Tankless Water Heaters
Tankless Hot Water Heaters, Efficient, Effective, Endless.
Tankless Hot Water Heaters, Efficient, Effective, Endless.
Feb 18th
Rheem Tankless water heaters
Follow this company back and it is basically leads you to the founder of the modern day water heater “Edwin Ruud”. There is definitely a lot of history here and the company has several locations throughout the world. Rheem is the largest manufacturer of water heating units in North America. Rheem has a number of residential tankless hot water units to suit the various home water demands

This system is rated at 4.2 gallons with a 45 degree Fahrenheit temperature rise, it would best suited for smaller applications. Rheem suggests that this tankless be installed in homes with only one bathroom.
View Specifications Sheet – Click HERE
Rheem RTG-53 SeriesThere are 3 tankless systems in the 53 series but they’re all able to provide the same amount of hot water. Should you have a 45 Fahrenheit temperature rise this tankless would provide 5.3 gallons of hot water per minute. The difference in the three systems is the way they are vented; indoor direct vent, outdoor, and indoor power vent.
View Specifications Sheet – Click HERE

There are 2 tankless systems in the 66 series, you can select either an outdoor model or the indoor direct vent. This tankless hot water heater is able to provide 6.6 gallons per minute at the standard 45 degree Fahrenheit temperature rise. This a new tankless series introduced by Rheem, they recommend these units for 2-3 bathroom homes.
View Specifications Sheet for the Rheem RTG-66 tankless – Click HERE
Rheem RTGL-74 SeriesThis series of tankless water heaters is recommended for homes with three plus bathrooms. There are 3 different venting options and thus 3 different models. The 74 series tankless can provide 7.4 gallons per minute of hot water with the 45 degree Fahrenheit temperature rise.
View Specifications Sheet for the Rheem RTGL-74 tankless – Click HERE
All of the aforementioned models can be equipped with up to 3 remote temperature controllers enabling you to change water temperature from any room.
These units are also expandable; Rheem offers what they call an easy link cable enabling two units to be connected together doubling the amount of hot water produced.
Rheem also has several commercial Tankless water heaters but that’s for another post.

Feb 11th
Rinnai Installation Diagram |
If you decide that a tankless water heater is a good idea for your home you should consider the requirements that your house will need to meet first. Tankless systems have a number of additional needs over your conventional tank water heater. We install more Rinnai than any other system so I will give the specifications for this system, although they are all quite similar.
A 3 FT clearance is required for the following:
- a. Windows
- b. Any exhaust outlets – Furnace, dryer vent, kitchen vent etc.
- c. Gas Meter – The vent needs to be at least 3 feet from the gas meter and the pressure relief valve.
The vent also needs to be 1 foot above grade and cannot be vented into any shared walkway that is less than 5 feet wide.
This diagram should help explain it.
Or get a Free in home consultation and have an installer who really knows “the tricks of the trade” help you find a spot for your Rinnai Tankless water heater. And as we all know installation can be tricky in Canada with existing gas codes and venting requirements. Get a Quote here
Feb 10th
Buying a Tankless in Ontario |

So you’re thinking of getting a tankless water heater and you live in Ontario, that’s good these systems are excellent for the environment and your bottom line. Most…. Actually all of these systems are designed outside our country and thus outside our climate. You should take some extra precautions before purchasing a system.
If you take a look at the map you can extrapolate a rough estimate of ground water temperatures for Ontario. Sorry there doesn’t seem to be an accurate map of Ontario’s ground water values anywhere. I would use 35-37 Fahrenheit as a good starting point; your incoming water will never be much colder than that. The tankless water heater you choose will need to warm the water up from your starting temperature to your desired level. If the incoming water is 35 and you want hot water to be 110 your tankless needs to heat the water 75 degrees. This is quite a relatively significant increase and to produce this level of rise requires the water to pass through the heat exchangers at a slower rate.
In the summer Ontario ground water is often between 50 and 65 Fahrenheit, to reach your desired 110 degree level the water only needs to be heated 45 degrees. Sensors in the tankless measure incoming and outgoing temperature levels and adjust flow rates accordingly. Thus a system rated to provide 5 GPM (gallons per minute) with only a 40 degree temperature rise will likely only produce maybe 2 GPM in the winter when water temperatures are really low.

When you’re purchasing a new tankless for your home make sure you pay close attention to the tankless heaters specifications. Make sure that it is able to provide an adequate flow rate when your incoming water temperatures are at the lowest in the winter.
Feb 9th
Takagi Tankless Condensing Unit
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The Takagi Flash T-H1 tankless water heater is a new condensing unit available to house hold consumers.
This tankless heater has an average efficiency of 95% with propane as its fuel source and 92% when natural gas is used. In our Canadian climate you can expect about 4 plus gallons per minute in the dead of winter, and much more in the summer when ground water is warmer.
The Flash T-H1 is able to provide about 3 simultaneous showers when ground water is at or below 40 Fahrenheit. This tankless is unique in that it has two heat exchangers which enable the water passing through to absorb much (90 to 97 percent of it) of the heat generated from combustion. The stainless steel secondary heat exchanger has been added to collect waste heat from the units vent stack and divert it to pre-heating the incoming water. This secondary exchanger causes some condensation that is slightly acidic, Takagi has included a collector and a built in neutralizer that allows the drainage to be plumbed into your standard drainpipe.
This tankless water heater employs a variable gas input which allows the unit to produce only the amount of heat necessary to warm the water to a household’s desired temperature. At a maximum this tankless can produce 199,000 BTU’s per hour and in ideal conditions provide 10 gallons of hot water per minute.
There is a downside, the Takagi condensing tankless water heater is quite expensive, but it is one of the higher end units with a very high efficiency rating. Also unless you buy the Takagi temperature controller you are limited to only 4 preset temperatures, 113 F, 122 F, 140 F, and 182 F.
This is a very interesting system but we havent had any direct hands on experience to draw on yet. We should be getting a trial system soon at which point we will provide a new update and evaluation.
Feb 4th
Navien Tankless Water Tank
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Firstly let’s get this straight; Navien is a brand of tankless hot water heater not Navian.I have seen this
spelled wrong many times, Navian (I googled it) is nothing, definitely not a tankless water heater.
Navien has 6 residential models (CR-180, CR-210, CR-240, CR-180A, CR-210A, CR-240A) and then 3 commercial units (CC-180, CC-210, CC-240). These tankless water heaters are all relatively similarly designed but as you go up in model number you increase the amount of hot water the tankless unit can provide.Here is a quick list of each units performance.
We should definitely look at the efficiency of the Navien tankless water heater which is currently the only condensing unit on the market.This extra step gives Navien the efficiency title, currently rated at 98%, therefore 98 cents of every dollar spent on heating your water is actually turned into hot water.This is an amazing number as most tankless water heaters are 10% to 15% less efficient. Of course being the first on the block has its issues, the Navien tankless water heater is facing some problems from rubber hoses becoming blocked. This has been reported numerous time in several forums around the internet.
The good thing is that most of the other Tankless water heater manufactures are working on their own form of tankless condensing units.This should give the consumer a good choice in high efficiency water heating.
CR-180, CR-180A……Specifications Sheet
CR-210, CR-210A…… Specifications Sheet
CR-240, CR-240A…….Specifications Sheet
This write up was done in February of 2009 so its been over a year now and there are a number of alternate condensing tankless water heaters available now. Navien was the first on the block and realistically you cant beat the price of the unit, even today its still lower than all condensing tankless units. Sure there has been some issues regarding the system but thats to be expected from a new technology (we will be authoring a new post on all these problems and their fix, check back soon).
Navien problems and the Fix – Click here to read
If your interested in a Navien tankless water heater fill out the form below and we will contact you, there’s no obligation and at the very least you will be more informed on whether a tankless is right for you or not.
Navien has spent a lot of time reworking their tankless water heaters and removing all the bugs and issues that have plagued them in the past. I feel more than confident in 2012 to recommend their new tankless water heaters.
Call Toll Free 1-855-696-8265 for any questions, issues, or for Navien prices. Otherwise feel free to send us a quick message with the form below.
Jan 30th
Hot Water Tank Thermal Images
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Here are some thermal shots of a conventional hot water tank, as you can see there is a lot of heat loss
occurring. Sure during the winter months this is probably not a very big deal as the heat leaks into the house. During the summer when you are paying copious amount of money to keep your house cool a conventional tank sits there 24 hours a day leaking heat, and costing money. Additionally if you can see the vent pipe coming off the tank it is quite warm, this is wasted heat and energy being directly
vented outside. That is lost energy and money for you. A tankless water heater has a much higher efficiency rating which significantly reduces the amount of heat and energy vented out of the house. The increased efficiency also means that there is less heat escaping into your home during the cooling season.
More pictures to come soon.
If you are interested we can bring the thermal camera out on an in home consultation and you can see first hand why your conventional tank is one of the largest energy waters in your home. Fill out the simple inquiries form and we will contact you within 1 business day (please specify if you would like us to bring the thermal camera).
Jan 28th
Guide For Tankless Purchase
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Did you know that in your home you are probably paying $60.00 or more per month to simply maintain the heat in a conventional tank type heater? How is this possible? Its simple, your regular tank loses its heat up the flue, or out the chimney, then when the water cools it reheats, and send more money and heat out the chimney. This is occurring even while you’re sleeping or at work.
You likely use most of your hot water in the evenings and morning, do you ever run out? Tankless water heaters are able to overcome these problems. A tankless never runs out of water and can have efficiencies in the high 90’s, you will never run out of hot water in your shower with a tankless.
All of the Earths resources are finite and thus as supplies become scarcer prices will continue to increase, minimizing your consumption reduces your bills. A tankless uses energy only when you ask it to provide hot water, a conventional take keeps water hot even when you’re not there, costing you money. Tankless water heaters will save you more money over their lifespan (20 plus years) than it will cost for the new unit. Plus a Tankless water heater takes up limited amounts of space, is easy to clean, and is easily operated.
Tankless Brand and Venting. With all the different brands available to consumers there is a plethora of venting options to vent the various units. Some tankless water heaters can be vented horizontally and others can vent vertically. The majority of tankless water heaters also have computerized safety devices to protect consumers. Most conventional tanks don’t have these advanced safety features.
Applications and Uses. Some applications of tankless water heaters are: boats, mobile homes, RV’s, and radiant heating systems.
Return on investment. The payback period for tankless water heater is between 3 to 7 years, this is dependent on both energy cost and personal use. If you are a high hot water consumer it will speed up the payback process, if you normally use very little hot water then the payback takes a little longer. Remember though, tankless hot water heaters experience zero standby heat loss and this are much more efficient than conventional tanks.
Energy Audits. Currently the Ontario Government has an incentive program that promotes home energy efficiency. It starts with a home energy audit that assesses the current efficiency of your home, after it is completed a report outlining the current state is sent to the home owner. There is an 18 month period for any renovations to take place; once they are completed a follow up audit is preformed to confirm that all retrofits have been accomplished. At this point grants and incentives are sent from the government to the retrofitted home owner to offset some of the costs.Just installing a tankless water heater qualifies you for $500. Check out the Audit page HERE.
Tankless Lifespan. The expected life of a tankless water heater is roughly 20 years. We have customers who still have their tankless water heaters and it has been in service for more than 20 years. A major reason for this is that tankless water heaters are serviceable, unlike conventional (disposable) tank type water heaters.
Find out more. Tankless water heaters will serve you and your homes hot water needs for years to come with reliable performance. It is important that you size and install them correctly for this type of performance. This is where we at the Tankless Hot Water Guide can help, fill out the contact form and we will contact you to set up a free In Home Consultation. The REP will be able to guide you in your purchase by measuring your water consumption and advising you as to where a tankless can be installed.
Jan 26th
Rinnai R75i Specs
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