People that have them…during this cold spell, are you turning off the water heater to conserve gas then turning hot water tap on just to keep water moving? My whole house is PEX with spray insulation but my garage isn’t sprayed so I’ve been curious to know what other people have been doing. There is PEX in the attic over the garage that goes to a second story bathroom. I’ve just been running the cold water tap, haven’t had any problems with hot water.

I am thinking about dropping some coin on making the entire house tankless but I do not know how those things handle these freaky cold days so any input would be appreciated.

My tankless’ drain (PVC) froze last night despite best effort to keep it from doing so last couple days/nights. Went without hot water through lunch today and then I spent some time on it with hair dryer. Thawed in about 10-15 minutes. Indoor unit in basement.

My tankless heater is on an exterior wall on the side of the house. But it’s covered in foam with the exception of the access point.

Cactus, did your tankless heater freeze up? Or did it survive this cold spell without you having to do anything?

The cold spell aint over yet and we are likely going to get another two or three of them before April.

Yeah , I know some cabins up here that are done that way . I don't know how they faired the last few days. One is owned by a plumber , I figure he had it fixed where it wouldn't be a problem.

I’ve got a brand new house with my first ever tankless water heater mounted on an outside wall. Woke up yesterday morning with cold water but no hot water. Did not leave any water running as I had been advised. Removed the water heater panel and put a blow dryer on the pipes for about an hour and got the hot water running again. Last night, I left a trickle of hot and cold water running in the kitchen and had no problems, will do the same tonight.

Saw on YouTube where guys insulate the pipes with heat tape. I don’t know that I’ll do that for the few times we have really low temperatures. A neighbor told me he just stuffed a piece of attic insulation on the pipes and closed the panel up, might try that.

The other very obvious thing is that we all know how to fix a tanked water heater. I wouldn't know where to start on a tankless.

One of these worked great in my sons tankless. There was already an extra plug in the box.

My tankless is on an exterior wall. I left the hot water running about the size of a pencil lead inside the house and kept the wind off the unit with a piece of foil insulation. I never lost hot water. The heater comes on at a certain flow rate. Trickling water will NOT cause it to come on and use gas. I dont regret swapping over from a tank to tankless. Always as much hot water as i want or need.

My tankless unit is on an exterior wall and while we didn’t get quite as cold as most of you guys, it never froze up and we didn’t leave any water running. My walls have 5.5” of spray foam insulation so I didn’t have any issues there. I did insulate the pipes inside the unit several years back so that probably helped. The Easy Heat cord above or any heat trace cable will be the answer for any outside piping. Put it on tight and wrap with FOIL backed foam insulation to keep the heat in. It has a built in t stat to turn it on.

This is the best way.

The only thing I did was run very small stream of cold water in 2 bathrooms and wrap my exterior spigots.

hmmm

This was my question. I don’t have a problem running the hot water line. I just don’t want it to burn gas in the process.

This^^^.

I did not cover mine though. The plumber told me it has a built in heater to moderate temp. If you lose power you lose that temp control.

My attic water heater went out after 18 years in October. We went back with a tankle$$ and have had hot water with no problems. It’s in the attic also.

Well our whole is on one and it is outside the house. It has froze in the past but this round we didn't have a issue. The pipes are wrapped and and it sealed up pretty good.

I have one on an exterior wall of house. My pipe going to and from it are wrapped. Spoke with my gas guy before cold got here and he said to leave one hot water faucet running with a "pencil" stream. I turned one on and had about an 1/8" running water. He said it will not draw enough water to turn on the gas but will keep enough water running to prevent freezing. Our low was probably around 15 here in SE alabama but none of my pipes froze and we had hot water the entire time.