I have a mobile home on my rural property. Hot water heater is shot. I looked at Lowes on the web and see tankless. I have no experience with them.

Not sure how it would work. Anybody?

Gas, Electric or Propane

Propane

Your question sent me to Google as I have often wondered about them.

Cons: The upfront cost is higher than tank storage— but tankless water heaters last much longer, so you even out in the long run. They require more maintenance than tank storage— but this is typically just an annual flush to remove any built-up sediment. Areas with hard water can lessen their lifespan.

And this:

So the consensus here on tankless water heaters seems to be don't get one. Correct?
I have a 40gallon gas hot water heater. Eventually it will go out and figured I would look at a tankless. Every post I read about them is essentially listing all of the drawbacks to them. So just don't bother with them? EDIT Having woken up to all the responses, I want to genuinely thank all of you for them. It seems as though my next one will actually be a heat pump hot water heater. Which I didn't even know existed. But seems perfect for my house as my heater is in the basement with all the space it could ever want. And as an electrician, all I have to do is bring a 240v source over to it.

When I built my new house in 2020. We put in two tankless propane water heaters. They need to be able to vent to the outside. And the closer they are to the point if use the faster you will get hot water.

I think all tankless, propane or nat gas, have require 120 volts to operate. They have ignition and control boards as a gas furnace. They are more prone to freeze and rupture during power outages if located out of living space. Of course, draining is simple.

Usually, the burner is much larger than a tank type. This requires an upgraded fuel supply line.

I would download an installation and owner's manual from the manufacture's website, read it and then decide if it a good fit for you.

Just make sure to not install it on the north side of the house. Whoever built my house put it on the north side and it would freeze up when the weather got real cold

If you have issues it can be a pain online getting it diagnosed and then wait for the part. This could be a few days without hot water, back during the great freeze in 2021 many tankless split from the freeze and couldn't find parts or replacements due to pandemic and some people were shacked up in hotels for months.

Tank Water heater if you get the old style gas valve rarely has any issues and if it did you could change it out in hour or so.

You suppose to service a tankless yearly to keep warranty

I still have (2) 50 gallon Bradford White Gas Heaters in my 2nd story attic and don't see ever going to tankless

If the house was built for a tankless then I might reconsider.

I’ve never owned one until now. Always heard they were a little more expensive overall, so I didn’t mess with them. The home builder we went with uses them, and after a week… so far so good. Don’t have to worry about running out of hot water, but like mentioned above, they said we would need to preform maintenance on it. I guess we shall see how it does in the long run.

Im over five years in on my first Propane Tankless, and I dont see myself going back. We do have a water softener, and that reduces the frequency of the flushes they require. We use propane for this and the cook top, and refill our 250 gallon tank once per year.

Ditto. No issues and going on 7 years.

Couple of things to consider, if you have multiple people living in your house with at least two women, no brainer go tankless! If it is just you and the Mrs. then it might come down to does it make financial sense.

We have had a tankless for about 15 years now and love it! Our old 50 gallon tank heater on the west side of the house would take forever to get hot water to the east side and it would run out of hot water pdq.
Now we never have to worry about hot water anymore.
We also had them put it up in the attic on the Northwest side with zero issues from the cold or otherwise, putting in the attic also allowed us to turn the old hot water heater space into another pantry type storage closet.

I bought an electric one for my rural property. I've used them for over 15years in my last 2 houses and would not go back to a tank.

I would only consider one if my home had two water heaters. If my one tankless went out we could be in a motel for days waiting on a plumber's first trip to diagnose, days waiting on any of the three delivery services to lose my package, and days again waiting on the plumber to come back and put in the part/s. If my one tank heater goes out this morning I can install a tank heater myself before the evening shower.

A second opinion is from a propane driver that said he wouldn't have one if they gave it to him. I guess he must know how much gas they use.

If a third opinion is from a wife that likes a high water tub then I suppose you should build up some motel points on your credit card.

When we researched on building our home 2 years ago the consensus of Plumbers/Builders was that if you have Propane they are great. Electric not so great because they have to have a 60 amp dedicated breaker and draw a lot of power.

60 amps? That’s a lot of juice.

I learned the same thing for the previous house. I, too, was very surprised.

I've got a 350 amp welding machine that is powered by one 50 amp breaker. It's ridiculous that an electric thankless water heater requires so much amperage.

That's one way to look at it guess. The other way is the fact that while they do use alot of amps when they're heating, they use zero when they aren't, and they sit there idle 90% of the time. They use way less electricity per month than tank heaters. I had two of them in my home for 12 years until we moved. A simple flush with white vinegar twice a year for about 30 minutes and they never gave me a minute of trouble.

Went electric tankless 16 years ago. 150a, 240v system, i have plenty of hot water.