[Tvflguy]

Our home is 10 years old, with the original 40 gallon Rheem elec tank water heater. Also have a hot water recirculating pump.

Considering a tankless unit to replace before issues happen with ours…. We’re not high hot water use, only us two here.

Does anyone have recent experience, good or bad, with elec tankless in The Villages?

[villagetinker]

This has been discussed a few times, in my humble opinion, you need to check with the tankless heater supplier to see IF it will actually work with your recirculating pump, as I recall there were some people reporting problems with this type of installation. If the tankless will not work, as I recall your warm up time (for the shower) will be longer as you have the warm up time of the tankless heater and the normal time for the piping.
Personally I would just change out the existing hot water tank and save some money.

[Altavia]

I agree with Tinker.

Least time I checked, tankless was almost double the installation cost (?)

[JoMar]

My neighbor and I had discussions with our repective plumbers and, to our surprise, got the same responses. We were both concerned that our 10 year old Rheem was coming to the end of it's life cycle. Both plumbers agreed to take our money if it would make us feel better but stated that the heater should last another 10 - 15 years, maybe a little less with a water softner but unless we were having issues they both recommended doing nothing. My neighbor will do nothing until something happens, I replaced the expansion tank and added a recirculating pump. Imagine competing businesses agreeing.

[biker1]

You will need an electrician and it might be costly. You will need probably 60-100 amps to be run to the location of the tankless heater. Probably best to just do a replacement of your existing tank water heater with another tank water heater if you are concerned about it’s health.

Originally Posted by Tvflguy

Our home is 10 years old, with the original 40 gallon Rheem elec tank water heater. Also have a hot water recirculating pump.

Considering a tankless unit to replace before issues happen with ours…. We’re not high hot water use, only us two here.

Does anyone have recent experience, good or bad, with elec tankless in The Villages?

[phylt]

Well, I guess that I'll just wait it out with our current 10 yo elec water heater. Thanks for the input folks,

[GreggC69]

While not The Villages specifically re the experience, we did switch our tank heater to a tankless one several years ago in a house in another state. As others have said, significantly more upfront cost. For us though, the concern was the performance. We hated it! Yes...it was great if you had company and several showers going on in short order while perhaps using other hot water (i.e. sinks, dishwasher, washing machine etc.). Aside from that I saw no benefit. And, we hated the increased wait time on the front end. When first turned on, it took much longer for the hot water to "start" than the tank system. I would definitely not do again at any house we own.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by JoMar

My neighbor and I had discussions with our repective plumbers and, to our surprise, got the same responses. We were both concerned that our 10 year old Rheem was coming to the end of it's life cycle. Both plumbers agreed to take our money if it would make us feel better but stated that the heater should last another 10 - 15 years, maybe a little less with a water softner but unless we were having issues they both recommended doing nothing. My neighbor will do nothing until something happens, I replaced the expansion tank and added a recirculating pump. Imagine competing businesses agreeing.

You need to find new plumbers or you misunderstood them.

With a water softener, your hot water tank may have less life because the softener will introduce some salt in the water slightly accelerating the corrosion process in the tank.

There is an anode rod in the hot water tank that sacrifices itself instead of the tank corroding. This anode rod ususally lasts for the warrenty life of the tank depending on your water supply. Once it's used up it's only a matter of time until the tank corrodes and you have a leak. You can change the anode rod at a cost of about $300 every 3-5 years but no one does this. We have pulled anode rods out of hot water tanks here in the Villages and they are usually all used up in about 6-7 years.

But you "can be that guy" who brags about keeping their tank hot water heater for 20-30 years and never come on to social media to tell us about the disaster you had when the tank eventually failed. You should definetly change a 10 year or older tank unless it has a 12 year warrenty which some replacement models have.

[gorillarick]

Just a thought about the tankless.
Yes, the wait time can be longer for hot water.

Installer can install a push-button switch near the sink to turn the heater on.......
Wait 3 or 5 minutes, and only hot flows. Still has to heat the pipes going to the faucet.

misc: recirculating can be downstream from the tankless water heater and also started with the push button and times out after a few minutes when the hot starts coming.
Great system?
Yeah. $$$

But the good ol' big tank water heater is hard to beat $$$$ with modern insulated tanks, especially in Florida.

[JoMar]

Originally Posted by jrref

You need to find new plumbers or you misunderstood them.

With a water softener, your hot water tank may have less life because the softener will introduce some salt in the water slightly accelerating the corrosion process in the tank.

There is an anode rod in the hot water tank that sacrifices itself instead of the tank corroding. This anode rod ususally lasts for the warrenty life of the tank depending on your water supply. Once it's used up it's only a matter of time until the tank corrodes and you have a leak. You can change the anode rod at a cost of about $300 every 3-5 years but no one does this. We have pulled anode rods out of hot water tanks here in the Villages and they are usually all used up in about 6-7 years.

But you "can be that guy" who brags about keeping their tank hot water heater for 20-30 years and never come on to social media to tell us about the disaster you had when the tank eventually failed. You should definetly change a 10 year or older tank unless it has a 12 year warrenty which some replacement models have.

Thanks, but my preference is to listen to folks that do stuff for a living. My water heater in PA did last for 21 years but thought because of the heat down here that might have an impact. The plumbers we talked to here are well known, one does most of the plumbing work for the new construction. If I become "that guy" I will let you know.....by the way where did you get that 30 years.

[jrref]

Tankless electric is not very good, even with the more expensive units. Also, unless you have a big family, there is no benefit. The biggest problem is the up front cost to run new electric and venting and every year you will have to pay someone, if you can't do it yourself to flush the system or it will stop working.

All this said, get an efficient electric tank system with a 12 year warranty and call it a day.