26 said:


> Every person in that family will be gun shy of the cold water blast and will stand and wait outside the shower until they are dead certain that the cold water blast is well past.....



And they won't do that if its a tank water heater ?


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

SPS-1 said:


> And they won't do that if its a tank water heater ?


A tank water heater does not give a cold water sandwich, it stays cold until the hot arrives.

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## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

pwcopy said:


> Electricity is the most expensive way to heat water. Would recommend against it unless you have no gas service.
> 
> When I built my 3BR/2BA home in 2001, I wanted a high-efficiency demand water heater. I bought a Bosch Aquastar 125X gas heater and had the plumbing contractor install it. Because of its compact size, it could fit in the half-basement under the house along with the other mechanicals. A tank heater would have taken up space in the garage.
> 
> ...


recirc = good idea & confirms a problem with sandwiches. 



> millions


They are not in the US.

BTW, here in the US, 85% of the people trust nurses & 85% also believed that
one significant US event was connected to
another US significant event even tho
no politician ever said that.

For the second case, salesmanship/spin/BS/implication/Verbal Judo!

Facts/opinions/emotions strong on this thread.


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## Jim Port (Sep 21, 2007)

Everything is connected according to Kevin Bacon. More than 85% love bacon.


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## Catfish#74 (Mar 20, 2021)

diplodock said:


> I have a lot of experience with tankless water heaters, both gas and electric. I put them in about half my rehabs.
> 
> Pros - takes up less space, more efficient, unlimited hot water
> 
> ...


I am building a pole barn with a apartment in it. Pretty much I want a big shop more then a house for this bachelor. Thinking 1 shower and 2 sinks. Possible maybe a heated shop sink with a cheap inline heater by itself. Your thoughts would be appreciated.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

@Catfish#74 rather than hijacking a 2 year old thread, it may get better answers if you were to start your own thread. THe "o" ring on the Challenger space booster went to the lowest bidder, so "cheap" will reap like results.


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## Catfish#74 (Mar 20, 2021)

chandler48 said:


> @Catfish#74 rather than hijacking a 2 year old thread, it may get better answers if you were to start your own thread. THe "o" ring on the Challenger space booster went to the lowest bidder, so "cheap" will reap like results.


I thought this was a place to ask questions and get help. Not to deal with asshats that would probable suggest reading other folks threads. Witch I have done. So asshat piss off


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

Catfish#74 said:


> I thought this was a place to ask questions and get help. Not to deal with asshats that would probable suggest reading other folks threads. Witch I have done. So asshat piss off


How to make friends and influence people. Not

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