How Tankless Water Heaters Work 

Love my tankless. Love it. In Korea EVERYONE has tankless. Since I came here 10 years ago they have only gotten better. I will never do a tank again. There are reasons why the people who have them, love them.

What are the reasons to LOVE them?@@lowbrowartfag

I’m buying a house with a Rheem unit; any input?

Glad you enjoyed it!

Usually they require an upgrade to the power source . Allot of these tankless water heaters require 2 - 2 pole breakerusually 30s or 50s so you will usually have to add a run of wire or two to your pannel depending on what size your original wire was you may be able to reuse it 0

What Brand of tankless water heater is good?

... for a travel trailer...

What was your savings?

Been a year since you posted the comment. What's the update on your savings?

We're waiting....

There’s a sensor to detect flow. From there the sensor trips a circuit to initiate the igniter then gas. As soon as flow stops, the gas shuts off.

I bought a propane heater in the shower. A little concerned about the exhaust and CO. Works great!

Drop by my website baileylineroad.com for a visit sometime. You'll find lots of stuff there, including tool giveaways, articles and lots of other stuff of interest to hands-on, how-to people. Bye for now and thanks for watching! Steve

@@baileylineroad Grateful thanks

You’re having to push all the already sitting water in the hot side line then the hot water from the heater.

Possibly outdated unit. Possibly low flow fixtures dont trigger the unit. Possible scale build up in the lines not triggering unit to turn on

You can install a recirculation kit for a nominal charge.

@@PelonMusk So glad you commented, bc I wanted to do a follow-up and didn't know where I'd dropped the comment. Turns out, we got a smart plumber in who discovered that LEAVES had been blocking the area inside the machine, so all got cleared and also, they did the treatment where you decalcify, so we have awesome no-problem hot water all the time now.

Anything you need to Learn about this... Google the sentence, ask questions... and also ask on RU-vid (top line)... someone will know what to do... I google it first...

Call a plumber?

Yeah they suck unless you have very severe size constraints

Good Morning! Those are great questions, and I happen to have a lot of experience installing an outdoor boiler. First of all, I'd definitely not preheat water going into an on-demand heater. They're not made for this sort of thing, and I'd be concerned on several levels. The very best approach would be to have your 20-plate exchanger preheat water before it goes into a tank-style heater. The heat exchanger doesn't make for a great on-demand heater on its own because sometimes your fire will burn down too low and you won't have hot water (or it'll just be warm). At my place I have the thermostats on my electric water heater set just below the temperature that the heat exchanger delivers hot water. This way if my fire does accidentally drop too low, the electricity kicks in to top up the heat in the tank. I hardly use any electricity at all this way, but it is a bit of insurance. In the summer I run the hot water tank on electricity only, but I'll be changing my tank to propane to save a bit of money. Same idea for preheating, it's just that propane is 75% of the cost of electricity when it is needed. When I was designing my system I considered a tankless heater for my place, but realized that my electric water heater was pretty close to ideal, given the fact that wood heats my water most of the time. Tank-style heaters are also very simple, which means I can keep it working myself. If I were you I'd replace the tank-style heater you've got if you think it's too old. They're pretty cheap and they work really well with an outdoor boiler. How does all this sound? Bye for now, Steve

Thanks very much, I am going to go that route on keeping tank style . Thanks again an I subscribed for more of these very informative videos you put on

My pleasure! Keep my email on hand. You'll probably run into issues as you go. steve@stevemaxwell.ca Drop by for a visit sometime at my website: baileylineroad.com I think you'll like what you find there. Bye, Steve

Don't get Navien.... I would recommend watching videos of Mikey Pipes Plumbing.!! Navien👎👎

@@videos10 It's already installed. Our gas bill went from $40 per month down to $10 per month to run the tankless water heater.

@@kentharris7427 yeah the savings on surely there, I still would advice you to watch videos of the Pipe Doctor plumbing regarding Navien tankless products.

Its actually just over 538 gallons.

Hi Donald, Thanks for your note. I'm happy to answer your questions. I've installed tankless systems and I see them in action all the time. As for internal workings, a gas flame heats one side of a heat exchanger, with water flowing on the other side. The flame is activate by the flow of water. These heat exchangers need to be de-scaled once or twice a year by running vinegar through the water side of the system. Special valves allow the water to be shut off and the vinegar to be piped through to dissolve scale on the heat exchanger fins. Temperature is regulated by a system that modulates the strength of the gas flame to match a preset water temperature in relation to flow rate. The greater the water flow demanded, the higher the intensity of the flame. Flow is not restricted if the water flow demand exceeds the heating ability of the heater. All that happens is you get a lower water temperature. This is why it's important to size the heater to expected maximum demand. I don't know what you mean by alarms. I hope this helps. Bye for now, Steve

Thanks. That helps a lot. The issue that I had was low flow/pressure. And it turns out that the flushing descaling worked perfectly.

Holy moly, is the F or C?

@@somethingappropriate They are the same at -40.

I hate installing and working on tankless water heaters. They can be a pain. But its where we are headed. Most of our rich customers have been conned into thinking they are a necessity. I would never install one in my house. My hot water tank is almost 20 years old and still running believe it or not

Me too lol

It randomly popped up in my recc

+gj4king1 Hello and thanks for your note. Capacity, brand reputation and fuel are the three main technical things you need to consider when choosing a tankless heater. But before you get that far you need to decide if tankless is right for you at all. It’s not ideal in every situation. Tankless water heaters are wall-mounted appliances that heat water only as it’s needed. They just sit there, using no energy at all until a hot water tap somewhere is turned on. As soon as water flows through the heater, it fires up the heating system, raising the temperature of water as it flows through the heater. There is no tank of hot water sitting there between uses losing energy, as is the case with your current heater. Elimination of these “stand-by” losses is why tankless heaters were invented. All this said, if you have a large household and use lots of hot water, standby losses from a tank-style heater become less significant. Also, today’s best tank-style heaters are well insulated with foam, so standby losses are smaller than they used to be. Then there’s the issue of an energy source. The only tankless water heaters worth installing use either propane or natural gas. Forget electric ones. If your home isn’t made for these, getting either one piped in adds cost to the installation. Here’s the bottom line: If you need a new tank-style heater, tankless is worth considering, especially when space is at a premium in your house. Choose a tankless heater that has more than enough heating capacity for your household. And finally, choose a brand with a long reputation for quality. Tankless water heaters are much more technically complex than tank-style heaters, so it takes an experienced company to make them reliable. Bosch, Rinnai and Rheem are three trustworthy names. Drop by my website baileylineroad.com for a visit sometime. You'll find lots of stuff there, including tool giveaways, articles and the chance to ask me questions. Bye for now and thanks for watching! Steve

I cant, I wouldnt ever instal an instantaneous heater

I hear you on the cold sandwich, could be annoying. If i installed one i would use the Navien with the built in recirc pump and buffer tank. Even if you dont have an external recirc loop, you can tell the Navien to use it as a buffer within itself

You get in shower, water is cold because not heated yet. A few seconds later, water gets hot. You exit. Wife gets in shower, water is cold because not heated yet. A few seconds later, water gets hot. I don't know why you would say you get a hot shower and your wife does not. Makes no sense. If you got a hot shower, should be fine for your wife also.

Pretty much a tankless is gimped without a side tank. Also, sometimes they need initial installation of upsized gas lines from the meter, which gets real expensive real fast.

If tank less water heaters are so inefficient, then why are they the most popular option today in all or Europe and Japan? thanks.

Because space is the most value thing in life in Japan and Europe. They have very little land per capita. In Japan people live in one room apartments. In USA, almost everyone has space for a conventional water heater.

Thanks. Yes, I agree with you, space is limited in Japan. But i didn't think that to be the case in Europe. I thought that the reason these countries switched to water less tanks is because of the cost savings in less natural gas usage and money savings overall.

My daughter bought a house with 2 tankless heaters, one for the Kitchen second bath and one for the master bath. She called me about 6 months after they moved in and begged me to put in a hot water tank for her. I put in a family sized 80 gal gas in her garage right where the old one was and she's happy as a clam. Not a peep, no more hot /cold showers or no hot water at all. Sometimes the jawbone of an ass just works better.