Tankless water heater 1

[rchanke]

Does anybody know of a (electric) tankless water heater that is 110/120 volt 15-amp? All I need is something very small. I have 15-amp service available and would like to avoid rewiring for 30-amp as most 120 volt heaters seem to be.

 

[Montemayor]

This type of water heater was very common in Europe -at least in the many hotels I stayed in. The Europeans simply insert an in-line heater on the cold water line going to the shower in their bathrooms. The electric (220v, but it could just as well be 120v) heating element activates on water flow and trips out on no-flow. I never had problems, except a slight inconvenience of waiting for the water to warm up - but this can be a characteristic of tank heaters as well, if not designed correctly.

Art Montemayor
Spring, TX

 

[rchanke]

Like I said, all I want is something small since I'll be putting this in-line on the hot water line coming from the existing hot water heater, which is very far away. I need this for a single sink only,,, that is so far from the main hot water tank it virtually takes 2 minutes of running water to get any warmth out of it. My intent for the tankless water heater is just to assist in providing hot water,,, not as the sole hot water heater for that point.

 

[sailoday28]

I have an IN-SINKERATOR hot water heater. It has an extremely small tank maybe 0.5 pints which is electically heated. Ideal for tea or instant coffee.

 

[JStephen]

You might check McMaster-Carr,

http://www.mcmaster.com.

I remember seeing the types of water heaters that Art mentions in Popular Mechanics long ago, and I suppose they do sell them here. One drawback is they take more power (while heating) than a tank type water heater, so you have to have wiring work done to put one in a house. The big advertising point they always made was that you had as much hot water as you needed, never run out.

Have you tried Home Depot? I know our kitchen sink at work has a very small tank-type water heater under it, it quite likely runs on 110, though I never thought to look.

 

[JStephen]

I just checked McMaster-Carr. Their smallest tankless unit, for undersink use, is 3000 watts. Their smaller tank units (2-19 gallons) are 1500 watts, which should be just under 15 amps. Might that work?

 

[rchanke]

I've found some small tank type heaters that run on 110V - 15amp, which I have in place. But these heaters have a pressure relief valve and require a drain. The inline tankless is desired because it is essentially just that, inline. Just under my special circumstance, having it only piggybacking my existing water heater, I don't require a very robust heater and do not wish to rewire for 30amp service.

 

[dfru]

If you are serving a sink, you will have to use a small storage water heater if you are limited to only 120 volts and 15 amps. An instantaneous water heater with that rating will only provide approximately 6000 btu/hr of heating. This equates to only a 24 degree F temperature rise at 0.5 gpm of flowrate. ie. - if your incoming cold water is 60 degrees F, it will boost the temperature to only 84 degrees F.

A small storage heater is your only alternative.

 

[ToneTech]

Hello rchanke, I was wondering if you solved your problem. I am currently looking to do the same exact thing for my kitchen sink. I am tired of wasting 3 minutes worth of water just to get hot water to the sink. I too want an inline heater that will shut off when hot water from the main water heater arrives. Please let me know if you have found a solution. Thanks Tom

 

[friartuck]

Try Heatrae-Sadia in the UK. The make every type of instantaneous water heater you can imagine.

They can be over sink, under sink, with expansion vessel, without expansion vessel etc. etc.

There are many mainland European equivalents as well.

The Italians and Spanish do some excellent water heaters.



Friar Tuck of Sherwood

 

[pennpoint]

ToneTech & rchanke

You two might concider a recirculation pump.
I might be less expensive to operate over time.

http://rewci.com/whhohotwaci.html

With additional crossovers you can add the benefit of instant hot water to other outlets and a low cost.
The timeer operates the pump at peak use hours only

Best Regards

pennpoint

 

[henerythe8th]

rchanke,
The link that pennpoint left above is interesting and I have seen a "homegrown" equivalent that I like even better, but it can require a return line if you still want "cold" water at the location. The system in pennpoints message uses a pump on a timer, which recirculates at specific times, which is convenient but wasteful--to a degree. A similar system can be built with a pushbutton control that recirculates the water without the waste.

Just another idea,
henerythe8th