You can't leave us hanging. What drink are you making?

JB and coke. 50/50.

Nice choice. Makes me want one. I like Jim Beam, always have.

Hi Bob,

If you don't mind me asking, about how old is that unit and the approximate cost to repair. Just curious as to how long you can expect one to last as I'm considering going thankless when my current heater gives up the ghost.

75/25 and I’m in

Yep. Cheers

Changing the entire unit costs about $680-$700. Similar to a tank heater unit I think. It didn't fail due to scale buildup, it failed electrically. This 36KW heater requires 4 Double Pole 40A breakers. One for each heating element. There is no current at all until you turn on a faucet calling for hot water. Then a flowmeter in the input line senses flow and the controller turns on to supply current to each of the 4 stages of heating. There is a temp sensor in the input line and the output hot water line. The controller will vary the current to each heater element depending on the flow of water demand. Measuring the current on the #1 element may be 31A, #2 element 28A, #3 12A, #4 1 A, etc. As the water heats the current backs off on all of them. It is easy to diagnose with a clamp on Ammeter on the element wires from the TRIACS.

The TRIACS are semiconductor devices and they can go bad. I think mine was for #2 and I believe this allowed an overheating of the #2 element.

This heater is 4 years old. The TRIAC part was ~$45. The heating element was $59. There was a copper heating element for $49 but I opted for the better quality Stainless one.
I don't know why it failed. The bad element appeared to be twisted and that could have happened when it was installed at the factory.

So I could have repaired this unit for $114. It is a very easy unit to work on in the attic. 4 screws and the panel cover comes off exposing all the parts. There is no water to spill or drain to change the elements or any of the TRIACs or the electrical controller.

They say that if you have heavy mineral water that you need to flush the elements every year to prevent scale buildup. It was never done on this one to my knowledge. You can see the #1 functioning element in the photo and it has some calcified looking scale but not that much.

I was very skeptical of this system when we bought this house in November of last year. But we always have hot water for back to back showers, etc. and the only time the heater draws any current is when you turn a hot water faucet on somewhere.

Hope this info is helpful!


Looks like Hon Dipot has a complete replacement for mine for $624. Easy to change out too. They have different KW versions depending on house size and or hot water demands.

Hell I haven’t had 9 beers in my life and I am 77 years old. Cooked burgers outside at noon.

No smoke? (Cannabis?)

wish I could say that.. I’ve had more than that today. In my defense, it’s hot as hell out here today.

Wow. Are you Morman?

What's that Baptist joke?



Every time you find four Baptist, You find a fifth.

Where i grew up the methodist drank at the country club. Our Baptist preacher owned a beer store on the county line.He stayed busy.