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I blew $1,200 on a tankless water heater and it was the wrong call for my Denver house
I want to warn folks before they do what I did. Two winters ago I paid $1,200 to swap my old tank for a tankless unit, thinking I would save space and money. What nobody told me is that my 1950s house on the east side has hard water, so the thing needs a flush every year or the warranty is void. The bigger problem came in January, when the water going in is around 40 degrees, and the unit could barely keep up with two showers running at once. My wife was standing in a cold stream while I was in the other bathroom, and I paid all that money for less hot water than before. The installer also had to run a new gas line and vent, which added another $600 I did not plan for. I ended up going back to a regular tank last fall and I am out the money on the first install. If you have an older Denver home with cold incoming water, what did you end up doing? Did a bigger tank or a different setup actually fix it for you?
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harper_owens8d ago
Going bigger on the tank is the easy fix and it usually works. A 50 gallon tank with a good recovery rate handles two showers fine, and you skip the yearly flush and the cold water problem completely. If you want to stay tankless you'd need to size the unit for the coldest incoming temp, not the average, and most installers just don't do that math for you. I'd also check whether the water is really hard or just a little, because a softener can pay for itself either way. Running two showers at once with 40 degree water is just asking a lot from any tankless unit that wasn't bought oversized.
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