Best tankless water heater reviews. Best rated propane, electric, natural gas heaters

Are you shopping for a new water heater thinking about dumping your old tank in favor of tankless? So today we will talk about three misconceptions about tankless water heaters, and three compelling reasons why you might want to consider one.

Today, we’re talking about tankless water heaters. I’ve got three myths for you that are common out there about tankless water heaters. We will debunk those and I’m also going to tell you three compelling reasons why you might want to consider one of these. So let’s start with myth number one. You know if you were to ask the average Joe in America – why buy a tankless water heater? I think they will tell you savings. And you see that word written on the brochures from all the manufacturers but I think the savings are a myth.

Let’s take a look at this. First off, on this unit they’ve got the Energy Guide front and center. I appreciate that. The government is saying for an average family this was going to use about two hundred and twenty five dollars in propane over the course of the whole year. If you divide that by twelve, we’re talking about just under 19 dollars a month in natural gas to fire this unit. Let’s compare that to what the usage on a traditional tank might look like. Now I got a standard tank out of the boneyard here. Let’s see if we can compare. It’s tough to wrestle into place. Alright now, take a look at the energy guy on the front of this guy. This is an older model 2010 but the energy got on that one says 315 dollars a year in natural gas use for an average family. So, divide that by 12, we’re talking about 26.25.

So what’s the difference in energy savings? It’s about 750 a month between this unit and that unit. If you rip that out of your house, and put this in instead ,you’re definitely going to see some savings. But is that saving enough to really make a difference to your pocketbook? Are you really going to notice those savings? I don’t know. That’s why I think that’s myth number one.

Myth number two – instant hot water. You know, you often refer to these tankless hot water heaters as instant hot water heaters, and it is true as the water comes into the unit and instantly is converted a hot. Compared to that one right there, where it takes time to make hot water. That water is going to be cold at the bottom, and slowly we are going to be heating the tank up. If it was drained, this one is instant. However, you don’t have instant hot water at your sink. Whether you’ve got this one at the end of the line, or that one at the end of the line, you still need to turn on your tap, and get all that cold water out. If the water’s been off before you are going to get hot at your sink, to get instant hot water you need one of these. This is a circulation pump.

Now there’s a bunch of different styles on these. This one happens to be the kind that you set to a timer, and you will circulate water through your hot loop potentially like a hotel, all the time. So when you turn on the faucet, I mean you’re only dumping a cup or two of water down before it gets hot. But this is the way to get instant hot water, not one of these.

And myth number three – maintenance. You know, a lot of people say that tankless hot water heaters are maintenance-free, kind of set it and forget it. And really that’s not true. A tankless water heater is going to need either an annual or a biannual flush, depending on your use. Now if you have soft water meaning you have a softening system, you will not have to do this very often at all. In fact, maybe never. But if you’ve got hard water, like I do, I’m in the city at my house, I need to flush mine on a regular basis. Remember myth one we talked about that savings, that’s seven or eight dollars a month you will save, you better put that into a bank account because once a year you will spend that on a plumber. You can easily pay a hundred and fifty dollars to have a plumber come in and flush your system. Now I’ve got some videos on how to do this yourself with a kit like this. So you can save some money there. But there is some annual maintenance, where if you have a standard tank, there’s hardly any maintenance you need in a tank like that.

Now we’ve talked on several myths. It sounds like I’m down on tankless. That’s not totally true. I’ve put a lot of tankless. In fact, I have one in my house. What are the compelling reasons for tankless? I think there’s three compelling reasons for tankless. Number one – performance. You see a lot of advertising about the luxury of a tankless hot water heater, and I think that is the biggest and most compelling reason. You have nearly limitless hot water. At my house, ten years ago, before I remodeled, I had a standard tank like that. My wife took a long shower or bathe, one of the kids and I got on the shower right afterwards. I did variably run out of hot. But now that I have tankless in my house, I don’t have that problem anymore. There’s a certain luxury that comes from that limitless hot water, and I love that about it.

Number two – space considerations. Look at the size of that standard tank. That is a beast, whereas this guy is tiny. You can hang it in the wall, you can put it just about anywhere, very-very small footprint. And if you’re in the south, you can put it on the outside of your house. I love doing that. Now I don’t even have the space on the inside, and I’ve got no venting requirements. if I put it outside, that is a huge win for a tankless hot water heater.

And the last reason why I think tankless is lifespan, you know, if you look at the boneyard here at the supply house, there’s water heaters of all ages out there. But most of those in the boneyard look like they’re about 10 to 15 years old. That’s really the lifespan. In fact, this unit I found on the boneyard. That’s only maybe seven years old. It looks like it was manufactured in 2010. Whereas tankless units, they’ve been around a long time. This technology’s from Europe and Japan. They’ve been around for many decades very, very reliable. If you maintain them, a unit like this, you should get at least twenty, if not more, like twenty five years before you need to replace it. So you’ve got a very long lifespan.

Guys, thanks for joining me. It was a lot of fun making today’s video. Big thanks to our sponsor More Supply, and their partners. They make some great units. I put a lot of those in over the years. Stay tuned for our next video. We will take a deep dive next time on condensing versus non condensing, exterior versus interior. And I will give you some recommendations on what I think is the right unit for both a remodel and a new construction situation.