Point of use tankless water heater.

[coljar]

This has been discussed before, but I'm sure more people have them now. I've been thinking of using one of the 2.5 size tankless electric water heaters to supply water to the shop sink and sink a few feet away in the washroom. I was originally planning on putiing a recirc. pump at the water heater in the house and piping it underground to the garage. I thought this would work better for about the same money as a pump. I'm wondering what you guys think.

 

[StRacerDuke]

Solid Idea. Planning the same thing myself.

 

[Slowgsr]

I recently hooked up a 9kw unit, was 240v, and it actually got hot. Lots of the smaller ones don't seem to get more then warm

 

[coljar]

Thought of something else. What about recovery time. It didn't say anything about that on the spec. sheet on the one I was looking at from Zoro.

 

[CNGsaves]

What about the smokin' deal on 4 gal electric point of use HWH at Home Depot on clearance ??

I'd get one of those and put on a timer. Only use electricity to heat water while out in the shop.

 

[coljar]

I guess they are mini tank units. I plan on having it on a switch for when I'm going to be working out in the garage. Sometimes it's several days that I'm not out there, so it would only be smart to have it switched.

 

[Cobra4B]

I have a Rinnai 75 in the new house. Previous owners put it in in 2010. Sucker kicks ***. Water gets hot instantly. Only lag time is the time to get from the heater to the faucet.

 

[kbs2244]

Tankless do not have a recovery time.
They do not store any water, thus nothing to recover.
But they are a bit expensive.
I would think a 10, or even a 5, gallon would be fine for one guy washing up in a shop.
Check out RV units.
I would expect less dollars.
Put it on a switch and turn it on when you come in.
It will be hot when it is time to leave.

 

[matth8346]

I used a 4 gallon point of use water heater for our kitchen sink in our last house. It worked well and recovered fairly quickly. Only complaint was running out of hot water at times, but in the shop you'd probably be good. Don't remember the brand(it was given to me) but it was 110v.

 

[wes73]

I installed a 10 gallon point of use HWH in my shop. 120V 20amp. If I did it over I would have gone 20 gallon just from the stand point of washing vehicles in the off seasons. But for what I primarily use it for, it is great.

 

[redmondjp]

I have a 2.5 gallon water heater inside my bathroom vanity (feeding two sinks), and a 4.0 gallon tank under my kitchen sink. I love them!

For the shop, if you are going to be doing parts washing (as opposed to just hand washing), I'd go with a bigger tank, 6.5 gallon minimum. Our 4 gallon at the kitchen sink has just enough to make one dishpan full of hot water, and then you are rinsing with lukewarm while the unit recovers.

 

[nine4gmc]

I used a Titan N120 at my old shop, smaller than a shoebox and hotter than hell. It would shoot fire out the faucets, I ran a shower, washer and two sinks with it. No tank, on demand and less than $200 at the time on ebay. The only problem is it takes a 60a double breaker and a disconnect box.

 

[James E]

Just for my own edification, these electric point of use heaters--do they have tanks because they are not good at heating water instantly or are they tankless and work like a gas tankless heater, only just much more inefficiently?

I always wondered how you could make an electric heating element that worked as well as a gas flame on a tankless heater.

 

[nine4gmc]

The Titan is an all electric tankless and heats water the instant it detects flow. The only lag time is the time it takes water to get from the heater to the faucet and it it less efficient than gas tankless due to wattage. It's something crazy like 10k watts. It will heat as long as you have the hot water faucet on and can run a couple faucets at one time.

 

[joe_padavano]

A tankless water heater simply works by passing the unheated water through a VERY high rate heating element. Since you must raise the water temp from 50-ish degrees to ~110 deg or so, you need a massive heat source to put that much energy into the water in a short period of time. Electric tankless heaters are like arc welders, so expect to require SIGNIFICANT current on that circuit. Gas tankless heaters flow the water through a heat exchanger since there is a finite amount of time required to heat a certain amount of water. This also restricts how fast the water can flow through the tankless heater - some units, especially smaller ones, require a restricted flow rate to give the unit enough time to transfer heat to the water. Despite the very large heating element, the energy savings from a tankless heater comes from the fact that the heating element is only on when the water is running.

Do not confuse tankless water heaters with point-of-use water heaters. The latter are simply conventional tank-style heaters that are small enough to locate next to the faucet that uses it.

 

[redidbull]

I work for a company that makes tank less heaters. More expensive but well worth it for quality and service.http://www.hubbellheaters.com/model/tankless/ Jim