My house was built in the late 80s and has a tankless hot water heater, oil. Its on its last breath and we need to replacce. When its cold and are heating the house, we do struggle with getting a super hot shower and I assumed thats becasue our unit is old.
I cant seem to get an unbiased opinion on whats best tankless or tank for hot water.
Anyone have any thoughts?

Jim,

Do you have a burnham/beckett setup? If so, I have the same setup as ours was intstalled when the house was built in 1990.
Mine seems to be on its last legs and we're planning to replace it with something similar, but it will have a new 15 gal hot water storage tank. So yes, get the tank as it extends the hot water supply. With just my wife and I its no big deal, but once the kids drive the hot water demand up I don't want to be the last one in the shower staring down at my cold water induced....well, you get the idea.

We did this a few years ago...

Buderus G115 boiler with a Crown Mega-Stor indirect water heater. I think it's about 70 gallons but I'm not 100% sure. Could be a 40.

We have 4 zones set up to thermostats and a 5th zone that keeps the indirect tank at temp.

Overall we're very happy with the setup. Sure, you can drain the tank if you take a very long and hot shower, but it's plenty for most uses and recovers very quickly.

-spence

when is the last time the boiler got a GOOD cleaning?


do you have natural gas in your neighbor hood?if so i would recommend a tank.no more oil usage in the summer.

if not look into getting a boilermate.

Jimmy,

I would recomend getting a larger storage tank (50-75) where you are a family of four,when kids get older they will be the biggest offenders of depleting the water.
Sceondly you want a high recovery rate some where in the ball park of 80% of the tanks capacity to 1hr.or higher.

IMO
I like having the two seprate tank and boiler I belive it's more economical.

Jimmy if you want a hand let me know.

Amtrol Boiler mate . It's piped to your existing boiler and you could get them in varying sizes 40 up to maybe 100 gal.

My house was built in the late 80s and has a tankless hot water heater, oil. Its on its last breath and we need to replacce. When its cold and are heating the house, we do struggle with getting a super hot shower and I assumed thats becasue our unit is old.
I cant seem to get an unbiased opinion on whats best tankless or tank for hot water.
Anyone have any thoughts?

I have been in the plumb&heat industry for 30 years.I can help you but I need to speak to you.Just pm me if you are interested.
If not,heres my 2 cents. If you stay with oil,Spence has a nice set up.The day of the boiler with a tankless heater is unfortunately not over.They are still sold because of thier low cost.
Spence describes an "indirect" water heater.This is the standard set up over in Europe where they are about 15 years ahead of us in heating technology.Because the tank is controlled like an additional heating zone the boiler no longer has to maintain a minimum temp,like a boiler with a tankless.This alone sets the stage for impressive fuel savings.
There are sooo many indirects on the market.They all perform,as long as the proper sizing has been done.They all have impressive stand by heat losses---about 1/3 to 1/2 degree per hour.They all have good warranties.
Best bang for the buck.Vaughn Top Performer.Stone lined.Great performance.
Best tank made-Viessmann Vito Cell 300.Stainless steel.Unlimited lifetime warranty-And priced like it!!
I am not selling anything here.This is just my job and I am offering my help as requested.

I have been in the plumb&heat industry for 30 years.I can help you but I need to speak to you.Just pm me if you are interested.
If not,heres my 2 cents. If you stay with oil,Spence has a nice set up.The day of the boiler with a tankless heater is unfortunately not over.They are still sold because of thier low cost.
Spence describes an "indirect" water heater.This is the standard set up over in Europe where they are about 15 years ahead of us in heating technology.Because the tank is controlled like an additional heating zone the boiler no longer has to maintain a minimum temp,like a boiler with a tankless.This alone sets the stage for impressive fuel savings.
There are sooo many indirects on the market.They all perform,as long as the proper sizing has been done.They all have impressive stand by heat losses---about 1/3 to 1/2 degree per hour.They all have good warranties.
Best bang for the buck.Vaughn Top Performer.Stone lined.Great performance.
Best tank made-Viessmann Vito Cell 300.Stainless steel.Unlimited lifetime warranty-And priced like it!!
I am not selling anything here.This is just my job and I am offering my help as requested.

Thanks for the input. I'll likely be in the same shoes as Jimmy before long.

I anticipate as soon as my "boat" fund is saved up the furnace will need to be replaced:crying:

Out of curiosity, and I'm not asking you for a qoute, what is a reasonable amount to budget for a system (Viessmann Vito Cell 300)like you desrcibed above?

I've had 4 quotes over the last month. Seems like all I do is talk boilers.

Bob 5/0 - thanks for the offer, we have a bunch of guys neighbors had reffered to us so we are all set.

So far, I like the Energy Kinetics System 2000 over the Buderus set up. Im still waiting for the quote on the Buderus set up so not sure what the $ difference is. I am also adding in the programmable thermostats to gain some more efficiency. Thanks to all for the advice !

Jim, you talking about putting a programmable on the water heater?
I have to replace my 11 year old stand alone gas 40 gal tank this year, what do people suggest?

Jimmy,
Programmable t-stats are great,don't get carried away thinking thoughts of grainger with turnning you heat whaaaaay down when you sleepiong of when not home.You will not save $$$ do not go more than 5 degree increments when in un-occupied mode or when sleeping night time setting mode anything more than this will defeat the of economical aspect of the t-stat.

Jimmy also check with you utility company (gas and electric). They do have some rebates available for t-stats and high efficiency gas boilers.

Jeff

If I may say that we have a 40 gallon tank next to the boiler, system is about six or seven years old and runs great. I never had enough hot water for damn decent shower with the old tankless setup. I can be in the shower now though, have a load of wash going, run the dish washer and my back is being roasted by hot water in the shower. I always felt bad for the wife before. You know the girls like thier baths and we couldn't squeeze an inch of water out of the old tankless before it went cold.

Jimmy,
Programmable t-stats are great,don't get carried away thinking thoughts of grainger with turnning you heat whaaaaay down when you sleepiong of when not home.You will not save $$$ do not go more than 5 degree increments when in un-occupied mode or when sleeping night time setting mode anything more than this will defeat the of economical aspect of the t-stat.

Will do, I'm thinking it will be 64 for wake time and 60 for sleep. Thats basically what I do now, just manually. The house gets a ton of sun, so its sually pretty warm during the day.
Thanks again!