Tankless Water Heaters (COMPLETE GUIDE) | GOT2LEARN

all right guys get ready for a jam-packed video today i'll be going over the different types of tankless heaters and how they actually work how to maintain them all the pros and cons about them and the differences between tank and tankless and if they're actually worth getting for your particular situation remember to hit the like button below and share if you enjoy it and got something out of it or you might just get punished by the plumbing gods let's get started so first things first lights please all right so there's a few different types of tankless heaters on the market today such as conventional combis condensing and non-condensing and i'll try to break them down and explain to you in an easy to understand fashion how all of these work so that you could better understand what i'm talking about throughout the video simply said the difference between a conventional tankless heater and combi heater is that the combi has a heating loop which means it could be used to heat your potable water but also be used for radiant floor heating radiators and other heating fixtures which is really neat to have in my opinion another thing to look out for is condensing and non-condensing models here's a side-by-side comparison of both model's descriptions and we can see why the condensing models are mostly preferred over non-condensing so with all of that out of the way let's briefly cover what each part does and how these heaters actually work every heater whether they're tank type models or tankless have a source of consumable energy which is either natural gas propane or electricity electric models are nice to have if you don't have any gas services in your neighborhood and that you don't feel like having a huge propane tank outside they're also a lot more affordable than gas models and perform well but they aren't strong enough to run both heating for domestic hot water and space heating so it's a choice you'd have to make here's some info i got from the eco brand website on some of their fully electric boilers in this particular case we have a combi condensing natural gas model which is easily identifiable from the pvc vents condensing exchanger here and the condensate drain pipe gas pipes typically have a capped drip leg like this which is meant to capture any possible debris in the lines before going into whatever it's serving you have your cold domestic water inlet which then comes out from here as hot water and they both have shut off slash maintenance valves for flushing a safety relief valve in case there's a malfunction a condensate drain line your fresh air intake and exhaust at the top and a power outlet so let's remove the exchanger cover and see what's going on inside here's that gas line from before it goes into a box that contains the primary heat exchanger and it's connected to a fuel rail and burner similar to the one that you have on your barbecue or furnace the heat exchanger which is this part here and is made of stainless steel or copper is what takes the heat from the burner and exchanges it into the water to heat it up now i said primary exchanger because there's a secondary condensing exchanger on top of it that has the same role the only difference is that it's not the actual burner that heats it up but rather the hot flue gases and this double heating phase is what allows for maximum heat transfer and minimal losses which is what makes these machines so efficient the blower motor which is up top is what brings in fresh air and expulses the flue gases back outside after they're burned as we all know these tankless heaters only work when there's a hot water demand so how does it know when to cycle on or off well this little gadget right here called a flow sensor senses when water passes through it and signals the unit to turn on to heat the water the pump is what recirculates the domestic hot water so you never have to wait for hot water out of faucet and it also serves as a circulator for the heating loop which works throughout a complex module like this this here is the domestic water plate exchanger and it's what takes care of heating your domestic cold water for those who don't know how a plate exchanger like this works it's actually quite simple your primary heating loop goes in here and out here and as it does so it heats up the domestic water throughout a series of copper plates and the reason for this exchanger is to keep the heating loop and domestic water loop separate so basically how this system works is that if there's a hot water demand the flow switch would sense it and tell the circulator pump blower fan and burner to turn on the primary loop would heat up the plate exchanger as the cold domestic water passes through it which would give you your hot water a lot of contractors will suggest installing these outside to save on space and to reduce any operating noises inside your home but if we look at what happened in texas in 2021 a major snowstorm hit the state and many people that had these installed outside got damage on them and some broken beyond repair leaving them with no heat and no hot water so it's really not recommended to install these outside let's go back in now that we know the different types of boilers and how they work how do you actually maintain them the first and easiest thing you'd want to do is clean out the air filter sometimes just the fact that there's a few leaves or bugs in the filter could mean that the unit won't heat as it's not getting the correct air to fuel mixture the filter on most boilers are at the top left right where the vent pipes are and there's only a few screws holding it in the second thing would be to clean out the water inlet filter which is situated at the bottom and looks like this if you live in an area where your water has a lot of minerals you'll need to clean this guy out a few times a year so to do this you'd use the isolation valves i mentioned before to close the water to the boiler and simply unscrew it with a pair of channel locks if you see any debris just use a toothbrush to remove it and put it back in the third thing is to descale the exchangers your exchangers work really hard to give you that instant heat and it's super important to keep them in pristine order on the inside which means any calcium deposits in the system need to be removed to do this you'd need two washing machine hoses a small sump pump a few gallons of vinegar and a bucket when doing this i like shutting off the unit and closing the gas feed just to make sure it doesn't go on after i'd make sure both main valves are closed i connect both of my hoses and open the maintenance valve this will empty out the water that's in the system next is to connect the hose to the pump inlet pour the vinegar in the bucket and plug the pump each manufacturer is different so read your owner's manual to know how long it needs to run but typically it's between 30 to 60 minutes to properly descale once that's done you'd unplug and disconnect the pump close the maintenance port on the cold side and open the main valve to rinse the system this will push out the remaining vinegar into the bucket and ensure the system is nice and clean and the last step is to remove the hoses close the maintenance port on the hot side and open the main valves and your system is descaled to finalize the maintenance step there's a condensate trap located at the bottom here that every once in a while needs to be drained this is due to the system heating up and cooling down as there's a demand now let's go through all the pros and cons of both tankless and tank heaters first of all when you have a tankless heater the first thing you'll notice is that you have that much more available space these heaters are mounted on the wall and are about a foot thick so they're really good space savers second is the fact that you have endless hot water if you have a tank model at home you know very well that if someone took a shower before you your time is counted and that's something you don't need to worry about with a tankless as for savings go these of course only turn on when there's a demand meaning you aren't heating water up throughout the day for nothing so on paper you are saving money but the problem with these is that because there's no end to how much hot water you can have most people go overboard and end up dishing out more so you only save money if you're conservative with it and lastly what's really nice with these compared to tank models is that they're made of quality materials such as copper aluminum and stainless steel and before you need to swap these out you're looking at about 20 years on average assuming the maintenance is done regularly now a big downside to going tankless is the upfront cost most times the electric panel needs to be upgraded for electric models to accommodate the extra power needed venting needs to be done from scratch and the actual plumbing is more complex so the installation cost is much more than a tank model they also require more frequent maintenance especially on condensing models unlike tank models which could be left without another thing to keep in mind is if you run out of power you have no hot water a tank however can hold its hot water for a few days before it's cold so tanks get a point for that and lastly is demand if for whatever reason you have more demand than planned a tankless could struggle to keep up with the pace as there's no hot water reserve so with that it's all up to you to decide what's better for you and your particular situation i hope you guys appreciated this video and if i missed anything feel free to ask me in the comment section below and i'll gladly answer you also please leave a like and share if you learned something until the next video thanks for watching

Channel: Got2Learn

Views: 54,569

Keywords: got2learn, DIY, plumbing trick, plumber, do it yourself, pex plumbing installation, plombier, plumbing hacks, plumbing, plumbing tools, plumbing repair, plumbing diy, plumbing how to, how to do plumbing, how to repair plumbing, how to fix plumbing, toilet, rough in plumbing, solder with mini torch, how to solder, how to solder copper, how to fix copper leak, how to fix copper pipe, soldering copper pipe, sweat copper pipe, plumbing tips

Id: XAdqpT363g4

Length: 11min 19sec (679 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 23 2021