Anyone done this? about to redo my garage and my water heater is in really valuable real estate. Thinking of moving it either to another room, or possibly seeing if I can build a platform and hang it up high (this probably isn't a realistic idea). Also thinking about maybe moving to tankless.

Any advice or anything from anyone who has done this?

 

Negative on tankless. SO much water is wasted once the hot water is empty.

 

I have a tankless and it works fine for us

Plus thankless would in effect hang up and give you that real estate back !

 

Here's what I'm dealing with

photo869.jpg

 

is there an empty attic in the garage??? if you stay with a tank, i've seen a lot of HWH tanks set up in the attic with new home builds in Texas... just build a sturdy plywood platform with a pan and the HWH can sit inside it...

if you don't have the height in the attic, i'd then go tankless... there will always be people on both sides of the fence... in Australia, tankless is the norm... once my tank goes i'll switch to tankless...

 

Sounds like a tank less is perfect for your specific purpose. Pros may outweigh the cons if you know what I mean. We installed this one for the record: Rinnai RL94eN Natural Gas Tankless Water Heater, 9.4 Gallons Per Minute - Outdoor https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058K3WNO..._-pKDybABM5XEG


You'll likely need the one rated for inside though because of venting of gasses.

 

I'm curious what you mean by "once the hot water is empty" ?

 

i didn't get that statement either... i do know that with tankless any water in the pipes that get cold, you have to flush out and run the water a bit for the system to fire up and heat the water... people see that as wasting water... in dry areas of Australia where there are strict water restrictions, we run the water into a bucket until it gets hot, then you can use the water for the plants or lawn...

 

Yeah, if anything, sometimes we have to do just that to get it 'primed' if you will.. Then it's effectively continuous hot water. If anything, a tank is the one that 'runs out' once you use all 50 gallons or whatever. I think princely simply misspoke

 

Never worked with a tankless system but I would say that would be better than having a 40-50 gallon unit in the middle of the garage.

Plus the water supply lines are right there, might not be a hard thing to do your self. Also look into shark bite water connectors. I put in a water heater this last summer and used the the shark bite connectors and worked really good and easy to connect.

I was also going to say move the water heater but also think a tankless would free up space and give the area a good look.

 

it's not a direct swap. He would need a pvc vent and air intake as well as power supply.

 

Our water heater was in the garage taking up space so we replaced with a tankless water heater and hung it on the wall and now we use that extra space for our extra refrigerator. We got a Natural Gas Navien tankless and we love it. Cost about $1600 with installation.

 

Couldn't he just reuse his current venting system ?


Also he has a fridge right next to it, i think they can share a wall outlet just fine

 

Moving it shouldn't be an issue provided you're not going too far and are able to properly re-route the in and out lines. You can use PEX and it's super easy to run.

The issue with tankless is that you had damn well better have both an upstream filter and a known to be perfectly functioning water softener if you're going to get one. Some gas companies (if you go with gas) don't like tankless because of the rapid short term demand they put on the system and may charge a fee for you to have one. Not sure about electric but it might be similar. Tankless heat exchangers are incredibly finicky and if you have anything less than pure water going through them...count on a new exchanger coming in the near future.

 

If your heat source is electric I wouldn't recommend tankless, heard people have all sorts of issues with them.

 

I'm pretty sure that tank has a gas line going to it guys

 

If it has a vent, it's gas lol. He can always cap of the gas line and switch to electric though.

 

no, the tankless are condensing... which reminds me, he'd also need a drain.

 

Definitely have to agree here though. I wanted a water softener anyway with our remodel so I jumped at the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and went with a Kenmore Elite hybrid water softener (running on potassium chloride) and the Rinnai tankless downstream.

 

This is what I meant. Yes.

Another thing to consider is the cost of a tankless water heater. How much is it vs replacing what OP has now? How long will it be before OP breaks even out of pocket?

 

You do pay more for a tankless water heater but it will help with the energy costs and since he needs the space in the garage I am sure it is well worth it. It was for me when I switched mine.

 

That's pretty pricey from what I've seen. Then again my house is electric. The ones I've seen quoted are less GPM. How important is a high GPM?

 

it really depends on how many bathrooms your have, how long the runs are and how big the pipes are... you also have to take into account your water pressure...

 

GPM from what I've read is dependent on how much hot water you'll need. Higher GPM = more expensive. we have a big family so we needed the higher GPM. Rinnai is a solid brand, not sure which brand you've looked at, i compared results with the HD/Lowe's inventory and reviews said Rinnai was a solid contender.

 

Seen Ecosmart at 5.5GPM for like $560 with favorable ratings. I have a 2 story home with normally 3 people and sometimes 5 with 2.5 bathrooms.

 

Why would I need a water softener with a tankless? Out water here is extremely hard

 

That's why


The thought is that the minerals in the hard water can build up in the exchanger of the tankless rendering it less effective and ultimately unusable after a while.

 

Very interesting thread. Subing this cause I would love to get mine out of my garage and gain the space just cause it is in a terrible location.

 

right on, thanks!

 

Isn't this the same with a hot water tank? The water in the pipes in either system will naturally get cold when the hot water is not running through them. It needs to be flushed out with new hot water before anything hot come out of the tap.

 

The only way the tankless can heat that much water that quickly is by working on an incredibly small volume of fluid at one time, it's faster to heat up 1/4 cup of water 4 times than it is to heat 1 cup of water once. This means all the passages in the heat exchanger are very small to make the heat only work on that small volume of fluid. If you have incredibly hard water or crap in your water (well water) it WILL plug up those passages very quickly and provide you an excellent excuse to replace the exchanger and anything else that's plugged up. A tank heater is much less susceptible to this issue because the heat exchanger is essentially a 50gal pot on top of a burner.

 

Horizontal hung/mounted water heater? Saw a house a few years back with 2 in the garage ceiling as they parked 2 SUV's in the garage.

 

had a local company come out today. Going to go tankless. Can mount it outside and close to the side of the house where the bathrooms actually are (currently with the heater in the garage, it is on the complete opposite side of the bathrooms).

Looking at roughly $1,500 for a new tank installed in the garage, or $4K for a tankless unit installed. Gonna take the plunge

 

fuck, forgot to talk in depth about a water softener. I mentioned it and he siad its' really up to me, but that the system should be flushed out once a year if I don't install one. This may also solve another issue for me. I'm wondering if I could do a high capacity RO/DI setup, as I currently have one hooked up in the kitchen and have an absurd collection of fish tanks that have me replacing roughly 50-60G of water a week that I carry around in 5 gallon buckets at a time.

 

I'm debating adding secondary on-point on-demand water heaters for our faucets. It makes me mad when I have to run the water for 65 seconds before the water heats up.

 

A whole house RO/DI sounds a little excessive for my personal situation so we just had a Water Softener. Maybe have a RO/DI system for ONLY the kitchen would work for you?

 

In FLORIDA no less?!

 

If you are doing tankless, I'd absolutely do at least the softener unless you're a fan of continuous maintenance of the unit.

 

are you tankless or in a tank? For me, i've gotta do that currently since the everything is so far away from the water heater.

 

yea, just followed up with them to see what my options would be for this....and if there is an outside option.