Any HVAC Snaggers, ?Advise please

[willy]

Our oil forced hot air heat and oil burning water heater are in their final stages of life. The hot water heater needs to be replaced now, and we are considering converting over completely to gas.
Two questions are these, one has anyone gone to the more expensive tankless water heater systems?
Other than being more expensive are they worth it, do they perform well and do they hold up?
I get all kind of opinions depending on who is trying to sell something.
Also, are there any particular brands that seem to do better than others in the conventional heat and hot water gas systems?
Thanks
Will

[THEFERMANATOR]

I considered a tankless when I redid my place Willy, and the decision for me was made easily. The big downfall to them is they can draw a HUGE amount of current if you get the electric version, and natural gas isn't available to me readily. It made much more sense to just go with a new style 40 gallon unit in my case, and I added in a water heater blanket for it to help cut down on some heat loss as it is mounted outside of the house.

[phatdaddy]

small world willy, i just hung a tankless renaii(sp?) today. i went with it for a couple of reasons. i was able to purchase unit with install kit for $1,000. the gas guy is going to hook up for $300 and i'm figuring another $100 for misc. so i hav 1400 in it. the gas co will give me a $550 rebate (converting from elec) and you get a 30% tax credit ,$420., so cost to me out of pocket should be $400. mainly we need the space in the closet for a bathroom remodel we are starting soon. i did some research and the pay back in energy savings is questionable. in our case, it seemed to be the best solution..

[willy]

thanks guys, Phat the cost for your unit is very low compared to the prices I am seeing up here with a couple different vendors.
Also what is your demand on it ? I currently have a 32 gallon oil fired hot water heater and due to oils effieciency it was ok for our family and has lasted 27 years! The plumbers are telling me that if I go with gas water heater I will have to go with a 50-80 due to the recovery of the lower burning temp of gas for the same demand.
Also due to the cheaper construction of water heaters nowadays they are apparently lasting 6-9 years total.
The tankless versions have very little track record so far and from what I am hearing when the exchanger or whatever goes on them they just replace the whole unit as it is too costly to repair on site, parts and labor.
WTF
Anyhow got to make a decision and run with it.

[lumberslinger178]

I have used tankless water heaters in three different houses Ive built and have gone back and replaced all three with conventonial type gas fried water heaters anywhere from 50 to 75 gallons units.

the reasons we removed the units were due to lack of hot water , being that we live and work at the shore outside showers are very popular and when ppl come back from the beach everyone fights for the shower.

and on the three different jobs.... the reason we used them is due to flood elavations and state and local building codes with mechanicals below base flood elavations .

willy I have a 50 gallon gas hwh high efficency direct vent and have me my wife and three kids and we all shower in the morning with in an hours time and I have never come close to running out of hot water.

[phatdaddy]

i buy my irrigation supplies from a local plumbing house and they gave me the "wholesale" price, but i saw the same unit on ebay for about the same price as i paid. i was concerned about the maintenance of the tankless. my elec tank heater is a 60 gallon and i have done nothing in 11 years to it.i have been told i need to run a solvent through the tankless once a year and if it were to go bad, i can see where it would be cheaper to replace the unit rather than repair.
a lot of my irrigation accounts have these heaters and love them, the longest one i know of is about 8 years old and no problems yet. as stated, i'm primarily doing it to get the heater out of the bathroom, to make room for a closet....

[willy]

Kenny I think you pretty much have given me my answer. One question for you, do you have any hooks here in Jersey where I can p/u one for a good price, got no hooks up here and all the local plumber shops up here are thru the roof with prices?

[lumberslinger178]

Willy I will ask my friend mark he usually travels , he buys from ferguson supply ,Im sure theres one in your area, at least if anything else you can pick one up thru his account price.

[lumberslinger178]

Also with the high efficiency direct vent they are very cheap to run, my whole house is gas and in the summer time when I'm not using my pool heater my gas bills are less than 40 bucks

[nipper]

I installed a high efficiency gas heater about a year ago. Bought it at Sears. I thought the price was good both for the unit and the installation.