GoingTankless said:
Gary, since your the water expert......i'm listening. What is it that you would recommend.
I would like to give my customers the best system I can. Any info would be appreciated.
I'm not into water heater sales, or service but... 40+ years ago I was in the UK and Europe for a few years and questioned why the US used (impractical) tank type water heaters. I've also read about tankless since then and believe in the concept and the customer benefits. I sell water treatment equipment all over the US and more and more customers have tankless water heaters. As with anything, such as a water softener or tank type water heater, it has to be sized and installed correctly to work satisfactorily. With tankless or domestic coil type water heaters, the selection of potable water line material etc., the water quality must be taken into consideration or there are more problems created than are solved.
I say that plumbers should be involved in water quality issues and far too many are not. When it comes to sewage and world health they all say they are but not as to the water quality coming out of the new water line they just installed... They tend to lose business because they aren't involved in water quality issues. Until they do get into them, I think they should stay with tank type water heaters. That way they don't harm their customers by selling them something that is impacted to a greater extent by poor water quality.
You are involved with local water quality issues and obviously know how they impact negatively on your tankless water heaters. I suggest that if you aren't already, you do a water analysis before/as you propose a tankless water heater. And sell/install a correctly sized water softener in those buildings that have more than 3-4 gpg of hardness in the water. It's the ONLY right thing to do for all your customers. Doing so protects the tankless, allows it to operate at maximum efficiency and limits maintenance needs and their associated costs AND that sells more tankless water heaters FOR YOU due to word of mouth advertising.
I don't like the idea of annual maintenance contracts and their cost to the homeowner but they are great for prospecting and reducing costs of acquiring new work. Draining a water heater every so often does nothing to prevent the problems with water hardness scale build up in the water heater; you have to remove the scale and only an acid will do that BUT... that only treats the symptom of the problem, not the cause. And hard water kills more appliances and makes life difficult in many other areas than heating water. So you'd be doing your customers a great benefit overall if you get into water quality issues for all of them, not just a potential water heater customer.
Getting into water quality and treatment is not easy without proper support and education. And believe me, most supply house folks are quite lacking in most cases. They disseminate what they have been told by those wanting to sell them equipment (factory reps) which in most cases is the least expensive (read most profitable to them) as opposed to being higher quality. At least that's my experience with supply houses here over the last 20 years; such as the one across the road from me.
