On Wed, 10 May 2017 16:14:58 -0700 (PDT), Andy
wrote:

On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 3:45:43 AM UTC-5, Trumpster wrote:
On 05/09/2017 08:24 PM, trader_4 wrote:
A typical whole house 40 gal tank type is ~35K BTUs. I just posted
a link to a typical whole house tankless they claim is for a 2- 3 bedroom
house. It needs 200K BTUs. How do you get 200K worth of gas through
the piping going to a 35K water heater? How do you get enough gas in
the house using the existing line to support the furnace, cooking, dryer,
etc and the new 200K load? Must be some miracle gas at work in
AL or those people are taking cold showers. Around here gas lines
in homes were sized to the loads expected at the time and nobody was
expecting or sizing to an additional 200K load, which is probable
equal to what the whole house with all it's loads at the time was
sized to.


And people don't think about what happens when that tankless fails while
taking a shower. Suddenly the homeowner is standing under a stream of
55F water trying to rinse the soap out of their hair.

No thanks, give me a good old fashioned tank type.

So does the old style fail slowly, allowing you to replace it before a total failure ??

My experience is that the old style water heaters last at least 15 years.

Andy
Mine last about 18 years before they start to drip. A friend who
rents his just had another one replaced in under 5 years. He has yet
to see one reach 10.