Bob from accounting
Member
We recently moved and our new place has a tankless water heater that appears to be from 2016. This is our first experience with a tankless system, and I'm trying to keep an open mind about it, but I do miss our old tank.
We are a small family that never ran out of hot water with our previous Rheem 40-gallon tank. I had it set between 130-140. With the tankless system (set at 135) now, we have to wait much longer to get hot water. Based on its performance, it feels like a downgrade.
Our previous tanked system had a much longer run of copper pipe, 60' or so. We were used to having to wait for hot water. It was not instant hot water. However, with the tankless system, it has a much shorter run of PEX, about 10-25 feet, which I thought would deliver hot water faster. When you prime the line, you can feel cold water, followed by warmish water, then cold water again, followed by warmish water, and finally hot water. This makes sense if it is not drawing on a tank of hot water, but instead taking a minute to heat up the cold water. But it does take a much longer time to get hot water from a source that is much closer to the faucet.
I'm considering removing the tankless heater and installing a 40-gallon water heater instead. I feel silly doing this so I am not going to do it as it is going against what the trend is now, maybe I need to rethink this and consider my options. I could consider putting in a recirculate pump but it seems like a waste of energy and gas, Can anyone relate to this or have some advice?
From my brief reads, it seemed like a tank and a tankless, delivered hot water at about the same rate, so it is very possible putting in a WH woudl give me the same results as the tankless. And maybe other factors like thermal heat loss or something?
Curious if anyone has removed the tankless due long wait times?
We are a small family that never ran out of hot water with our previous Rheem 40-gallon tank. I had it set between 130-140. With the tankless system (set at 135) now, we have to wait much longer to get hot water. Based on its performance, it feels like a downgrade.
Our previous tanked system had a much longer run of copper pipe, 60' or so. We were used to having to wait for hot water. It was not instant hot water. However, with the tankless system, it has a much shorter run of PEX, about 10-25 feet, which I thought would deliver hot water faster. When you prime the line, you can feel cold water, followed by warmish water, then cold water again, followed by warmish water, and finally hot water. This makes sense if it is not drawing on a tank of hot water, but instead taking a minute to heat up the cold water. But it does take a much longer time to get hot water from a source that is much closer to the faucet.
I'm considering removing the tankless heater and installing a 40-gallon water heater instead. I feel silly doing this so I am not going to do it as it is going against what the trend is now, maybe I need to rethink this and consider my options. I could consider putting in a recirculate pump but it seems like a waste of energy and gas, Can anyone relate to this or have some advice?
From my brief reads, it seemed like a tank and a tankless, delivered hot water at about the same rate, so it is very possible putting in a WH woudl give me the same results as the tankless. And maybe other factors like thermal heat loss or something?
Curious if anyone has removed the tankless due long wait times?