Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tankless Water Heater

They now have tankless heaters for RV's. I have no experience with them but I've heard mixed opinions. At least you wouldn't have to listen to it cycling all night.

I had a Bosch nat gas tankless. We fought flow issues in the shower like an earlier post mentioned. Sometimes would have to turn on the sink to get hot water in shower. Just about anytime a toilet was flushed while showering, the momentary drop in pressure would kick off the tankless. We fought it for 4 years before going back to a tank.

Friends recently bought a new place that has a tankless heater. The below-zero temps we had this past couple weeks froze up the exhaust on the heater. They had no hot water for almost a week until someone got out there to diagnose and fix the problem.

Doesn't sound like a great option for places with extreme low temps.

Yes, my water heater just keeps going and going and going with little acknowledgement or appreciation..

Same setup on our rental apartment units. Rennai NG on well water, sediment filter in line, no softener, no iron in water. Can't say about anything else, but most likely fairly hard with other stuff.. Been doing fine for over 10 years.

Reminds me- i gotta get over there soon and service it again, and change sediment filter.

It does take some little time for the hot water to hit the faucets/showers, but that's true for our home with standard water heater, well water/ softener, also NG. Longer runs at home, and gotta blow the cold out of the pipes - it takes the "on-demand" Rennai a bit to get the water heated for use. and of course, blow the cold water out of the lines....

Speaking of which, last Friday night after business hours our home water softener took a crap. New one on line by 3 pm Monday, for a mere $2600 and change.... Grrrrr!

Well, I'm a retired heating and ac tech and I wouldn't have one, too much water temperature fluctuation. I've worked on a lot of them and I'm not impressed. A fifty gallon or thirty gallon tank water heater will serve you much better. JMHO

Many posts here reveal shortcomings in home plumbing layouts not hot water heater issues.

Not having water distribution looped and no recirculation or insulation leaves one with life of the home issues to live with no matter how the water is heated.

FWIW.

Our electric Co-op sells and subsidizes high efficiency electric
water heaters. 80 gallon plastic bodied things. Marathon brand.

Super well insulated, lifetime tank warranty.
$1000 retail, through REA they are around $220.

You have to agree to allow them to install a remote controlled
switch. During certain peak demand times they do a rolling
water heater blackout. That lowers our cost from the generation facility
for all energy.

If you use a co-op, ask what's available.

PS. We have never even noticed the water heater being turned off.
That remote thing was here when we bought the house 20 years ago.
Pissed the instant I saw it, I had plans to bypass it the first time I
had a cold shower. Never happened, and there was only a 40 gallon
tank. Now it's 80, but with 3 females and me. No issues.

Always put my hot water tanks on timers anyway.
I run them for two hours in the early morning and again in the late afternoon for another two hours.

Never ran out of hot water running this way but there are just two of us.

A good insulation blanket on a hot water tank is worth its weight in gold if you live in the north or the south.

this will go over most peoples head........bob

read jeffa post.......bob

I want a 1.0 gallon jobber for quicker hot water at the farthest sink... Crazy?

No, but... Is this in line with the main water heater? If so, you will get hot water at the sink until you've used the 1 gal. Then you will have cold water out of the pipe until hot water from the main tank gets there. Since this is is just for a sink, that might not be a problem as 1 gal is a lot for washing hands.

We have a tankless ran by propane,can't say enough good about it....


Jayco👍

The water tank manufactures have switched over to the Low NOx burner. The low NOx burner is not as reliable as the standard burner. The flame is integrated into the burner body to achieve the Low NOx combustion. This causes high stress on the burner material. The Low NOx burner can fail causing small explosions. A.O. Smith recalled 628,000 units for this problem. If you can get a tank with the standard burner in it, you will be much better off. The availability of standard burner units is regional. The tank manufactures have dropped the advertising "Low NOx Burner" because of the failures.

Sure ya can.
I gotta 110 volt jobbers under the sink plugged into the disposal outlet. I can reach under the sink and dial it up for instant coffee water when needed.

Simple.

Our Rinnai is mounted in the garage, vented thru the roof...love this thing!!!!

We use a two gallon under the kitchen counter at our Wabigoon place. For what little water we use, it works well.

I need to add a twist to this conversation
I am looking at Tank-less as well as other methods for my Off Grid property in Arizona.
1st Question
Will the Tank-less water heater still run if hot water is put into it.
Or will it let the hot water pass threw it with out the burner running.

The reasoning behind this.
I have a lot of FREE fire wood on my property and I was thinking about building an Exterior burner to heat water and store it in an Insulated Tank then running that to where I need the hot water.
This way I am not burning unnecessary propane. (no natural gas lines up where I am & electricity is 7 1/2 miles away)
I have a Friend up there that has an Exterior burner and he heats his entire home with it and gets all of his hot water from it as well.

The Tank-less heater would just be used to heat water when I do not have the burner going and run out of stored water.
This system would also work with Solar heated water.

Or

Should I forget about the tank-less and just use the burner/stored water and wait for the hot water to get where I need it.
I will be running well water when I get everything up and going.
Any Suggestion

There are ways of both heating a house, and heating water with the same source.