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I have had a tankless gas WH for 24 years; English-made Myson. We soon found that the pressure dropped significantly when used and the hot water dropped dramatically when another user turned on another HW valve in the cabin. We have a 2 story cabin, so this labored the water pressure upstairs.
I added an older 30 gallon electric tank that we plugged into the dryer outlet next to the heaters (i added the 220v cord from the hardware store). It lasted 5 to 10 years before it leaked,but it really helped. I replaced it with a 40 gallon from ACE and it has worked very well.
We don’t plug the electric tank in during the summer. It seems to keep water hot enough just from daily use of the tankless heater.
We NEVER run out of hot water in the winter, even with no electricity. I recommend our setup. It can probably be used with a smaller 10 to 20 gallon electric tank also. Both are located in a small laundry room, and the tankless model should be drained since a small amount of water remains in the base, however, because i am lazy, I plug in a hot oil heater in the winter, and that seems to do the job for the last 5 winters.I replaced a 50g propane tank water heater with tankless at my cabin about 2 years ago. I used the Navien brand (model NPE-240A), so no direct experience with Noritz. Overall i have been satisfied with the Navien tankless, but haven’t had it long enough to gauge long term reliability.
There is lots of material on the web for the pros and cons of tank vs tankless, that i presume you have already reviewed. Here are a few comments to consider when using a tankless unit, especially in the mountains:
– Flow rate. The flow rate for a tankless water heater drops off considerably with requested temperature rise (difference between incoming water temp and your desired temp setting). Since our incoming water temp is extremely cold in the winter, make sure that the unit you select can handle the flow rate for a large rise, to cover all the fixtures you want to turn on at the same time.
– Power outage. Most propane tank water heaters require no electricity so they work fine during an extended power outage. Most tankless units require AC power, so you won’t have hot water during an outage unless you have a generator or some other backup for your tankless.
– Winterization. Make sure the tankless unit won’t freeze if you shut down your cabin for extended periods in the winter. Some units have built in protection for freezing (as long as they have AC power!).
– Waiting time. As the previous poster mentioned, the delay time to get hot water to a distant fixture can be even greater for a tankless unit vs tank, since it takes extra time to fire up the incoming water. At my cabin, i already had a hot water recirculation line that solves this problem. The Navien unit i used has a built in recirc pump with a small internal storage buffer that has worked great to avoid this.
Hope this helps with your decision. /larry
My brother in law has one. It wastes a lot of water getting hot water to distant bathrooms. I agree with the other people who posted about a backup water supply.
ScottI agree, I would like a tank of hot water when the poser goes off. Our 50 gallon tank will hold hot water for at least three days (limited showers).
I don’t know about any specific model, but personally I always like knowing I have a large tank of reserve water supply in the house in case of emergencies.
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