*heh*
Well, I knew the previous owners of our home had done a few things on the cheap. After all, I’ve spent the last eleven years upgrading lots of the cheapy “gotta do this to make it an attractive buy” things.
But I’d been holding off on upgrading the cheapo water heater until… yeh. It’s started a very, very small leak. One that will only get larger. And yeh, I could patch it, but why? It’ll just start again somewhere else, likely when I least expect it; probably when we’re gone for a weekend or something, right?
So. It’s not a tough job. Really about a 2 on a scale of 1-19, and that mostly for the hassle of hauling the old one off.
But. Another (though decent) tank water heater, or should I install a tankless job? Bosch makes one I find attractive. Total cost of installing it (myself) would only be about twice that of a typical old tech tank heater. Natural gas, so I wouldn’t have to run a 240 electrical circuit/line. That’s nice, cos I don’t have room for a new 240 circuit on our current primary service panel, and I’d hate to run one off the exterior panel that does have room for another circuit. OK, maybe bump the difficulty to a 3 cos I’d have to enlarge the vent stack hole, install a larger vent stack and new flashing, etc., but big stinking deal, eh? The escalation to a three would mostly be cos I no longer like climbing on the roof. Used to free climb, but that was over 30 years ago, yah know…
Oh, well. Gonna have to make a decision in the next week or so, I believe. I’m leaning to the tankless, despite the new vent stack I’d need to install. Any comments, suggestions?
How about… YIKES? One of my greatest paranoias, since the water heater (and the well pressure tank and and the soft water system are all about 6 feet away from my basement office… Oh, and the sump pump is right below one of my office desks… 😯
Good luck bud, glad you’re confident of the ease of the job, you handy guy. 😀
um…well this is Greek to me dude..lolz..actually dint unnerstand
a word u said…lmbooooooooo..but hey..hire someone ..what the
heck..let them do the haulin..save yer ole back..heh.
It’s amusing how sometimes great minds think alike. I probably have more questions than I do answers. Been reading ’bout tankless for 15-20 years since I first saw them mentioned in “Popular Science.”
Mama’s house has two water heaters. We just found one leaking (probably similar to your leak) about the time she set the kitchen on fire. Been busy with the other stuff and haven’t addressed the heater yet. Besides it’s in the stand-up crawl space by the half basement. What water leaks will soak into the ground.
Was in Lowe’s recently and asked about their tankless water heaters. Was surprised at the much higher price for a gas model than an electric.
Talked with the electrician who’s doing some of this fire cleanup and repair. He’s one of the few semingly competent people we’ve had on this job. (Another story for another time.)
He tells me that the last 3-4 tankless heaters with which he’s been involved, that within a year the people replaced them with traditional tank style heaters.
Don’t know exactly why. Quality of heater chosen? Proper use and size, etc?
Have talked with the plumber my sister and I use. He’s not really very imprerssed with tankless. However, I will add that he is pretty traditional in his thinking and not an overly experimental type.
I like the idea of tankless. However, before I’d go that route, I’d want to talk with a few people who are using them and perhaps some of the professional installation folks.