Furnace and water heater recommendations

Hey folks,

We inhereited rental contracts with the house we bought last year. We looked into getting out and it can be done.. Upfront costs will be high if we replace but we are paying $1,200 per year for the rental of both. We may be getting out within the next year and I want to start shopping around for quality and price. Some have suggested "tankless" water heaters. We are on gas here, but I have no clue if it can be done without incurring too many extra charges. As for the furnace I am not necessarily lured by brand names. We'd like a good quality unit but want value too... What's out on the market at a decent price right now for either a furnace or water heater?

Out home is a 1700 sqfoot bungalow.

I would say the first suggestion is to find someone to trust, unless you know the person recommending them it might be just there idiot cousin that no one else would hire.

Direct Energy... my neighbour threw them out because the service guy was cluless, Peel they messed up the gas fireplace in my house and both had one answer... replace, replace, replace. I looked in the listing I use, called Rolair, they did a $200 repair and my furnace worked fine for over 2 years more until the money was available and there were good rebates. I got quotes from several, Rolair came in, they explained the rebates, the options, the costs and provided us with a better furnace for less and added sound baffling for still less than the others by far! They also fixed the fireplace and I had them install the new water heater, I wouldn't call anyone else in my are that is for sure!

Your best bet is to have them come in and look at what you have, talk about what is available and give a quote.
http://www.rolairheating.ca/services.html

There is another listed in the guide I use as a first choice always you can try.
http://www.shepherdsguide.ca/search....ating&pub_id=7

thank you very much... do you have a tankless WH?

Every home has different needs when it comes to hot water, depending on size, occupancy, location of the current heater compared to where the water is needed. The price of a gas HWH is as low as $500 when on sale while a tankless unit is easily $1200, plus all the venting alterations needed, although they do take up less space.
If they both only last 10 years I don't see how cost effective the tankless option is unless space is at a premium. There is also the option of an under counter heater for the kitchen sink, talk to your local dealer to know what will work best for you.
John

Just checked "Home Stars" which is a great website that ranks/rates every company under the stars... Rolair got a 7.5 out of 10; not that great as a lot of other companies got over 9. These are independent reviews where homeowners comment and rank their service experience... Cozy World got the best 10/10 and received the best service award 4 out of the last 5 years. They install Lennox products...

As for the tankless v tank water heater, what i am gathering is that the tankless is not worth the extra costs.... for the measly saving of $60 to $80 per year, you're paying 3 or 4 times more up front.. it'll take 20 years to recover your upfront costs. So looks like I am leaning toward traditional tank!

Years ago a furnace guy I was chatting with suggested installing furnaces and water heaters on 4 hockey pucks to get them off of the floor especially if you have humid basement. That little air gap helps with preventing corrosion. I looked into the tankless as well and came to the same conclusion that you did. Furthermore that $60-80 energy "loss" leaks out into your house as heat, so it will result in a slight reduction in your heating costs, making the savings even less. We don't have AC so a little heat escape during the summer doesn't affect our costs either.

There used to be a way that you could buy the furnace and hwh from the renter, one lump up front payment instead of monthly for ever. Old rental units can be bought for $50 or less. It might be a cheaper option and give you some more time.

Reputation is everything. Go with someone that will be there in 5 yrs. ask your neighbors who they get and if they are happy, co workers etc. I had a new house built 6 yrs ago and went with a company I thought was family run and going to be there when needed. 2 yrs ago went out of business. Just my luck. Up front price can have a big spread from one installer to the next compare apples to apples. Get it in writing when you decide, I have heard it to many times " that wasn't included in the original quote"

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Originally Posted by Splaker

Hey folks,

We inhereited rental contracts with the house we bought last year. We looked into getting out and it can be done.. Upfront costs will be high if we replace but we are paying $1,200 per year for the rental of both. We may be getting out within the next year and I want to start shopping around for quality and price. Some have suggested "tankless" water heaters. We are on gas here, but I have no clue if it can be done without incurring too many extra charges. As for the furnace I am not necessarily lured by brand names. We'd like a good quality unit but want value too... What's out on the market at a decent price right now for either a furnace or water heater?

Out home is a 1700 sqfoot bungalow.

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I cant help with the furnace pricing but I just went through the Hot water heater deal.
Mine was rented from Direct Energy at 20$ per month. I bought a Rheem Gas heater at Home Depot for 399$ and paid an installer 259$. So almost 700$ in total. That means that in 3 years I will start seeing the profits of this switch.
Since the last heater was almost 15 years old, that will be 12 years of profits.

If you apply the same logic to your furnace also, then the savings keeps growing.

I can also tell you that my furnace is also a Rheem and I have not had major issues with it. Its very easy to work on and do maintenance myself. I changed an igniter last season and it was a piece of cake.

Splaker , not sure if you can do it now but when we bought our house almost 20 years ago we ran a gas pipe for a gas dryer, gas stove and one outside for a gas BBQ. we where lucky as they were all within 10 ft of each other as well and only 15' from the furnace. so the only electric appliances we have are the fridge, washing machine and small freezer.

as for furnaces we just replaced ours last year, as others have said, do your research and find a good quality company that has been doing residential for years in your area.

I looked at tankless and from what I learned it gives the best value on high demand. If you just have a couple of people in the house then it might not be the best option for savings. We only have three in our house. The guy I felt was honest as i was prepared to spend a lot more buying one but he stopped me and told me to get a tank. Internet searches yielded the same info. Tankless is good for houses with large families like a bunch of adults and teenagers.