Tank-less water heaters pro/cons?

tankless is nice, but is not always as “instant” as purporte, but you don’t have to keep 50 gallons hot at all times. Do your due diligence and figure out what your break even would be, and for the life, cost and inconvenience of installation.

first: you must have gas... not electric!

I loved my tankless! ...I got to travel, work, etc and not worry about using energy to keep water hot.

(I now have an all-electric home since Dec '17 -- but the tankless was a big selling point when I listed my house!)

Plus, multiple people could be taking a shower at once... and never run out of hot water.

I know that the initial cost can be high (you'll have to do the math on your break even point with cost/energy rates in your area, etc.) But I liked that I was part of an energy solution --- instead of a problem.

What Carol said. Our grandson has recently gone this route and he is very happy; however, a neighbor whose children are now teenagers (and you would not believe how much water three boys can use she says) and they are not quite so enamored as when they put it in a few years ago.

Does not work well if you are on well water that' s for sure. We do not have city water where we live and installed one of this and ended up having to deinstall and go traditional. It would not keep the temperature correctly, you would either freeze or get scorching water.

I love my tankless hot water heater. Actually, mine is the tankless hot water heater and boiler combination. No big hot water heater or boiler to deal with. I have two teenage boys that live with us and it works great. And it has saved us money as well as space in the utility room. The hot water gets to all of my fixtures within 30 seconds (all of my fixtures are fairly close to the hot water heater). Depending on how far from the heater, the longer it will take for the water to get where you want it. My last house (3200 sq ft, two story) also had a tankless hot water heater, the kitchen was on the other side and down a floor from the hot water heater and it would take 2 to 3 minutes for the water to get there, but once it did, you didn't run out.

If installed and maintained correctly, a tankless water heater saves water, money, and surprises when someone flushes the toilet. We have a gas tankless, our son has an electric tankless. We both love them!

We had our tankless plumbed in near the heaviest use point of hot water. As with any water heater, you don’t get hot water until all of the cold water is run out of the pipe between the heater and faucet.

Our son lives in the mountains and has his tankless in the basement. Electric works best for indoor mounting. His water temperature coming into the house is under 40°. The tankless gives them all the hot water they need. The tank water heater gave them about a third of its capacity of hot water before the cold water coming in cooled everything off.

We both have our tankless water heaters plumbed so that we can isolate the tankless water heater and run vinegar through it once a quarter. We use a five gallon bucket and sump pump.

We love our tankless water heaters!

😊

Here are some great links that weigh the pros and cons for you.

http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/Longevity/tankless-water-heaters.html

https://structuretech1.com/water-heater-replacement-pros-and-cons-of-tankless-water-heaters/

https://www.kompareit.com/homeandgarden/hvac-compare-tankless-vs-tank-water-heaters.html

Tankless water heaters are very susceptible to damage from calcium buildup.