[Strawbale] Passive Heating/Tankless Water

[Ryan McCulley]

We also have a Takagi, TK-Jr. We have no problems with sinks,
dishwasher, washing machine. The temperature in the shower and bath is
fine, too. We just have low pressure in the bath/shower (about 1.25gpm
when turned all the way to hot). I've contacted the bath faucet
manufacturer and they suspect it is the pressure balance valve, that
it may be clogged with mineral deposits. So we'll replace that and see
what happens. My wife and I both recall the pressure problem first
occurring some months after installing the Takagi (so we don't think
it's the water heater), and agree that the problem seems to be getting
worse over time.

Nonetheless, the bath faucet manufacturer does not recommend tankless
water heaters with their faucet products. So we don't expect it to
improve much without replacing the single-handle bath valve.

I did read the FHB article and it was interesting, but doesn't seem to
address the problem we are experiencing. We do get the cold-water burp
if we take showers in quick succession, but that's not really our
lifestyle and is preferable anyway to running out of hot water
entirely with a conventional tank.

I'll post a follow-up after I install the replacement part the faucet
manufacturer is sending us.

Ryan

On Jan 10, 2008 2:17 PM, Barbara Roemiller <roemiller at infostations.net> wrote:
> Ryan,
>
> We had similar problems with our tankless, and assumed the problem was
> with the valves.  Replacing the single lever sink valve with a two
> lever model seemed to improve the situation - at the sink only.  Of
> course use at a sink is different, in shorter bursts, from with the
> shower, so some shower problems didn't show up at the sink.  I'm glad
> we didn't remove the shower single lever valve before investigating
> further.  We had a new, unused, but purchased-second-hand tankless,
> and after much checking with the only remaining service person in the
> US, finally realized that we had not quite enough pressure at some
> times as our water tank provided sufficient pressure when the tank was
> full but less as we drew down the water.  We now have a Takagi which
> works beautifully.  The only remaining glitch is a burp of cold water
> if you shut off the shower and then turn it back on shortly
> thereafter.  We also run filters at the wellhead and just before the
> tankless as we have lots of minerals in the water.  Hope you find a
> simple solution.  The FHB article Dot mentioned might be very helpful
> to you if you have a normal-sized house.  We have a tiny little cabin,
> and dealing with the burps is preferable to sacrificing any more space
> to water heating.  All the variations, including solar water heating,
> as I remember, are dealt with in the article.
>
> Barbara
>
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-- 
Ryan McCulley
ryan.mcculley at volny.cz

http://villagersonline.com