Takagi T-H3-DV-N Condensing High Efficiency Natural Gas Indoor Tankless Water Heater, 10-Gallon Per Minute, 199,000 BTU

I installed this unit a couple of weeks ago, and it's been working like a charm. It was pretty easy to install, but I'm a pretty handy guy, so I don't know how easy it would be for a regular joe. Its flow rate of 10gpm assumes you're not heating the water to 131 degrees, which I am. The higher the temperature set point, the less throughput because it takes longer to get the water up to temperature. I originally installed a Takagi T-KJr2-IN-NG Indoor Tankless Water Heater, Natural Gas , with a rated GPM of 6, but the flow was so low at 131 degrees (2.9) that it took almost 20 minutes to fill the tub for a bath. This unit, even at 131 degrees, has a flow rate undistinguishable from the 50-gallon tank water heater it replaced. Of course, it cost twice as much as the T-KJr2, so that makes sense. This is a condensing unit, which means it puts out water that must be drained appropriately. If you don't have a drain nearby, that's going to be a problem. The condensate is because this unit improves efficiency with a secondary heat exchanger, which extracts what otherwise would be waste heat exiting up the flu. Instead those hot gasses are used to help heat the water, and the much cooler gas is then vented up the flu. This cooling of the gasses causes water to condense out of those gasses; thus the need for a drain tube. How much heat does this save? Well, the vent for the T-KJr2 was too hot to touch when the unit was in operation; with this unit the vent is barely warm to the touch. In fact, instead of having to use double-walled stainless steel venting, I was able to use 3" PVC tubing. If you have very hard water, don't expect a trouble-free existence with any tankless unit. They are very sensitive to scale buildup (as is any water heater, but tankless units particularly so). My house is equipped with a Culligan whole-house water softener, but in the interest of overkill, I installed two filters ( DuPont WFPF13003B Universal Whole House 15,000-Gallon Water Filtration System ) upstream of the water softener. So before the water gets to the water heater, it passes through a sediment filter, a carbon filter, and then a water softener. According to my HVAC guy, this will greatly extend the life of the water heater. (The two filters also means I can now drink water right out of the tap, anywhere in the house, without that nasty chlorine taste.) In short, I highly recommend this unit. Plus, it looks really cool!

Ordered, arrived quickly,as described. Had issue with bar codes blacked out with marker. Made couple of calls to make sure Would ok to install. Had to change gas supply line , up size it . Had plumber friend help install. Took good part off a day to install. Because had to run gas line differently, exhaust vent lines differently , to meet today’s building codes . Knew that before I bought . This is a great heater . Works great , got hot water , not warm water. Have not had installed to figure out savings . Replaced older tank water heater . But should have a lower energy bill. Instead of heating tank of water all the time , just heat what I use . If ever need again ,would buy another , and would recommend. Attaches to wall , keeps off the floor, saves room . And should get the savings from having to heat a tank full of water all the time . To just heating as I use. Overall very pleased. Regards. gh

The Takagi T-H3-DV-N is a nice and efficient tankless water heater. It is Uniform Energy Factor = 0.93 per AHRI, which is impressive. Like other high efficiency tankless WH's, this unit has a condensate discharge port to which you need to attach a 1/2" PVC line. The installation was fairly typical ... no surprises. What I was most displeased about was that the unit arrived in a badly damaged box that had been clearly cut open at the base and taped back on in a sloppy flimsy way! The seller may have sent us a returned unit, but he claimed that they open all OEM boxes to "add" protective Styrofoam !? Anyway, I would have returned the nit in an instant if I was not in a bind to get our hot water going again. > My strong advice to you is this: do NOT buy water heaters from this particular seller (Global Towne). I did leave a seller review for this purchase, but the seller called and pledged that I delete my bad review because it hurts their business ... and I did. Again, this is a shady seller and you're far better off buying from another source, even if you have to pay a little more.

I have now had this unit for just over a year. So it's been through an average cold winter and two summers. Heats up super fast, faster than our electric unit did. Mind you the Takagi is located closer. We run laundry, the dishwasher a few showers and this thing does not flinch. I almost feel like it's "overkill" to get this. Having zero worries about ever having to worry about hot water and having had an electric heater that could actually burst and/or leak makes me sleep easy at night. I know some people are oblivious and are surprised when their water heaters burst and floods wherever they have it, I am aware (read anal) and constantly monitor my HVAC and other systems. The electric water heaters clearly have their warranty's listed and how long it will be warranted!. If your heater has survived past the date on the plaque, you need to replace it. The perfect time to order one of these now. If you have gas, pay the few extra hundred $ for this unit, you will be glad you did. Keep in mind, the unit is dormant when you're not using hot water and doesn't cost you anything, unlike an electric unit. Qualified plumber installed my unit in about 3 hours. Reasonably easy install though.

Originally we liked this. But it's dead within the first year. The pipes on the heat exchanger broke. There are U-curves that allow the water to flow back and forth over the flames in the heat exchanger. The welds were not done properly on one side and they started leaking. Unfortunately, the heat exchanger is on the top of the device... the electric device. So the water started frying things. We learned about this after resetting it a couple times. At first it was weird. When it became frequent, we opened it up and saw water inside from the breaking pipes. Called tech support and they had me rip it apart to remove the burner. In doing so, the pipes broke more. Didn't figure this out until I had re-assembled the thing and turned it on again. The tech support offered to send out a new heat exchanger for free. They blamed 'bad water' on the welds failing in 10 months of use and are giving us the part... we just have to pay shipping. So a year in, I have to rebuild our water heater. And they mentioned at the end of the call that since the water will have damaged the other parts, be sure to call when they fail so they can send out those replacements... if I pay shipping. This isn't 'goodwill'. They know they have a defect in their heat exchangers. And now that defect has trashed the other components. We are supposed to be without hot water for days while they ship us parts and more parts to replace the parts the first parts broke? Forget it. Buy your water heater locally. This one is a kit that you'll have to keep rebuilding with more parts. I wish I could give it no stars. We have spent about $100/month for this ($1000 to buy it and 10 months of use before the pipes broke). Don't buy anything online that you can't live without for a day. We live up North. We can't go without hot water in the winter. It's just not worth it to freeze your butt off in the shower so you can save a few bucks. We love Amazon. But Takagi's service and their product are junk.

I've had this sitting in the garage waiting for me to install it for 8 months now. Our current 50 gallon tank was only 3 years old so I wasn't in any hurry. I relocated where the heater was installed a few feet and tore down the old closet in the garage the tank was in so just for that reason going tankless is a good thing. Now I have a lot more garage space. I'm a plumber by trade but not really in the industry any longer so I had installed hundreds of tank type heaters in my life. We were always of the belief that these tankless instant type heaters were a joke. That might have been true several years ago but they've come a long way since. The install was a little tedious. If you aren't moving your location then it will be a lot easier. You will almost certainly need to upsize your gas piping though. Most tanks use 1/2" gas piping and you can't run 1/2" very far if you intend to get the 200K BTUs these units require. I only had a 10' run of 1/2" but I didn't want to take a chance so I upsized to 3/4". Other than just the labor involved the install is relatively straight forward, not much unlike a tank heater install. I could not get used to the idea of using PVC pipe for a vent but, after firing the unit for the first time I'm almost surprised it needs any vent. No heated air comes out of this thing, it's like it's 100% efficient. I fired my unit initially with only a 3 foot section of PVC stuck through the ceiling and I crawled into the attic just to gauge the temperature of the exhaust gas. Well, there was none. I assumed the unit wasn't heating but it was. 125 degree water right at the tap and virtually no hot gas exhausting out the vent. Quite impressive! And the thing is almost dead silent when it runs. Time will tell if it's as good as it started off but so far I have no regrets. The first shower I took with it last night after working all day on sure was nice, and plenty warm. I will miss my water circulation pump though, with our tank heater we were able to have instant hot water right at the faucet. The pump we have now is not usable with this tankless heater and I'm certain what options are available for that. Having to run water for a couple of minutes sort of seems like a waste to me, I guess water is cheaper than gas but still.

Great product. Going on 8 years. No issues. Maintenance free and no more bulky poorly made AO Smith products that self implode in 7 years.

We have loved ours. We had to replace our old Tank Style Gas water heater as it got red tagged as unsafe by the gas company, it used to be used with a gas furance to go out the flue but when the direct vent gas furnace was put in they left the water heater and it wasn't creating enough draft to get all the combustion gases out. I replaced the tank with the Tankless over the course of a weekend, the install was challenging due to the angles needed to get the PVC Vents for intake and exhaust to the concentric vent properly with proper slope. but it was not too bad. We have loved ours, we were worried after hearing the stories from other people that we may not get hot enough water but even on the coldest of winter days we have gotten all we need and have never ran into an issue where we had too many showers or appliances running to get enough flow through the tankless heater. And no more running out of hot water, and as a bonus it takes up less room.