"Big_Jake" wrote in message
...
On Feb 9, 3:18 pm, "Art" wrote:
My actual question is in the last paragraph but I wanted to provide some
history first.

My direct vent gas water heater went thursday. I was surprised to learn
that replacement was about $1600. I remember replacing an electric water
heater in my last house 11 years ago was about $400. Any savings in
fuel
is most likely wiped out by installation costs for gas.

Wondering if you are in $US or some other currency. I have a 75
gallon power vent that cost me around $750 on sale about 2 years ago,
and I could have bought a better one for around $1000. $1600 sounds
pretty steep for nearly anything under 100 gallons.

So I decided to waste even more money. I went with a Rinnai tankless
water
heater. Guaranteed 12 years and supposedly should last 20 years. Only
$3200 and it will be much more efficient.

The Bosch tankless are carried by Menards here, and run around $1100
for the larger size. I would guess that the Rinnai cost more, but 3
times as much???

JK



The prices I quoted were including installation. The Bosch tankless are
supposedly bad news.... they are not sensitive enuf at low flowrates and
often don't turn on when needed. For some reason, power vent gas water
heaters are cheaper than direct vent and many more models are available in
power vent versions. One thing that added $350 to either installation was a
new code requiring gas pipe to be grounded to electrical panel. That means
running a heavy ground wire about 100 feet in my partially finished
basement. Intended to act as a lightening arrester I am told.