Water Heaters - Water Heater Mysteries - and going tankless

Hi All -
Last couple months I have been noticing that there seems to be a pressure build up released from every faucet in the house when we turn on the water. All the internal faucets are on mixers. Then, about 2 weeks ago, we noticed that the flow was down substantially - the water temp didn't seem to be too different - still sufficiently hot for a shower. Today I was in garage and turned on the hot water laundry spigot and found VERY low flow.

I am guessing that since the water heater is 12 plus years old, it's time to replace it, but wondering if someone can explain for me any relationship between the high pressure problem we were having earlier and the low flow problem we are seeing now.

Also am thinking about going tankless, since the current gas unit is located in a closet in the kitchen. Would be curious what kind of expenses areassociated with installing tankless vs staying old school.

Thanks,
Brian

I have gas fired tankless water heaters at my home, my office and at 3 of our rentals. They can work well, but we encountered a number of issues when installing them.

I’ve put up this page describing some of the installation issues we encountered, and how to resolve them:

Tankless Water Heater Installation FAQ - Paragon Real Estate Inspections Wilmette / Chicago (http://www.paragoninspects.com/tankless-heater-home-inspection-evanston-chicago-il-faq.html)

wow Michael T. that is a very well written and thoughtfull page on tankless heaters. I had done a lot of research on them and several of the things you mentioned came up but it is great to see it in one place, the pay back period is the main reason I decided not to go with one in my new house.
to the moderaters, (may we consider a link to that page in the stickys for the plumbing section)

life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies

There could be a variety of things going on. If you want to analyze the problem I'd start by buying a water pressure gauge that will screw on to the drain valve of you water heater with a hose type fitting.

Turn on the drain valve and measure the water pressure when the various events you describe are happening.

The high pressure problem might be generated by thermal expansion of the water in the tank when it warms up. You should determine whether such pressure is excessive which might cause damage to plumbing fixtures.

With the current low flow problem, you need to know if the pressure is low or normal at the tank in order to start identifying where the problem may be.

Michael - thanks for the link, I agree that is a great wealth of info and I appreciate not being left a sheep among possible sales wolves. I still want to investigate it because of my concerns about a water leak with a tank damaging the hardwood in my kitchen, but I'll be better perpared now.

SP, thanks for the advise on the pressure issues. I'll let you know what I find.

Thanks again
Brian

Mostly likely, the outlet on the tank is clogged. When the system sits for a minute or two, there is time for the normal pressure to build up throughout the system and is released when a faucet is opened. At that point, the clog in the tank is realized as reduced pressure. Fairly common occurrence with older tanks and some tankless water heaters that haven't had proper maintenance. Viridian tankless heaters aren't susceptible to this problem