(Home) Water Heater Question

[Oneheadlite]

Have you thought about reconsidering a tankless heater? Sounds like you have a ton of work needed to properly vent the current unit. A tankless heater is typically vented with PVC pipe and ran straight out the side the the house (won’t tie into your current vent at all)

all things considered it may be cheaper to just go with tankless since you’re having to redo all your venting anyway. I would think that when you take into account the cost of the labor (which sounds like a lot) to bring what you have up to code you might be comparable in cost if not cheaper to go tankless

From talking to the plumber when he was at the house, a tankless heater uses a 4" exhaust in place of the 2" used on a standard water heater due to the drastically higher BTU`s. The problem is still that the exhaust (straight out the side of the house) is against building code in that it`s too close to the air exchange inlet. If I went electric tankless, then I`d be paying to have an electrician run the mega circuit to power it.

Tanksless is not a universal answer. Those need more maintenance annually. Gas line large enough or will it need to be upsized from the meter. Circulating pump, etc.

Agreed. I`m not gonna lie, it feels like it would be "easier" to go electric tankless and be done with the whole thing. But, given our water quality I worry about what annual life would be like. I think I mentioned earlier - at this point it feels like tankless is a good option if you`re building new, but not ideal if retrofitting an existing system.

The most recent development is now I can`t find someone to move the ducting. Everyone`s so consumed with building new houses and whatnot, anyone worth a dang is booked out months. (My wife`s folks had an appointment a few weeks ago to have someone come out to estimate replacing their deck; the guy later called to cancel their appointment because their entire summer is booked already. )


I`ve got a great guy I`ve used in the past that can help with the ceiling work, but he`s not HVAC licensed and doesn`t want to touch the ducting. I may talk to him about opening up the ceiling and doing the duct work myself and have him do the button up.

Hooray, more to research...

[Accumulator]

Maybe others don`t need such work done often enough to bother with it, but FWIW I`ve found that, as with the guys who work on my vehicles, it pays to be on a first name-basis with Plumbers/etc. It seems to really make a diff, from scheduling, to the quality of work, to even the price ("..I have a spare one in the truck, lemme just install it now while I`m here..no need for the Boss to know and make me redo the paperwork..").