Son custom building home, is tank or tankless the way to go on water heater. The unit will be located in the utility room. Better to go with propane or electric? My concern on tankless are initial cost and yearly maintenance required costing several hundred dollars.

What yearly maintenance are you expecting with a tankless?

At my other house, I had 4 electric tankless. I like them fine, but be aware they each require DUAL 50A circuits, so make sure you have ample supply and the house is built with them in mind. If you have gas options, I would steer that direction. Also, I am on a well, so be aware that tankless heaters spec using temp rise. So if I want 110 degree water, then I need to size it such that it can bring 60 degree water up to 110 degrees. On a well, that water is going to vary in the summer vs. winter, since it's pulling from the tank. In the winter, you might not get water temps you like.

Personally, I still a big fan of the old school tank heaters. No, I can't stand in the shower for 3 hours, but the water is the appointed temperature all the time and when it dies, I find it much easier to replace ASAP as I can go to the box store and pick on up tonight. I have 4 water heaters in the house Im in now, so if one dies, I have other options for hot water making it a non-crisis event. I would encourage designing the house with that in mind. Have redundant systems.

Tankless benefits: endless hot water, cheaper utility costs, space saving

Tank benefits: cheaper initial cost, quieter, works during power loss

Ryan the Temp said:

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Tankless, propane.

Fun fact: You can connect the ignition power cable for a tankless WH to an UPS battery backup system.

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Now do a tanked unit w/ gas/propane...

FWIW, I've had both and there were some trade-offs.

The maintenance was practically free for me. I just bought a kit and did it on my own - it's pretty easy. It also saved some money in energy costs just by not heating water when it wasn't being used (maybe $10-15/month). Overall, I really liked having a tankless unit (natural gas).

The downside was that when I was running a few showers and appliances at the same time, the pressure could really drop off. It was manageable, but something we had to deal with. I know some people have a couple units and it would overcome this, but that's a chunk of money up front.

Quote:

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The downside was that when I was running a few showers and appliances at the same time, the pressure could really drop off.

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I installed a manifold downstream from the WH to solve that problem.

PROPANE
ALWAYS propane
no matter WHAT type sails your boat

tank. my water bill would eat up any energy savings if my wife and kids had unlimited hot water for showers.

TRUE THAT !!!!!!!!!! been there done that ...+ on a septic system ... worse offender gal had a Bday party in the "mud" backyard She created