How To Install A Tankless Water Heater

Haven't Gotten Your Tankless Water Heater Yet?

2009-01-29T16:19:00.004-05:00

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Haven't Gotten Your Tankless Water Heater Yet?

Well, I'm not sure what's stopping you. My tankless water heater is one of the best appliances I've ever purchased and installed. It's one of those types of things you end up asking yourself "Why didn't I do this before?" Every day I look at my new water heater I'm amazed by it. Let me enumerate the reasons:

I'm amazed by its size. I have an electric Titan tankless water heater and so help me it's only slightly larger than a yellow pages phone book and it's no more than about two and a half inches thick. There are no moving parts except for a control knob on the front of the unit. Remarkable.

I'm amazed by its power. How something so small can produce an ENDLESS amount of hot water without the fear of running out, regardless of how many back to back showers we take, is way, way beyond me. I'm sure the propane and gas tankless units do the same. And I live in New Hampshire and have well water that's COLD! Maybe it's because I'm so accustomed to seeing five foot high monoliths that were required to do the same task. It's a 60 amp, 240v system. Piece o' cake.

I'm amazed by its cost savings. I immediately noticed a 30% reduction in my electric bill after replacing the TWO pieces of junk that were there cycling on and off 24 hours a day. With this water heater it only calls for electricity when the unit calls for hot water. Not a second sooner. And there's no need for wrapping it in an insulation blanket either because there's no standing water that can cool down only to need to be reheated. Imagine what savings you'd find with your gas or propane water heater.

I'm amazed by the ease of installation. I used PEX for the plumbing, wired it myself to its own 60 amp breaker using six gauge wire and the whole process took less than 2 hours. It would have taken less time, but, I'm not a plumber or electrician by trade. Since there's no joints to sweat using PEX, everything was just snap and go. The Titan tankless water heater is just mounted on the wall. Almost like a painting. No bulky tanks to move around and no need for reserving a large space for it.

I've got my tankless water heater installed. And though mine is made by Titan you can also get great units from Bosch, Rinnai and Takagi just to name a few. So, when are going to install yours?

PEX - PEX is in the House!

2009-01-29T16:14:00.001-05:00

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How to use PEX by a certified DIYer! PEX Update In my last article about my tankless water heater I made several references as to using PEX. Since I figure not a lot of people understand or even know what PEX is I thought I'd devote this article to a little education for the DIY weekend warrior that may be considering changing over his water heater, but, may not want to get involved with copper and soldering and flux, etc. DIYers, it's time to look like a hero, again! What the heck is PEX? Lets start with a little background about PEX.

Here's some info from Wikipedia: Cross-linked polyethylene, commonly abbreviated PEX or XLPE, is a form of polyethylene with cross-links. It is formed into tubing, and is used predominantly in hydronic radiant heating systems, domestic water piping and insulation for high tension electrical cables. It is also used for natural gas and offshore oil applications, chemical transportation, and transportation of sewage and slurries. Recently, it has become a viable alternative to polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) or copper pipe for use as residential water pipes. PEX tubing ranges in size from 1/4-inch to 4-inch, but 1/2-inch, 3/4-inch, and 1-inch are by far the most widely used. Uh, okayyyyy...? Ok, so we're not talking about using it for natural gas or offshore drilling, but, we are interested in using it as domestic piping. Why would we want to use PEX?

Here are some of the benefits:

* PEX can be used for hot or cold water AND it has fittings to make it adaptable to copper and PVC.
* PEX is incredibly FLEXIBLE! This is one of it's shining properties for us "less talented" DIYer's. I don't know how to sweat a copper elbow and really don't care to learn. But, PEX can be bent into a radius (for example, 3/8" pipe may be bent to a 4" radius and 1/2" pipe to a 5" radius). Huh, no sweat. (Get it?)
* Since less fittings are required there are less points at which a leak can happen. Smart, no? Obviously, the more fittings the more potential "problem" areas. Take out the fittings, take out the leaks.
* PEX is also less likely to burst. It's flexibility also gives it the ability to expand and contract.
* If, for some reason you need to repair it, there are easy to use kits that you can purchase.
* PEX has all the typical fittings as well, like shutoffs, elbows, etc.

Making the Connection - PEX generally has two methods for installing it. One is compression (too much work) and the other is insertion (yup, much easier). You don't even have to use that stinky glue and cleaner like you do for PVC! This is living large. You'll find that it comes in rolls, typically 100ft., or in lengths that are generally 10ft. long. If you desire you can get it in red (for the hot water) and blue (for, duh, the cold water) or you can stick with plain old white and mark them yourself. PEX is generally recommended for interior or buried projects, but, I would check with either the manufacturer or your plumbing supply house for any exterior ideas you may have. PEX piping is freeze damage resistant and can expand and contract as water freezes and thaws within the tubing. No tubing material is freeze-break proof, however, and PEX should be installed using the same locally-prescribed insulation requirements to prevent freezing of any plumbing system.

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PEX is the snaps! One of the best reasons I enjoy using it is the ability to "snap and go". Just measure your length of pipe, snap it into any connector you using and "go" on down the line. I would also recommend laying it out in a dry run first to determine what types of connectors you may need, if any. Well, PEX warrior, it's time to engage and go forth! Your friends and neighbors will stand in awe at your prowess and marvel at your courage. Talk your local supplier and see what you think. The hero in you will emerge.

How to Choose a Tankless Water Heater

2009-01-16T09:29:00.015-05:00

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How to Choose a Tankless Water Heater

Having already gone through the process of researching tankless water heaters and the manufacturers I came across some interesting findings that should be considered before one buys one of these types of heaters. Some things that need be brought into the equation are common sense issues while several others may be never have been given a thought until stepping into this arena.

For the sake of todays discussion we’ll forgo whether or not it’s more efficient to use electric, gas or propane and leave the debate for article. I’m going to assume that you’ll just use whatever you currently have for a utility and get on with the more generalized tankless heater points to ponder.

First of all, and this is one of those “common sense” items, you’ll need to ascertain the usage for the heater. That is, how much hot water will be needing to be consumed and when. For instance, do you live alone and shower at a different time than when the laundry is running? Or, do you have 3 bathrooms and a laundry room that may all be utilized simultaneously? There’s a mighty big difference there.

Once that’s figured out you’ll want to consider if the tankless water heater will use a use a centralized system with many branches coming off of a main trunk or if you’ll want to run one line and branch off to each usage as you go along. There are benefits to both. With the first option you can break it into zones and not have hot water running through the whole system just to reach the furtherest point.

An item that is seldom thought of is the water temperature. And this is an extremely important factor. For homes in warmer climates it’s not as big an issue, but, if you live in Michigan or New England where the ground water temperature can be extremely cold a more powerful unit may be in order. Obviously, it takes more energy to heat colder water than warmer water and you certainly don’t want to end up with lukewarm water because you decided to save a few bucks. An option to this would be to run two tankless water heaters in parallel with each sending hot water to the point of usage.

One last point is the water flow rate. Sizing a tankless water heater is determined by how cold the water is (as previously discussed) and how fast the water is moving through the line. The slower the flow rate the more time the unit has to work with the water in heating it. Some folks have actually installed flow restrictors in faucets and shower heads to help compensate for excessive flow rates.

Except for safety issues such as where to install the unit or exhausting a unit other than an electric most of the other concerns will be covered in the manufacturers materials. That’s the basics for how to choose a tankless water heater. Again, they all perform the same function, that is to only heat water when it’s called for. So, decide if you want gas, electric or propane and enjoy you new, lower utility bill!

Tankless Water Heaters are the cutting edge in technology and we LOVE ours! Sure we have a Titan, but, there are many more to choose from such as the Bosch Powerstar AE125 electric tankless water heater, the Takagi T-K3-NG, the Rheem tankless water Heater RTG-66 and the Stiebel Eltron Tempra 20 tankless water heater. Also, mine is electric, but, many are using gas and propane. Now, I'm not an expert and therefore have a limited amount of knowledge so why not find out the answers to YOUR questions from some of the industrys best:

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