It’s a Tankless Job

I’ve been using an electric tankless water heater for over five months now. So how’s it working out for me?

There are some pros and cons. It was less expensive than a regular water heater, compact, lightweight and fairly easy to install. 

On the flip side it has some quirks. Even the fairly small unit I purchased requires a 60 amp breaker. That’s not a problem for me as my 200 amp panel is almost empty. Most circuits are in a different panel powered by my solar electric system. 

It’s great for things that require a steady stream of hot water, like a hot shower. What it’s not so great at is things like hand washing dishes. Here’s how that goes.  My previous habit was to do a few dishes at a time and turn the tap on and off a lot. Every time the tap is turned on and off there’s a brief spurt of cold water that enters the line. That causes the temperature to vary quite a bit. The way around that is to run hot water to soap up a large batch of dishes. Then the tap is turned off. Once the dishes are scrubbed run the tap again and rinse a big batch. 

Many years ago I had a propane tankless water heater. That worked great -until winter hit. Cold wind would blow down the exhaust vent and freeze the heater. At bare minimum that would destroy the diaphragm. It was under warranty but the service guy was here all the time. All my kids got to know him by name. 

The electric tankless heater doesn’t have that problem. There was also a noticeable drop in my electric bill switching from a tank to tankless. 

-Sixbears