I stumbled across Everun Tankless Electric Water Heaters at this year’s National Hardware Show. Frank Menditch, their VP of sales was kind enough to give me a quick tour of their electric tankless water heater. Despite being in Las Vegas, their display unfortunately did not include the nude model seen in the promo image here. Sigh. Anyway, the Everun electric tankless has one key feature that sets it apart from many of their rivals, it runs without coils. I’ll provide a little info here, and then go on to explain why tankless would be a horrible solution for saving energy in my particular home.
Although coilless technology may not sound like much, it’s a unique system that offers several advantages. If you have ever seen the inside of a conventional water heater (a used one), you know that lime scale buildup can gradually take-over your water heater. Seriously, those minerals just go nuts in there. Once I got over the disappointment of the missing nude model at their booth, Frank pulled the cover off their electric demo unit at NHS, and pointed out how several tubes made of quartz efficiently heat the water through indirect heat transfer. This increases the longevity of the unit and provides a machine that is maintenance-free. Other electric heaters on the market immerse coils directly in the water in order to heat it, causing hot spots which get that funky scale build-up and a decreased heating efficiency.
Everun also put some effort into style and appearance. Rather than assume you’d tuck your instant water heater away in a dark utility area, they decided the heater could actually be installed where people might see it. Gasp! Everun opted for a sleek industrial design, with a red LED smooth touch™ temperature control panel. The result is an easy-to-use interface as well as an easy to clean surface that resists dirt or moisture. About the size of a traditional medicine cabinet, they feature an optional shelf skirt to hide the pipes and valves. The new Everun units provide an unlimited supply of hot water on demand. Which leads me back to why they won’t work at my house.
As the daughter of a navy man, you might expect my wife to like quick showers. You’d be very wrong. Back when we first bought our house, she complained bitterly about running out of hot water. I couldn’t really understand why until I realized: 1) She has no heat-sensing nerves, which means she showers basically only in hot water (water that would scald me, but apparently has little effect on her). 2) She likes really long showers.
Being the dedicated, conscientious and HomeFixated.com husband I am, I dutifully waited several years until our water heater died (see lime scale references above) before replacing it with a larger model. At this point I dusted off my hands and assumed I had finally solved my wife’s water heater woes. Turns out, now she just takes longer showers . . . and then runs out of hot water. If we were to install an instant tankless water heater my wife would never run out of hot water. Do you see where I’m going with this? She’d never stop showering, and I’d be left to managing the household singlehandedly, which I can assure you I am not capable of.
For those of you that don’t have infinite hot water needs that would bankrupt you and render your household completely useless, Everun makes three electric and three gas units, which come in various capacities to meet the hot water needs of everything from one sink to a whole home (in case she’s reading this, a home with my wife excluded). They are available for pre-order and will be in retail stores early fall with an MSRP of $499-$599. Sorry, MSRP does not include nude Las Vegas model.
I purchased a unit from AHI a few months ago and I’ve had nothing but issues. I finally took it down after talking with another very similar product manufacturer that claims they are the patent pending holder of this technology. They did make comment of, no matter where they are, or how many times they change their name, they will be dealt with via the law. I put one of the other guys unit in which may not be as good looking, but it sure worked better and I’ve had no issues to date. Granted it’s only been a couple months. Time to return the unit to AHI.
Hi Tony will you let us know whose water heater you opted for after the one From AHI ?
Thanks
did tony ever give a response?
Tony which brand of water heater did you buy to replace the AHI unit?
Sorry for the delay. I just came across this and forgot I even left it. It was the Supergreen unit. They have lots of different types and are world wide. I came across their UK sight today as well. My unit is still pumping out hot water today with out ever an issue. I just order an IR6000 for my whole house hot water now that I know their product works so good.
Tankless electrics can be great but you really have to do your homework, and they don’t work for everyone. Here in Massachusetts in the winter time the water entering the house is barely above freezing, and the unit I had could barely keep up. The water in the shower never really got hot, just ‘pretty warm’. Then there was the problem of the second user. If you took a shower within a couple minutes of the previous person, the water delivery profile went like this: First you’d get the prewarmed water that was sitting in the pipes between the heater & the shower, then you’d get a slug of water that was SUPER HOT, this is the stuff that has been sitting inside the heater in contact with the heating element while the water wasn’t flowing. Then you got hit with a slug of FREEZING COLD water, the stuff that passed through the heater before the elements had heated up enough to start warming, then it even out to the regular not quite hot enough.
We also had problems with the hard water eating the threads of the screw in heating elements, causing it to leak. First time it happened I sent it back under warranty (and thankfully they provided a loaner). Second time it happened I discovered it from heating the sound of running water in my basement. Went down there and discovered a flood on the cement floor with water spraying out of the heater’s box. I was not too enthused about having to cross the potentially electrified lake to reach the breaker. Luckily that was not an issue, but that was the final straw. Ripped the thing out and bought a conventional 50 gallon hot water heater that day.
Wow Drew! You always have the most “fun” home improvement stories! ; ) Glad to hear you didn’t get electrocuted, but I’m sorry to hear the whole tankless experiment didn’t go so well for you guys. There’s definitely some differences of opinion when it comes to tank vs. tankless. However, I’ve noticed tankless seems to be becoming a lot more mainstream (get it, “stream”?) these days. I talked to a plumber I know about tankless several years ago and he was entirely skeptical about them. We talked about tankless technology a few weeks ago, and now he’s a fan, and installing them regularly. But your suggestion of really doing your homework ahead of time is a great one (for this and many other home improvement projects). Thanks again for sharing your experience, I’m sure it will be helpful to others in terms of some issues to be aware of pre-installation.