The Tankless Water Heater in Winter

Let me tell you a real experience about the tankless water heater in New York City. Some years ago, I was in New York for about six months. It was in October when I arrived and I stayed with a relative in the Borough of Queens. They lived in a three-storey tenement-type-house in Richmond Hills where three families lived; one in each floor. We stayed in the second floor and we were about ten staying in that one house. It was spacious enough and I was pretty happy with the fall season.

Winter came and I was beginning to feel the very cold weather. One day in December, while taking a bath I suddenly felt the icy cold water cascading down my body. It was freezing outside and my only comfort then was the relative warmth of the bathroom and the hot water. As I felt the bitter coldness of the water, I screamed and ran out of the bathroom, half naked and wondering if someone was trying to kill me. Truthfully, finding yourself suddenly showering in the icy cold water in the middle of winter is an experience you can never forget. So what happened? It turned out that the water tank reservoir ran out. There I was out in the corridor in just my bathroom towel waiting until the tank is filled up. It may just have been twenty minutes, but believe me, it was a long twenty minutes.

The next day, I had a talk with the landlord, needless to say that I was pretty pissed. Apologies were given and were accepted. I suggested he change the tank reservoir to one that has a larger capacity. He apologized again and said he could not afford it at present. There was not much I could do. Legal action? Maybe too much. Since then, I had to be very careful and check the water every time before I took the shower. Well, this lasted in the most of the cold winter.

One day while I was window shopping at the Time Warner Building, my attention was drawn to one item at a hardware store. Tankless water heater was written on a whiteboard above the item. My first thinking was: Does tankless mean the hot water will keep running? I browsed over the tankless water heater. While doing so, I was approached by a pretty sales lady asking if she could be of help. I threw several questions at her about the heater and she answered all of them knowledgeably. I told her my story, and she was assuring me that the tankless water heater would solve the problem of running out of the hot water from the traditional heater. Franky, at the beginning, I could not believe that such a small device at a low price like that can provide hot water for all people in the entire house. For believe me, I shower in hot water for almost an hour during winter. Luckily, I told the landlord this new discovery and he decided to try it. It turned out that the tankless water heater did work as what they described. Problem solved, that was the most pleasing and unforgettable experience I had in New York City during that winter time.

Now, if I go to New York again, every time, when I need rent a place to live for a while, I always ask the landlord the same questionon: Do you have a tankless water heater installed? You surely know why I ask this, don't you?