Tankless Water Heaters

[AwayOnBusine$$]

Anybody have any experience with these items, seams there are a number of manufacturers with various sizes. Really only need for doing dishes and basic morning chores.

[LandVF36]

The biggest problem is the amount of current they draw. Even the smallest ones often require 50+ Amps of power. Since most of our boats have single 25A or dual 25A service, even with the lightest demand, you would think you would be tripping any breaker in your panel or the one at the pedestal at the dock.

[AwayOnBusine$$]

LandVF36, good point I will certainly keep that in mind during my search.

[AwayOnBusine$$]

LandVF36, The Eemax EMT25 Point-Of-Use Mini Tanks Tankless Water Heaters Electric is a 2.5 gallon unit and is rated at 15 amps, this is the one I was looking at. Thanks for your input.

[LandVF36]

That should work. By having a smaller unit, you can have a much smaller element and let time be your friend. Let us know how it turns out.

[prowlersfish]

By using a" point of use" your limited to hot water at one outlet I believe . Also the water temp will vary by the temp of the incoming water unless they have improved them .

[bjanakos]

It's really not a "tank-less" water heater. It's actually just a small electric hot water tank. You would install this inline with the hot water supply on a sink that is far from your hot water tank. The idea is that you would save water by not having to run your sink and waste a few gallons until the hot water shows up. It will drain the 2.5 gallons of hot water and you would have purged your lines by then and have hot water from the main source.

It will NOT heat incoming cold water and make it hot at the tap.

[JasonBilly]

However, there are pros and cons to them like there are for just about everything. Some people will love them and some people will hate them.

Here's a good article on the good and bad: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06210/709475-30.stm

Since I live alone and don't use much hot water during the day, it's ideal for me. In a large household where people are constantly showering, running a dishwasher, doing laundry, and making other demands on the system, the cost of installation and higher cost of energy with each firing can negate any savings pretty quickly.

It will be nice to get the tank out of here, though.

[Reel Easy]

There are (point of use) like an instahot that is for one fixture and there are tank less water heaters that would work great on a boat if. 1 they are rated for marine use and 2 do you have enough Amps to safely operate it. They have improved most of these and you can set the temp electronically. Some even have built in recurculating pumps that are on a timer. So you could instantly have hot water at the fixture 1st thing in the morning.