Water Heaters

When it comes to water heaters, I have come to love the tank less water heater. This is a far superior water heater than the "old style" water heater with a tank. A tank less water heater will only heat water as you need it. The water heater with a tank must always keep the water heated to be ready for demand. And then that water heater must have time to heat another tank of water to be ready to supply hot water again. A tank less water heater is ready for demand at any time and does not need 20 or 30 minutes to be ready with another load of hot water. In fact if you wanted to take a shower for a week, a tank less water heater will keep up with you. Tank less water heaters have been used in Europe for years. The only problem there, they put them right in the kitchen in front of your face. I have retrofitted tank less water heaters into the old water heater closet several times and they of course fit. They are much smaller and hang on the wall. In the garage works well.

One important difference from a regular water heater to a tank less water heater, the tank less water heater will freeze if not protected and that will ruin a tank less water heater. Some are protected with an anti-freeze system. The others are meant to be mounted in a non-freezing area. No sleeping areas! If you must mount it out side, enclose it with an insulated closet and be sure to drip the hot side of a faucet if freezing temps are present. A small flow of water moving through the pipes will help to prevent the water from freezing and the small flow will not activate the water heater itself. I have tried two different brands of tank less water heaters. The stellar performer for me has been the Bosch Aqua Star tank less water heater. It comes in two sizes. The large unit will handle demand from more than one shower at a time and has a freeze protect. I have also installed the smaller unit for an addition and it's own water supply. I would recommend either.

The only other brand I have tried was a Polermo. I did not find it consistent in temp and when it has too little flow it shuts down. That's ok, but you can not just open up the faucet and increase flow, you must now go reset the water heater because it's thrown a code! No thanks. I took it back and ordered another Bosch.   

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