I'm asking for some advice about tankless water heaters from people that have them. Electric or propane? I don't have access to natural gas. Do they work as good as they say?Where I'm considering using one would not use a lot of hot water and it just seems to make more sense than using energy to keep a regular water heater hot all the time.

I put one in our house 15+ years ago. I went with what I found a good deal on. It was Rheem, which is generally an acceptable brand. Under warranty the circuit board started acting up and they sent me a new board. It lasted a few more years and the heat exchanger started leaking. I don't think it was installed but 5 years or so.

I did some research online looking for forum posts from techs making comments like "where i work we only install brand X because we get too many callbacks from others". That lead me to Rinnai brand. It wasn't that much more in purchase price. I think we've had it at least 10 years, no issues.

We love it. It is every bit as good as people say.

A friend has a Rinnai. No issues with it

Just replaced one on Monday mine is LP I already have LP for my other appliances. I prefer the LP over electric it’s just easier to hook up I just added a 110 plug to the closet and hooked up gas and in/out water then the exhaust.

It’s not what it sounds like, the term “on demand” is out there a bit it’s closer to “it’s coming soon.” The new one seems quicker than the old one it replaced heating up . I replaced the igniter rods (3) on the old one a few years ago so I got my money out of it.

The biggest advantage I think is there’s no tank to bust the bad thing is it’s a computer that heats water but you can service it yourself if you’re comfortable doing so. I took my time changing my heater out bought a same size model. It came after lunch it was up and running by 2PM. I cleaned all the threads on every connection.

Have a Rheam...it is on-demand and it supplies hot water quickly and you cant run out no matter how many showers, faucets, and appliances are running. I think its very important to size it correctly to the size of home, number of bathrooms etc. Ive read good things about Rinnai as well....just have no personal experience with them.

I bought a small one for the cabin, LP but needs 110 volt for the igniter. Heats up in 45 seconds or so. I put in a 125-gallon stock tank outside for a soak tub, fills it in about 40-50 minutes. Best thing I've bought in a long time.

If its minimal use, a 100lb LP would probably do everything you need.

Thanks all. Sounds like I definitely need to consider it.

If I just run water with the new one it makes a noise like it’s pre staging if the hot water is called for, the old one did not do that and nothing happened until the hot water faucet called for water not just when the cold moved in the line. Maybe that’s an improvement to get hot water faster somehow? To soon to tell but there’s nothing like a hot shower.

I keep the temp setting where I’m comfortable when I shower just turn on the hot no adjusting needed that way just straight hot with a 2 knob system.

I wouldnt get away with that. My bride likes her water a much hotter than I can stand it.....

I’ve had one for 15 plus years. No complaints here. Fantastic as far as I’m concerned

I would never go back to a tank.The only downside I’ve found is you can’t trickle hot water as it shuts off on low flow.

They have made improvements in the designs my old one had a control panel on a cord the screwed into the wall to adjust the temp now it’s built into the face of the unit eliminating the need for a cord. It even has WiFi like I can’t reset by walking over to it that will never get set up. LOL

Wife could not shower at my temps I like it hot hot.

Electric tankless water heaters just don't work like advertised. If you have the power available in your panel it will be nothing but problems in the long run. I've only seen one house where it actually worked but they have 3 electric tankless-1 for each bathroom and they are grossly oversized to make it work. The house is occupied by a liberal nut job which is why they went electric over gas. For tankless GAS is the only way.

I have a Rinnai brand. Services 4.5 bathrooms, no issues. Went with electric versus gas just for the upfront cost. If I had to do it again, would probably have gone gas. My only complaint is there is a max temp to protect from scalding. I've maxed it out on the setting and have comfortable showers, but it's definitely not as scalding hot as my water heater tank used to get.

Thanks everybody.

Agree gas is WAY SIMPLER electric is way more challenging in many ways.