hot water heaters.. tankless or standard??

[jjohnson17]

I hope yall can give me some insight. I have hard water from a well. I have a problem with build up in my hot water heater. I was going to just get another one when a friend suggested these tank-less hot water heaters. He said that since there is no standing water in the unit I wont have to worry about the buildup as much plus these things are more energy efficient. I have found one from Bosch for not mush more than a 35 gallon water heater. I have read both good and bad things about these units, but it seems to be a good deal and a great improvement in efficiency. What do you all think?

[Robert]

Moving this over to Mobile Home Repair Forum.


Please follow it there.


Thanks,
Robert

[Greg]

I have not heard anything on the hard water problems and tankless heaters. I would think that since you are still heating the water the lime & scale would drop out of it, just not sure if it would stay with the heating coils or if it would come out the faucet. Greg

[Demolition]

One thing to consider would be the location and application. For a bathtub or for lots of dishwashing, I think a standard model would supply a better volume of hot water. For just a bathroom sink, where you are not using lots of water, a tankless model would probably be OK. You still have to get power to it and it uses maybe 500 to 1250 watts of 110 AC power.

As far as the water softener, check with your local rural water company and find someone to test it. Even in the same county, you can have water with Iron, Lime or Sulpher a few miles from each other. The type of Minerals will determine what kind of treatment you need.

In the long run, it may cost the same to tap into rural water supply if there is one available. They would have already treated the water but you will have to pay a water bill every month.