Hot water heater -- on demand vs conventional

[jewelmcjem]

Not sure if this should go here or elsewhere, but thought I'd try here. We desparately need a new hot water tank -- ours actually has parts disintigrating in it which leave deposits in our faucet aerators!!! :sick We really can't afford it right now, but it's been going downhill since we bought the house in '03 so we're going to have to bite the bullet. Sometimes I'll run Duncan a bath and then there won't be enough hot water for anyone else to bathe or shower. Other times, I'll run 3 loads of laundry on warm/cold cycle, and three people will take showers and there's plenty of hot water. It's weird. The idea of the smaller, more energy-efficient on-demand type water heater (http://www.gotankless.com/) sounds good, but I'm not sure if it will meet our hot water needs as the kids get bigger and we have even more laundry. Right now we have 6 people in the house, 2 adults and kids 9,7,4, and 6 weeks. I'm also considering cloth diapering, so I'll need plenty of hot water for that. Does anyone have that type of water heater? Do like it better or not? Do you have plenty of hot water when you need it?

[tazmom]

I don't have an on-demand water heater, but we did consider it when we replaced our water heater last year. I know someone who has one and they love that they always have hot water since it can't run out.

The reason we didn't get one was cost. A gas one is cheaper than electric, but we don't have gas. For us to get an electric on-demand would've been over $1000 and when we figured out the up-front cost vs. energy savings, it would've been something like 4-5 years before we hit the break even point.

Instead we found a good water heater on clearance because it was last years model. It was about $300 including taxes, didn't need delivery or install since dh can do that. To save even more money, we put a timer on it and set it to be off during the times of day we don't need hot water, like the middle of the night.

HTH

[jewelmcjem]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. Although it would probably add value to the house to make it a little more green (it's a 1942 bungalow, it can use all the help it can get), I don't know if we can afford the tankless. I checked Home Depot, the natural gas tankless is $999, a 50 gal tank would be $359.

[Mrs. Potatohead]

We have one of the tankless, gas water heaters. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! Not only do we always have plenty of hot water, but we can have more than one person showering at the same time and have no effect. Not sure why on that one, though. But we love that we gained two closets by replacing two very old water heaters, because this basically is built into the wall of the house and just has a little box on the exterior with a vent hose coming out. We are not paying to heat water unless we are actually using it. And I can take a really long hot bath, even if the kids have all just bathed and the dishwasher is running! :yes

[jewelmcjem]

Now, Crunchy, that is helpful indeed, b/c I know you have a largish family. The bath/dishwasher/washing machine running at the same thing is a HUGE issue for me! I am constantly turning off the dw or washer so someone can bathe or shower -- then I forget to turn it on and someone needs a dish or clean clothes and GROSS nothing is clean!