Takagi T-H3-DV-N Condensing High Efficiency Natural Gas Indoor Tankless Water Heater, 10-Gallon Per Minute, 199,000 BTU

I installed this unit a couple of weeks ago, and it's been working like a charm. It was pretty easy to install, but I'm a pretty handy guy, so I don't know how easy it would be for a regular joe. Its flow rate of 10gpm assumes you're not heating the water to 131 degrees, which I am. The higher the temperature set point, the less throughput because it takes longer to get the water up to temperature. I originally installed a Takagi T-KJr2-IN-NG Indoor Tankless Water Heater, Natural Gas, with a rated GPM of 6, but the flow was so low at 131 degrees (2.9) that it took almost 20 minutes to fill the tub for a bath. This unit, even at 131 degrees, has a flow rate undistinguishable from the 50-gallon tank water heater it replaced. Of course, it cost twice as much as the T-KJr2, so that makes sense.This is a condensing unit, which means it puts out water that must be drained appropriately. If you don't have a drain nearby, that's going to be a problem. The condensate is because this unit improves efficiency with a secondary heat exchanger, which extracts what otherwise would be waste heat exiting up the flu. Instead those hot gasses are used to help heat the water, and the much cooler gas is then vented up the flu. This cooling of the gasses causes water to condense out of those gasses; thus the need for a drain tube.How much heat does this save? Well, the vent for the T-KJr2 was too hot to touch when the unit was in operation; with this unit the vent is barely warm to the touch. In fact, instead of having to use double-walled stainless steel venting, I was able to use 3" PVC tubing.If you have very hard water, don't expect a trouble-free existence with any tankless unit. They are very sensitive to scale buildup (as is any water heater, but tankless units particularly so). My house is equipped with a Culligan whole-house water softener, but in the interest of overkill, I installed two filters (DuPont WFPF13003B Universal Whole House 15,000-Gallon Water Filtration System) upstream of the water softener. So before the water gets to the water heater, it passes through a sediment filter, a carbon filter, and then a water softener. According to my HVAC guy, this will greatly extend the life of the water heater. (The two filters also means I can now drink water right out of the tap, anywhere in the house, without that nasty chlorine taste.)In short, I highly recommend this unit. Plus, it looks really cool!

I purchased this unit in Oct of 2016. This is the 3rd Takagi I have owned. The first had an issue with the heat exchanger due to the intake air coming from a utility room as well as sensor issue. The second also had a heat exchanger issue even though it was installed correctly. Takagi supplied a new heat exchanger that I repaired and kept as a backup unit. This new unit has a commercial grade heat exchanger with much tougher materials and has been running flawlessly so far. The key to these is buy a larger unit than you think you need and make sure it's installed and maintained properly. There is nothing like endless hot showers!

I have had this for 5.5 years and its been great for almost that whole time. 6 weeks ago it started randomly throwing error code 611 which means fan motor fault. I did significant troubleshooting to determine that the orange to blue VDC is not within range (actually 0V). I called Takagi and to their credit they answered the phone and spoke English but I don't feel like I got a lot of help. I was out of warranty by a couple months. Ugh.Their proposed solution was to not only replace the PCB for $300 but also the fan motor for another $300 plus tax and shipping the total was about $700. The PCB replacement would take less than 10 minutes but the fan motor would require near full disassembly and take most of a day (if you don't break anything else in the process). I'm not interested in fiddling with a water heater for an entire Saturday but hiring a plumber would be insanely expensive for this. Also, the parts give you a "generous" 1 year warranty, it already failed once why would I accept a 1 year warranty??So, I am shopping for a new tankless water heater and...it won't be a Takacrap, I mean Takagi.

The Takagi T-H3-DV-N is a nice and efficient tankless water heater. It is Uniform Energy Factor = 0.93 per AHRI, which is impressive. Like other high efficiency tankless WH's, this unit has a condensate discharge port to which you need to attach a 1/2" PVC line. The installation was fairly typical ... no surprises.What I was most displeased about was that the unit arrived in a badly damaged box that had been clearly cut open at the base and taped back on in a sloppy flimsy way! The seller may have sent us a returned unit, but he claimed that they open all OEM boxes to "add" protective Styrofoam !? Anyway, I would have returned the nit in an instant if I was not in a bind to get our hot water going again.> My strong advice to you is this: do NOT buy water heaters from this particular seller (Global Towne). I did leave a seller review for this purchase, but the seller called and pledged that I delete my bad review because it hurts their business ... and I did. Again, this is a shady seller and you're far better off buying from another source, even if you have to pay a little more.