Hi Folks, We finally got our place off the sidewalks, and now the questions start!! Does anyone have a Aquastar tankless water heater, and how do they like it ? I love the idea, BUt the price is intimidating to say the least. Thanks, Kevin

-- kevin beckey (Kevcin@bemail.com), April 18, 2000

Answers

I'm not familiar with the Aquastar, but am familiar with Paloma gas/propane tankless water heaters. I would have one again, but we did find that with no tank we would have about two minutes of good hot water, then two minutes of cooler water while the thing fired off again. Other than that, I believe they are reliable. My dad still owns the one I referred to above, and after about thirteen or fourteen years it still seems to be working fine. So maybe you can figure payback from that, as they are expensive.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 18, 2000.

I had one installed in my previous home and liked it very much.

I went from a natural gas water heater to a natural gas Aquastar. An unexpected expense during installation was that I needed a bigger gas pipe for the Aquastar.

Aquastar was inexpensive to use. A big cost savings.

Although I always had hot water with the Aquastar, I never felt as though it was hot enough. Part of the problem was that the water heater was located on the oposite side of the house from our kitchen and bathrooms.

-- walt (longyear@shentel.net), April 18, 2000.

Yes, I have the Aquastar 125. We love it! It has an adjustment so you can have blistering hot water should you want it for some reason, or gently warm water and everything in between. When adjusted correctly it does not pulse on and off like someone else mentioned. Endless hot water, as hot as you want, for as long as you want. We have been living with this water heater for 2 1/2 years so I guess I know most of it's quirks by now, ask me anything you want to know about it.

-- Les (lvaughn@suntransformer.com), April 18, 2000.

We have a small Paloma, and it works fine, no pulsation as mentioned before, but we are considering getting an Aquastar. I think that they are worth the money in the long run due to energy savings. They are now owned by Bosch and are even better (as far as I can determine) than they were in years past.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), April 18, 2000.

On a related subject: I have a Corona brand instant water heater. It is actually the shower head, so it only heats the water for that location. I bought it in Costa Rica for $19. It's made in Brazil. I've never seen them sold in the US, but they are quite common now in Peru, Bolivia, and Costa Rica They apparently haven't made it as far as Guatemala, Belize, or Mexico yet.

My question is, "has anybody else found a source for these here in the US? I looked a year or so ago on the net, and couldn't find a web site.

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), April 18, 2000.

Kevin, I'll let you know in a couple of months. :-) This thread is especially interesting to me since we're building right now, and have decided to use at least one Aquastar.

Les, I'm encouraged that you're so pleased with yours. Our house is going to have a guest room with its own bath. Do you think it would be smart to get a big one for the house proper; washer, kitchen, our bathroom, and a little one just for the guest bath? I'm wondering if we'd have to hold off washing the dishes while a guest takes a shower or something like that?

-- Jorja Hernandez (jorja@color-country.net), April 18, 2000.

Jorja, We don't have any trouble with more than one person using the hot water at a time, but we live in a small cabin where the lines are short, and the water heater is quite close to the kitchen and bathroom. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. I would say that if the guest bath is some distance from the heater you might indeed want to think about a seperate one for it. What I might suggest would be to plumb everything so that you can add the extra heater later and just try it with the main one. You might find that it works fine. These heaters work off water flow. The more hot water that is called for, the higher the flame burns, thus heating the water better.

-- Les (lvaughn@suntransformer.com), April 19, 2000.

Thanks for the answer, Les! Our place is 30' X 50' with the bathrooms on opposite ends. That's a great idea about leaving room for a second heater if needed, our plumber is supposed to come up and start his rough-ins today.

We're having him plumb in a diverter for greywater too. Not exactly code-compliant, but lots of people do it, and the local inspector looks the other way. I can't see washing veggies, etc. and wasting that water into the septic system.

-- Jorja Hernandez (jorja@color-country.net), April 19, 2000.

Jorja, Ok, just remember that they take a larger vent pipe than regular tank heaters (6" if I remember correctly, I;m at work now so I can't go check), and a larger gas line as well. Let me know how it works out for you.

You can look at the water heater specs on Jade Mountain's web site:

www.jademountain.com

That's where I bought mine.

-- Les (lvaughn@suntransformer.com), April 19, 2000.

We used to have a instantaneous water heater. It was awful. I don't remember the brand name and the thermostat never worked right on it. In our bathroom shower the water would go from scalding to freezing. It seems that if your not pulling enough water through it at all times it would not kick off and freeze you to death. No water conservation with that model. We took it out because it became to dangerous. It made the hottest water I have ever seen, and the people who had our house before us had to replace some of the plastic pipes because of melting. But like I said I don't remember the brand name. You might have better luck.

-- Beth (dwright@river-valley.net), April 19, 2000.

My Aquastar can be made to pulse on and off like this. Ours did at first, until I figured out why. Turn the thermostat up so high that the hot water steams and is way too hot to hold you hand in. Install a low-flow water saving shower head. To feed the shower head install an el-cheapo one handle shower control. In the shower, set the shower knob to just barely in the hot zone. The Aquastar will then pulse off and on slowley, alternating freezing and hot water. This can be easily cured by re-setting the thermostat so that the hot water is just hot enough so you don't have to mix much cold water in it. I set mine just so wife has water hot enough to wash dishes, and I can have a nice warm but not hot shower in the summer. It takes a little experimentation to get it just right. Works fine.

-- Les (lvaughn@suntransformer.com), April 21, 2000.

I just bought a bosh tankless heater for $275.00 in Tijuana, mexico. I am having trouble with adjusting the water temp. I called the distributor. told me the low flow shower heads were the problem. Still working on it

-- nicolas (renardnicolas@hotmail.com), July 03, 2001.