On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 09:11:51 -0600, "Bob Dozier"
wrote:

:I had a Noritz N-069M http://www.noritz.com/n069.html in my newly
:constructed
:home of about 2500 sqft with 3 1/2 baths. I love it! With no circulation
ump
:at all, most hot water locations get hot water within a minute. The only
:real
:wait time for hot water is the master shower, it takes about 2 minutes. But
:the
:jetted tub just a few feet from the master shower gets hot water in about 30
:seconds.
:More water volume to the tub vs. the shower head really cranks up the
:heater.
:I'm in west Texas with very hard water - it is highly recommended that you
:have
:a water softner in place in hard water conditions.
:
:Give Noritz a pre-sales call, they were very helpful when I spoke to them.
:I considered zoning two units, but the sales guy conviced me the N-069M
:would be
:sufficient, but suggested that if you ever needed to, you could simply add a
:second unit. They are designed to work in tandem with a connector cable.
:
:...Bob

I have the same unit: Model N-069M-OD. It includes the remote control
unit, which I use on a daily basis. I set the temperature somewhere
between 110 and 120 depending on the weather when I'm going to take a
shower and leave it at the lowest setting (100 degrees) for sink stuff
(the rest of the time, except laundry). It cost $4000 including
professional installation. It was installed by virtue of a city
sponsored program, so it didn't cost me a cent. Part of why they did it
was to solve the problem of how to route a vent for my dryer. Putting
the water heater outside (which is how these are installed) resolved
that problem. The water heater it replaced was a standard 40 gallon gas
tank heater. I would never have had the idea of going tankless if the
rep hadn't suggested it, and I wasn't going to refuse!

It works OK. I realize that at this point I'm on my own and I just hope
it lasts a real long time because I don't presently like the idea of
spending big bucks to fix or replace it.

I have a question about it myself, being how it deals with changes in
demand. Obviously as flow of hot water increases or decreases the unit
has to respond by decreasing or increasing the gas flame so that the
water comes out at the appropriate temperature. I wonder if _overusing_
this will cause something to go bad. IOW, is it better to leave the flow
when washing dishes in the sink at one flow rate or is it OK to keep
changing the flow rate like I always did with my tank water heater.

The responses in this thread already taught me one thing: I think I need
a UPS if I don't want to do without hot water in the event of a power
failure. I guess it's no big deal, actually. Power failures, at least
ones that last longer than a few seconds, are pretty rare here. Being
without power would be a much bigger inconvenience than being without
hot water. And I guess a UPS that would supply power for more than 1/2
hour or so is going to be costly. So's a generator.

Dan