Tankless - What to know before you buy

on today's episode we're gonna take a deep dive into tankless water heaters there's a bunch of different options and models out there but we're gonna be focusing specifically on gas natural gas or propane pros and cons why you might choose one versus another and I'm gonna at the end of the video give you some recommendations if you're building new or if you're remodel retrofit which model I think might be the right one for you so first off today's video we're not sponsored by anybody I'm really agnostic about brand today but I want to give you an overview so you're a smart consumer there's really two types of tankless water heaters there's non-condensing and condensing you notice these two smaller units right here these are traditional models that are non condensing these typically across all the manufacturers are roughly 0.8 EF rating the condensing models are about 10% more efficient with a point 9 EF rating what does that translate to into dollars that means for every dollar of gas I put into this unit 80 cents on these non condensing units is gonna be transferred into hot water 20% is going to be lost to the atmosphere on these condensing models point 9 rating that means 90% of that dollar is going to be converted into hot water 10% is going to be lost due to inefficiency so these are very efficient models and again we've got no standby loss here so they're only gonna heat up when a fixture is opened and there's flow through the unit which means it's calling for hot water now if you if you compare these EF ratings with traditional tanks typically a traditional tank a good one is somewhere around 0.55 - maybe as much as point seven so these are certainly 15-20 percent more efficient across the board than a standard tank type unit but the big reason to choose one of these is the luxury of endless hot water there can be some energy savings but it's really something that I would say you want to downplay with your clients because it's the limitless hot water is a reason to buy one of these okay so why would you choose this non-condensing model over it's more efficient condensing cousin over here several reasons because these are non condensing there's less to go wrong with them there's less parts and there's less technology this is a very proven very old technology it's really mature they're also less cost initially to install them these units and the other thing I like about these models is we don't have to worry about disposing of condensate these condensing models by condensation we're talking about these pipes right here are actually going to gather water and as it gathers water and condenses that water that's how it rings out the extra efficiency but it also means that these have to have a place that they can drain to now either one of these can be mounted both on the outside like this unit right here or the inside like this one that has a flue attached to it I like the outside mount units if you're in the south if you're in a place where it doesn't freeze a whole lot during the course of the year this is a great option right here this there's no venting on these you just mounted on the outside of the house and it blows the exhaust gasses out right here now on the non-condensing version right like this one one problem with these though is they require stainless steel vent pipe because the condensation that might occur in the pipe is very acidic and because the flue gasses are pretty hot these have about 300 degree flue gases and you've got to use the more expensive piping so that is a little bit of a downside of the non-condensing or mid efficiency models now as I mentioned I'm pretty brand agnostic on this video really these these things that I'm talking about today are across models now let's step up to the higher efficiency condensing model the big beauty of these is now we convent with PVC pipes we're gonna plug in a standard and inexpensive PVC here this is the air intake and this is the air exhaust and the gases that are coming out of this are only a hundred degrees and that's why you can exhaust with standard PVC now if you're building new I like this particular model more efficient and the PVC venting is a big deal for me the reason why I like that PVC venting is I can seal around those really well from an air sealing standpoint meaning this could be in a laundry room that could be in a basement and I don't have to have an open flue to the outside I just have a PVC pipe I can spray foam or caulk around that and seal it really well so it won't have any air leakage around that whereas these that have the stainless steel pipe I can't do that I got to be a little bit more cautious about air sitting around these and it's much harder to do with that stainless steel flue the other thing I like about these two of course is the energy savings now it's gonna take you some time to catch up on energy savings you're not gonna choose that energy savings as the main reason but this is the most efficient model you can find in the category today at somewhere around ninety percent efficient or even better next let's talk about capacity now all these different flavors here come in different sizes meaning gas inputs the biggest size you can have available is a hundred and ninety nine thousand BTU that's a cut off on two hundred thousand because above that you need a special plumbing license called a boilers license to install those so typically these residential models you're not gonna find them any bigger than 199 you want to be cautious about your input temperature and your overall capacity meaning where I am in the south I have fairly warm water going into my tankless usually around 50 to 60 degrees as my input temperature whereas if you're building in Connecticut or like my friends in Boston you could have 35 40 degree water going into this so it's got a lot more work to get it up to that 120 degrees which is your final output which means that this same unit in Texas is gonna produce actually a greater flow of hot water than it would in Boston in the wintertime so you got to be cautious about capacity I think you're always better off upgrading to slightly bigger size then you think you might need just to make sure you've got plenty of capacity alright to close this out let me give you some recommendations on which models I'd recommend if you're building new or if you're remodeling if you're building new I think that this model is the way to go this is the condensing models in the biggest reason I say that is because of this right here that PVC venting I really like that I can get a good air seal on that and I can make sure that I don't have air leaking in that flue it's a really great choice but remember with this condensing model I've got condensate that I need to deal with them from building new I can put a drain right there I can deal with it if I'm retrofitting that condensate can be hard to deal with especially if you're outside because you also have to neutralize that the common say this unit is gonna have a pH between three and five which means it's pretty acidic and we can't just dump that on the ground it's gonna kill everything that acid is not good for your plants so you're gonna have to have a special unit that's gonna neutralize that that's what brings me to these right here these units which are what is called mid efficiency single stage you've got different venting for these but you don't have any condensate to deal with so if you're remodeling or you're retrofitting I really think that the mid efficiency models are the way to go thanks for joining me on this deep dive into tankless water heaters and big thanks to more supply for letting me use their warehouse today to film this video guys for more information on this topic go check out my blog at matt rice Enger comm I love talking about water heaters there's so much to talk about and there's so many options out there today but today's episode was really meant to talk specifically about gas and tankless stay tuned for more on this topic in the future hit the subscribe button if you're not currently a subscriber new videos every Tuesday and every Friday although wise go follow me on Twitter Instagram see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Matt Risinger

Views: 754,153

Keywords: moore supply, matt risinger, the build show with matt risinger, tankless water heater which to buy, tankless options, should i switch to tankless, constant hot water, running out of hot water

Id: 1hdk7cCztPo

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2018