Jul 01

On demand water heater. Does it burn out if the water is turned off?

Maintenance Repairs Add comments
Gosh asked:


All electric house. I am considering adding on demand water heaters in two places. They cost at least twice as much as a tank type.

Does an on demand burn the heater elements if the water is turned off? My tank type does burn out the heater elements if the water level drops below the elements in the tank.

Also, is the on demand water heater repairable or would a person have to buy a new one in case of failure?

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4 Responses to “On demand water heater. Does it burn out if the water is turned off?”
  1. marvin A Says:
    July 4th, 2007 at 5:51 am

    you want to buy a water heater that you know you can get parts for with relative ease.So you should shop around before you buy. I would go to a plumbers supply house rather than a HD or some other large chain for this item.
    Electric on-demand water heaters do not turn on until the water flows,,they do not even have a pilot light (like a gas water heater). If you shut off the water it will not harm the heater.
    An electric on demand heater will have an individual 240 volt circuit breaker FOR EACH HEATER. So you can always flip the breaker off and isolate the system.

  2. William B Says:
    July 5th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

    tankless heaters have a flow sensor in them they wont work if theres no water flow,
    never had to repair one so cant tell you on that,

  3. sensible_man Says:
    July 6th, 2007 at 4:36 pm

    Good luck repairing a tankless heater. Many Plumbers install them but do not perform any maintenance or repair. They are state of the art items and need someone who has been trained in repair.

  4. mel Says:
    July 7th, 2007 at 11:46 am

    good question. if your turning off the water, best to turn off the hot water heater also.
    all the point of use HW heaters I’ve worked on have a small quantity of water in them (4 oz) which stays 120 deg. as soon as there is a call for water, the cold water coming in triggers the stat to heat up the water.

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