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Posted

Two unrelated issues, but I'll start a single thread...

  1. In a multi-stage remodel we did a couple of years back, we changed the flooring in the bathrooms, leaving a small gap between the floor and the moldings on doors in areas where we removed tile.  The guy we had was good, unreliable, and well-priced.  He no longer lives in the USA, so we are looking for a decent carpenter to fix this.  Recommendations?
  2. Wife noticed water dripping out of one of the PVC pipes exiting the 2nd floor attic.  1 of our 2 tank gas water heaters (40 gals each in series) failed and the drip pan was doing its job (woo hoo)!  Now I need to replace. 
    1. With the annual freezes we are now having, would those of you with tankless still go with tankless?  I assume I want the tankless outside of the house, so failure does not flood my house.  Other thoughts or recommendations?
    2. I've used Proven Plumbing on a few things recently, and they've been competent.  Any other recommendations, esp. if I decide to go tankless?
Posted

I switched to a navian tankless. It’s in the attic where the tank heater was. A little more expensive but like having endless hot water and no tank to worry about and it’s more efficient

I’ve only gone through 1 austin winter so far but I think they have built in freeze protection now. I kept taps dripping in case anyways

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

I hope that your plan would be to replace both water heaters if they’re the same age and one has failed.  And that is your cost estimate when comparing to tankless. 
 

tankless could be garage or laundry room not outside, but make sure it’s in a place you can get to easily to descale it.  

Edited by Pato del Muerto
Posted
18 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

tankless could be garage or laundry room not outside, but make sure it’s in a place you can get to easily to descale it.  

Water softener, or filter. 

If water softener, will need RO for drinking, and the plumber to make sure outside faucets tap off before the softener. 

Posted (edited)

Tankless for the win, got it mounted outside (pipes insulated). Make sure you get one sized for the amount of hot water you use per day (GPD) not the size of the house. 

Edited by Mother mopar
Posted
6 minutes ago, Iceman said:

 

"unreliable" carpenter?  If not a typo, that seemed odd as I read it.

It was not a typo.  Good, reasonably priced.  Unreliable :)

  • Like 1
Posted

Definitely replacing both.  While my initial bias is against tankless, I think I am worrying about the 0.01% problems with them - and that most of the failure problems now have failsafes.

Posted

One of the hidden benefits of the traditional water heater is there is an available 40/50 gallons of water available for use.  It might not be convenient to get out but it's there for use in the event of a storm/outage/other.  We keep a backup (same model) unit at our place down South.  Low and behold, we went down during the winter and sure enough it had given up the ghost.  Next morning it was easy to replace, and we were back in business.  Both have benefits.

Posted

I've always had a water tank and have zero problems with freezes. It's a tank of hot water not prone to freezing. I also don't ever recall running out of hot water so tankless didn't appeal to me.

  • Like 1
Posted

My traditional 50gl  waterheater is in the garage.  We get single digit weather pretty much every winter, and sometimes colder.  Never remotely had an issue with freezing water during those times.( knocks on multiple pieces of wood)

Posted
2 hours ago, boilerhorn said:

Quoted around $6k for either tankless or 2x40 in NW Austin. 

seems high but it’s 2025 and Austin. 
 

going to get another opinion I think

2 years ago I had a tank failure. The replacement unit was like $800 but the installation was over $1000. Home Depot for unit and for the install service.  Don’t know if it should double for a 2 unit install or not, but attic install might add some time since mine was not up there. 

  • Like 1
Posted

I paid $1300 for my tankless and about $800-$1000 for installation in the same place in the attic. The converting they had to do was more time consuming than I expected

Posted

Our two 50 gallon tanks needed to be replaced as soon as we bought our current house. Quote I got was about $1K more for tankless so that's what I went with. Since mine is in the attic above my newly renovated kitchen I preferred not having 100 gallons up there at all times. Had my tanks been in the garage or utility room I may have just replaced them myself and saved a bunch of money.

I flush our tankless once a year and so far so good. Hope it stays that way.

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