Tankless water heater recommendations

[sbornia]

Our ~12 year-old Noritz NR71-OD tankless water heater is acting up in a few ways -- slow to heat, periodically runs out of hot water, and most recently, throwing some kind of error that requires restarting it. A local tech did a routine service cleaning of it a few months ago and I'll have them take another look.

But in case it's time for a replacement, I'm curious what those of you in the know would recommend. House is small, 1200 square feet, with 1.5 bathrooms, washer, and dishwasher. Maybe a Noritz NRC66 OD would be the current-day equivalent? Any other brands worth considering? Or attributes that are important?

Thanks!

[thollandpe]

Answering a question with questions...

Are you stuck on natural gas?

Would you consider a storage tank?

Because under most rate structures a heat pump is similar or lower in cost to gas. But you'll need a tank and a place to put it. And if that place can handle the noise and needs cooling and/or dehumidification then it's a big winner. Like a basement where you already run a dehumidifier. Boom, hot water for free.

I like the Stiebel-Eltron Accelera E units because they're straight heat pumps, not "hybrids" with a backup resistance coil for high demand. They even have a savings calculator: https://www.stiebel-eltron-usa.com/p...-water-heaters

[sbornia]

Thanks Todd, I'll look into that. Not sure if we have sufficient space for a tank given our tiny basement and the crawl space's low ceiling height. But I have been curious about heat pumps as a replacement for our conventional gas furnace because of their cooling properties in lieu air conditioning, which we do not have.

[ides1056]

I was asking this question of a friend tonight: Rheem ProTerra Hybid Electric was his suggestion.

https://www.rheem.com/heatpumpwaterheaters/

I have been considering a Steel-Eltron on demand unit because the house is tiny.

[open roader]

Located in Australia, however similar predicament :-

12 months ago we finally rid ourselves of a similar wall mounted gas fired instant hot water system.

Replaced with a Rheem Ambiheat 270L electric heat pump. Perfect for a couple with enough hot water for a house guest. It uses compressed ambient air to heat water - very efficient and inexpensive to run, however has more initial cost compared to simply replacing your wall mount heater. The unit has less than 1m square footprint.

Zero regrets, much cheaper to run and better for the planet as we generate our own solar electricity to run it.