On Jan 31, 11:09*am, wrote:
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.
That sure has not been my experience. Recently bought
a carb kit for my Sears snowblower that's 15+ years old.
I regularly find any part I've needed for my 33 year old
classic Mercedes. And just found parts for my Stihl chainsaw
that's 40 year old.
In the latter case, not all the parts are still available new, but
that's an extreme case. And even then, used parts show up
on Ebay. I can't recall when I've had a
problem finding a new part for something that's worth repairing
that's 10 or 15 years old. The key is "worth repairing".
If it's a $25 appliance, well, that's a different story.
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.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -