On Thursday, January 31, 2013 6:19:43 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Jan 31, 9:05*am, "Existential Angst" wrote:

http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pag.../Longevity/tan....



Now, this guy sells anodes'n'**** for tanks, but I found his take

level-headed.

The raw thermodynamics of tankless -- esp. gas tankless -- puts one big

strike against tankless from the gitgo.

--

EA



It's a decent summary of the various issues involved. The

only points where I would disagree are where he claims it's

$600 for an installed tank versus $2500 for an installed

tankless and more if it's a retrofit. I can see the $2500+ for

some, maybe a lot of retrofits. But for a straight swap it

seems very high. And I would disagree that a well insulated

tank type unit's energy issue is only the pilot light and loss

through the pipes. The basic, cheap conventional that

he's comparing to has a flue that goes right up the middle

of the hot tank. A significant amount of heat is lost via

that path when the tank is just sitting there. You can

reduce that path via one of the direct vent type units,

but then those are significantly more money and like a

tankless have more install work involved for a retrofit.



I also have some doubts about the claims that manufacturers

of tankless come and go. That may be true with some, but

there are major manufacturers that have been around a long

time, including well established companies that make both

tank and tankless.

Just because a manufacturer is still “around”
doesn’t necessarily mean that they still carry the parts.
Most manufacturers of anything don’t maintain parts
for anything over five years old.
I can’t begin to count the times
I have had to give-up on a model of something or another
just because they no longer had a part for it.