Answers

Tankless water heaters are great but they typically cost two to five times more to put one in a house that wasn't built for it. They frequently require gas and venting upgrades beyond what was installed for the tank. Then there is the need to flush and descale the tankless and perform maintenance every 500 hours of use. (That can vary according to how hard your water is) That is typically once a year for a family of 4-5. Even the best tankless water heaters are only able to increase the water temperature by 40 degrees at 12 gallons per minute. I love tankless but they come with a much higher cost and maintenance. Be prepared for all that or put in a Rheem Pro grade 50 gallon gas heater. For value and performance I am a fan of the PRO+G50-40N RH62

Typically $750 - $1,000 is an acceptable range, based on specs for the heater, location of the unit and fuel source, with gas being more expensive in most localities. Some models with higher performance or longer warranties coual add to those numbers.

$800

Norman, thank you so much for your question. Without having a better idea of how the vent pipe makes it to the roof (straight up or bends while making its way up) I can not accurately advise you on this. If you are in the Houston area please feel free to give us a call and we will get you set up with a free consultation. Do you have a tankless purchased or are you still looking to buy?

A great feature to have.  If you don’t have a shut off valve ask the plumber to install one.  If you leave on vacation or have a leak you can easily shut off the water to your condo. Check with the association first for the insurance Compamy also.  Billy Gavigan

I would start by performing a flow test at your shower head. Get a 5 gallon bucket and open your shower head full open and time how long it takes to fill bucket. If you fill the bucket say in 1 minute, this means you are emptying 50 gallon tank in less than 10 minutes. (Divide 50 by number of minutes) Keep in mind as you use hot water, it is replaced with cold water, so hot water temp is dropping from the moment you start. Secondly, you most likely temper your hot water with cold which then extends this time. In short this is just a guide but tells you how long it takes to empty tank. If this works out that your emptying bucket in shorter time than your shower, concider checking flow restrictor on your shower head. If this is not the case then call the installer of hot water heater.  

Yes, contact the installer. Hae them check it. Just from the sound, it could be anything from a bad heating element, malfunctioning thermostat, to being plumbed backward, to name a few. Either way somone qualified to diagnose and repaitr the problem needs to look at it.

I would recommend contacting the company that installed the water heater

What make & model is your new water heater?

Sorry to hear of your troubles.I would first start with calling the company; they might not know that the installation was not done correctly.Given the opportunity most contractors will correct the mistake.If that does not work then I would call the local Better Business Bureau. Also most states have a home improvement regulatory commission of some fashion. In our state, Maryland, contractors must be licensed by the Maryland Home Improvement Commission.Dissatisfied homeowners can file a complaint to the commission for unsatisfactory work.

As with everything the BUYER MUST BEWARE. It is you the homeowners responsibility to do your homework BEFORE you buy. The home improvement industry is full of smooth talking salesmen that promise the world. Hire contractors that have a long history of reliable service. They usually are not the cheapest contractor in town; but high quality reliable service does not come cheap. In the long run they will be your cheapest option... considering the fact that now you have to do the same job twice!

It all depends on the companies policy. Here we would of course be more than happy to come out and look at everything, and fix them for you, but we also do provide 10 year warranties to our customers, so it may be different for the company you worked with. I would definitely call and let them know when the work was done, everything seemed fine, until you had an attic inspection scheduled and they had informed you about how poorly the job was done. Most companies should be more than happy to fix mistakes on their end for any customer they've had! 

Good luck with everything, I hope it all works out and gets fixed for you!