tankless water heater vs standard waterheater
 

Since my Rheem water heater is approaching 10 years in age I am considering having a tankless electric water heater installed instead. I am aware of the cost for electrical hook up as well as cost of the tank but am wondering what thoughts others have in regard to this consideration. I find it a waste of money to have water being maintained at temperature in existing 40 gal tank and thought a tankless system in the long run would be more efficient as well have a longer longevity. thoughts appreciated.

If your goal is to save money, you won't do it by switching to a tankless system. Just my opinion.

You will also increase the time to get hot water for your shower, etc.

On a side note, I have no idea what a tankless water heater costs, figure $200 or more for the connection, and if you are not handy the additional cost to flush (clean) the tankless water heater yearly. There was a company advertising on ToTV to replace a conventional water heater for under $900, and there was a 10% discount with the ad. I just did my own, water heater and some plumbing supplies was around $550, took 2 neighbors to help, and about 2 hours to complete the plumbing, so the $800 to $900 is not a bad price.

It is really nice to have a constant temperature, endless amount of hot water.

Since you are talking about electric, assuming you are installing the tankless in the same location as the tank. That would minimize the electrical costs. Also safe to ignore all the comments about how much longer it takes to get hot water with a tankless. There is no difference in output, just a difference in plumbing pipe distance.

There is a yearly flush that is beneficial to removing the scale that builds up. No anode rod to replace.

Size is measured by GPM and temperature rise.

An alternative I wish was done here is to have several smaller tankless heaters. One for master bath, one for 2nd bath, one for kitchen, and maybe one for laundry if not near one of the others. More cost, but near zero lag in getting hot water.

Operational costs should be less overall. You need the same amount of electrical energy to heat the water - maybe less because of efficiency. Need zero energy to keep a tank heated.

You will gain some space.

Check prices at big box stores, and at plumbing supply houses.

Replace the expansion tank too. Put a valve on it to make it easy to change in the future.

Many manufacturers offer a dedicated valve manifold. Get it. Makes installation so much easier, as well as performing maintenance.

While running power, try to have an outlet put in. Handy for a leak detection device. For either type replacement.

If you are hiring a plumber, check forums for recommendations. Also for people that have way overpaid for a F "happy" plumbing place.

I have a whole home energy monitor. It isolated about 14 electricity consumers, including the water heater. I also have some smart home technology with a water heater switch.

To answer the question of savings of turning the heater off on a timer due to standby costs. I left a vacant home's tanked heater on for one week, then the next i ran it for 8 hours, 16 off. I repeated the two week cycle. No one was in the home, not a gallon of water was used.

My exact savings with a timer equated to 78 cents on a monthly basis.

No, a tankless heater will not save you money.

I knew it. Spending a lot of money upfront to try to save money over 10 years is usually not a good plan. And, don't forget the time value of money, which further reduces any potential future savings.

Thanks, I was hoping you would respond!

Considering a tankless
 

I am considering a tankless to preclude tank failure. I have had 3 failures over the years. One was semi catastrophic with an insurance claim over ten thousand dollars to clean up and replace AC ducting, flooring and wall sections. The others were fortunately less severe, but mold was a big problem (FYI UVC in the AC really helps). A neighbor had a full catastrophic failure and ended up having to stay in a motel for over a month because the entire house was flooded. I don't know why housing codes don't require the tanks to be closer to the house exterior with a large drain. I would be interested to hear if the tankless are less prone to failure.

Tankless heaters are typically installed outside the house, so if flooding is your concern, tankless is the way to go. Yes, it may take a bit longer for the hot water to reach a bathroom, but you likely aren't using hot water all day long. May or may not save you money, but we have been using Rinnai tankless heaters here in Florida and at our house in CT for years, and would never go back to a tank.

Yes, but it does not take into account the cost to replace a new tank after one fails as most new tanks are not lasting the usual 20 years but more like 10 or less depending on flushing schedule. I would be curious of the life expectancy of the tankless units as that could be your money savings over time. If the tankless life span is even twenty years or more you might get your return depending on how long you hold your current home. I think you need to first find out the conversion cost and work it back from there.

If you want to reduce the probability of a tank failure then look into Marathon water heaters. The tank is fiberglass. I had one in a previous house and would recommend them. One issue, however, is they are fairly large and the utility closet in many Villages' home may not have sufficient space. They are also a bit pricey but may be the last water heater you buy.

Probably in near future insurance company will force you replace it in 10 years or they won’t insure you?

I agree, but it is almost impossible to determine the lifespan of an appliance. I have never had a tank type water heater fail, and the only one I ever replaced was more than 20 years old. I have also never done any maintenance, flushing or otherwise, on a water heater. To me, if your goal is to save money, the initial cost of an appliance is more important than speculating on how long you think something will last.

I have an EcoSmart. It is great. Saves space and I never run out of hot water. Takes up four spaces in the electrical panel though. Be aware of that.

I had a home in FL with a tankless waterheater. You don't save energy and put up with several stupid things. Power out = no hot water at all. Takes a lot of wasted water flow to finally get to temp. Flow temp is never constant.

Over 25 years ago my wife and I build an oversized home and we had an instant water heater installed.
It did live up to its name we had instant hot water through the house, but we did run into one problem.
We had also installed a large tub that should had been listed as a small pool, by the time half of it was fill the water would turn cold.
Since I do not know the first thing about instant water heaters, I can't tell you if this is a problem with all instant hot water heaters or it was the way ours was installed.
But before you go forward with this find out if there is a capacity level.

Hot Shower as long as you like
 

It may take a while to get your hot water to your faucet, but once it’s there you can have as much as you want. Shower an hour, shower 5 minutes, it doesn’t matter

Tankless will not save you much money because the cost of keeping water hot in a hot water tank with newer models in Florida is minimal. Also the amount of money two people use to heat hot water per year is only a couple hundred dollars. Tankless is not worth the investment unless you are building in a new house.

Water Heater
 

I did some research regarding thankless, solar hybrid, and regular 50 gallon water heater. The cost benefit did not warrant the tankless heater or hybrid heater. So ... Mike Smith replaced our water heater with a new 50 gallon Rheme heater for $950 & took away the old one. We added a recirculating pump for about $450. That gives us hot water at all faucets within 4-5 seconds.

Do you mean Mike Scott Plumbing?

I used to have an 80 gal water heater. I put a timer on it so it heated from 5 AM to about 8 AM and from 5 PM to about 9 PM. It was great! Always had hot water while it turned on to heat up twice a day. I really miss having a timer.

Had an instant water heater. Hated it. 2 gallons of wasted water to reach the shower toward the back of a villa.

Now have a 40 gallon water tank in a second villa. Wish I had a timer on it. Thinking about getting quote on installation of one. Currently hot water reaches master shower in the back of the Villa within about 1 gallon of wasted water .

The standby losses are pretty easy to approximate. The losses are the surface area of the water heater (in sq. ft) times the temperature difference between the air outside the water heater and the water inside the water heater (in F) divided by the R-value of the water heater's insulation. This will yield BTUs/hr of heat loss.

As an example, let's assume the following:

Radius of water heater: 10 inches
Height of water heater: 50 inches
Water temperature: 120F
Air temperature: 75F
R-value of water heater's insulation: 16 (units are such to make the result come out in BTUs/hour)
BTUs per kWh: 3412
Cost of electricity: 13 cents per kWh

For this example, the standby losses should be on the order of about $24 per year.

I have already had a company refuse to quote since my tank water heater is over 12 years old.

We have Rinnai tankless hot water heaters in 2 homes in MA and absolutely plan to install one at our home in TV when the time comes! Very efficient, hot water on demand.

Not my experience with our Rinnai in MA- we’ve had 11 people in the home for a week 3 showers indoor plus an outdoor shower running and I can do dishes with hot water at the same time. No issues with it keeping up with demand.

I did it to make more space in the garage

We had a licensed plumber do some work for us and asked him about tankless. His response was I would not see the payback for at least 10 years. Take his comment for what it's worth.

Heat Pump Water Heater
 

Speaking of water heaters, has anyone installed a Heat Pump Water Heater? Pros / Cons?

I have thought about it. There are a few possible issues. The height of the unit may be a problem for some of the utility closets in the garages of homes in The Villages. If it can be installed in the utility closet in the garage, you will need to provide ventilation to the utility closet. Perhaps access to the hot air of the attic but there might be some fire code issues with that. The unit will produce condensate so you will need to tie into the condensate drain for your HVAC air handler - this shouldn't be a problem if the unit can be installed in the utility closet (where the air handler is located). There could be other issues.

There was no maintenance for 15 years on my water tank. They last and never thought twice about it in all those years sitting in the garage. I'm just now on my second one. Why would you want to trade that for a more expensive unit ($600 + more) that takes costly yearly maintenance for a box that heats water in your garage unless your planning on showcasing it when friends and family stop by.

I had looked into this, but decided against due to several reasons:

1) In the long run, adding up all costs, it really doesn't save any appreciable amount of money.
2) The cost of the install is equal to or greater than the cost of the heater making this a losing $$ proposition. You can't do a self install if you want a warranty. Every manufacturer requires that installation be performed by a certified electrician for a valid warranty. If you install yourself, no warranty. I'm an Electrical Engineer, and this is a simple install.

Why buy something that almost no one else has, and that you may have trouble getting service or parts if it fails? The standard tank type water heater can usually be repaired or replaced the same day, so you will never be without hot water.

I have to chime in with my two cents. I bought my pre-owned home here in late 2017. I already had a tankless heater. I have to let the water run for about 90 seconds before the hot water comes up. I've asked several professionals what I can do and they all told me there is a way to rig something up that would produce hot water faster, but it's expensive and probably not worth it. I live with the idea of wasting water everytime I need hot water.

Ex Plumber here but I have been out of the game for a looong time. The tankless heater will cost a lot more up front and installation will cost more. Requires a descaling process preferable once a year. Not difficult but some people will hire out to have it done. My opinion the electric tankless heaters aren't as good as the gas units. They may have improved over the years.
Conventional water heater requires an anode rod replacement after several years. Quite often they never get replaced. Use a water tank blanket to conserve energy and a tank flush annually won't hurt and only requires a hose. In all honesty, I have never flushed my own tank. I know, "Bad Boy".
The rumor about taking longer to get water to the faucet in my opinion is simply the purging of the lines of cold water before you will feel the hot water at the faucet. If the bathroom is 30 ft from the heater it will take longer than if it's only 10 ft from the heater. Same difference with a tankless.
If you take hour long showers and run a tank dry, then and only then the tankless system would be a nice addition to the home.
Good luck!

tankless water heater
 

Tankless water heater is very expensive plus elec. work's labor. You will have to waste a large amount of water in order to get hot water, but will just save a water heater space. I installed a small instant hot water tank under the kitchen sink to save running water (my wife is not happy of seeing water running till she gets hot water). We have a gas tankless water heater...maybe save some more than elec. one. It is now 9 years old so we r not sure if we should replace with a new tankless one or regular water heater (in order to make my wife happy if we replace with a regular one)

Good reason to do so. Storage space is something we don't have enough of. Tankless gas fired Rinnai on the outside; golf clubs where the tank used to be.

Yes, agree. The only way to get instant hot water is with a recirculating system. We also have the Mike Scott one and it is great. We had a tankless in Texas but also had the whole house recirculating system for instant hot water. The tankless by itself will NOT give you instant hot water.

We have a Flo meter attached to our tank it will monitor use and shut off if it notes a flood type situation that may occur. It’s on our tankless so unsure if can be used with the standard heaters im sure it could -brilliant invention

I switched 10 years ago when the utility company ran a special. My savings were about 30.00 a month on my gas bill. I have never had it flushed or descaled and it's never had a problem in all these years. I'd never go back to the old big hot water tank. Call your utility, gas or electric and see if they are offering any deals or rebates. I love my tankless water heater.

I only hade a tankless in a new house for about 3 years but it was gas. There is a difference between gas and electric, so you would have to find out the specifics. It is my understanding that the electric are not as good as the gas. That being said, they have come a long way in the last ten years. Endless hot water. What people do not understand is that you have to run the water, tankless or not, until the hot water reaches the fixture you are at. With the tankless, you run the hot water for about 10 seconds and turn it off, this triggers the unit on and you will not have to wait so long for the hot water to come up. Somehow, no one else but me seemed to use this technique. There is also a recirculating unit that can be added. The tankless units should last about 20 years if you take care of it and no flooding!