Josh Homme anyone ? <| sep |> Well , buddy above me is German and I ' m Canadian , so maybe they don ' t do it in the States ? That would make it even weirder to me . <| sep |> I see you don ' t realize that Americans have always had potable hot water , unlike the UK with their horrific attic cistern setups . It would cost me triple the price of a tank heater to get a tankless system with enough temperature rise to warm my well water at any significant GPH . That doesn ' t count the install which is more complex than a tanked system . They need regular descaling , and it ' s a much more involved process than flushing a tank heater . Such a tankless system would also use 6 times more propane when operating . Then you get into the way it operates . Have you ever experienced the cold water sandwich before when you pause your shower to lather yourself up ? What about the way you have to turn the tap all the way on to get enough GPH flowing to even make the thing turn on ? In the right place , with the right fixtures , with the right users , Tankless can be pretty sweet . MOST people who install one around here end up with an unreliable undersized unit that they absolutely hate , because they could not afford the bigger unit , or they could not afford the extra electrical panel needed for the 80 amp resistive heating load of an electric unit , or were unable to afford the upgrade of the gas line to support a 300 , 000 BTU gas unit . My only regret going tanked is not getting a powered vent system . Sealed combustion would have been ideal , but again you ' re venturing into territory where it just costs way more , and there are plenty of other things I can do that are WAY cheaper to prevent my water heater from backdrafting .