Home water storage with tankless water heater? (Inline/Integrated water storage)

[Car Ramrod]

My wife and I are building a house and will be installing a tankless water heater.

Have any of you installed an inline or integrated water storage system in your home? Typically you have 50g stored free and easy in your water heater, but obviously a tankless heater has nowhere to store said water. The thought is if the container is plumbed inline it will constantly be refreshed with new water and there will be no need to maintain it as it would probably be exchanged at least once every couple weeks or so, if not more often. My main concern is finding a container that will withstand the pressures of municipal water. I was not looking to use one but the SureWater tanks are not rated for pressure (stated on their website), which lead me to question which tank or tote would be suitable for this application.

I do not want to use water heaters.
I would prefer not to use well pressure tanks.

I am not sure how much water I would be looking to store, but definitely no less than 100g and ideally 250-300g?

Thoughts or comments?

 

[lonehoosier]

The only reason why I store water is because if the municipal water is contaminated I have clean water. The way you want to do if your water becomes contaminated that water in those containers are no good to drink or sometimes even bathe in. Now I could understand doing it the way if you were on a well but I still would want to have separate containers of clean water.

 

[Thegeek]

I have two really good friends who are plumbers.... stay away from tankless

 

[Clarity]

I have a boiler that provides the in-floor heat, as well as the hot water needs. There is a storage tank for the hot water for showers, etc. A tank for that purpose would surely work.

 

[Car Ramrod]

I have a boiler that provides the in-floor heat, as well as the hot water needs. There is a storage tank for the hot water for showers, etc. A tank for that purpose would surely work.

Would that just be a boiler storage tank? I will see what I can find in that regard. I am having issues finding a pressure rated tank that is not a "pressure tank" for a well.

 

[tonybia]

Why the dislike of using a water heater? Why re-engineer the wheel? I am in a similar situation, however I am not doing tankless due to the alluded to problems I too have heard of.

Just follow my reasoning for a second.... Get a used but almost new water from craigslist. Place it inline just before the tankless heater. It will act as a tempering tank allowing the cold incoming water to be slowly warmed to close to room temperature, thereby allowing your tankless to work less by dropping the temperature differential of the incoming versus outgoing heated water. This gives you your emergency water storage. Then should you have the unfortunate need for hot water with a broken tankless- you can kick on your tanked heater and never miss a beat untill you get the tankless working again.

Two is one and one is none.

In my new house I'm building this year I am doing dual, tanked, water heaters for the above mentioned reasons.

Anyways just thought I would explain my reasoning for what I am doing.

T

 

[Car Ramrod]

Why the dislike of using a water heater? Why re-engineer the wheel? I am in a similar situation, however I am not doing tankless due to the alluded to problems I too have heard of.

Just follow my reasoning for a second.... Get a used but almost new water from craigslist. Place it inline just before the tankless heater. It will act as a tempering tank allowing the cold incoming water to be slowly warmed to close to room temperature, thereby allowing your tankless to work less by dropping the temperature differential of the incoming versus outgoing heated water. This gives you your emergency water storage. Then should you have the unfortunate need for hot water with a broken tankless- you can kick on your tanked heater and never miss a beat untill you get the tankless working again.

Two is one and one is none.

In my new house I'm building this year I am doing dual, tanked, water heaters for the above mentioned reasons.

Anyways just thought I would explain my reasoning for what I am doing.

T

For the amount of room a water heater takes up versus the capacity, I could get more capacity in the same space by not using one and just using a tank or container. I would need 4 or 5 water heaters to get near the storage I would ideally like to have. I also thought it would be much easier to find something to use for a tank, but my searches have proven otherwise.

I do understand the tempering of the water before the tankless, and that was going to be a fortunate side effect of doing this. We're on the same page there.

 

[Lee11b]

Remember when the clear glass "whistler" brand tea kettles came out? They were popular until all the crap and sediment became QUITE visible in the glass kettle after about 10 uses..... Most tankless water heater companies will not warranty past 5 years.... on year number 6, LOOK OUT!!!! 6 years of sediment crap build up in those fine capillary tubes, plus they usually have 2 circuit boards, plus MULTIPLE pressure/ temperature sensors....all made in Mexico and China.....and other countries, who really don't care that your water is hot the day after the tankless water heater leaves the factory.