Is an indirect water heater worth the installation cost?
Converting from a standard to an indirect water heater often requires over $4,000 in installation and boiler re-venting fees, on top of the tank itself costing double a conventional unit. This massive upfront expense makes it difficult to figure out if the potential gas savings and longer lifespan will ever actually pay off.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Pausing the installation and trying to sell the indirect water heater on the marketplaceDid this help you?
- 2Sticking with a standard or conventional water heater insteadDid this help you?
- 3replacing the boiler and conventional tank as-isDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“is option 2 really worth it for the. Indirect water tank? Does it last even longer than a conventional and is the gas savings even noticeable?”source ↗
“Indirect tank is essentially double the cost of a conventional tank, plus the cost to re-vent the boiler in the new space etc.”source ↗
“My mom purchased a new boiler about three years ago, and at the time, the person she worked with also sold her an indirect water heater (it was NOT cheap - about $3k). She went to get it installed and was quoted $4,500 because it would be a conversion from a regular old water heater to the indirect, so she paused and didn’t get it installed.”source ↗
“I’ve now taken over the decision making and am trying to decide - do we pay $4,000 to install this thing or try and sell it on the marketplace and stick with a standard water heater?”source ↗
“Given the extra cost, I’m trying to understand the benefits of it, but none of them have sounded so high value to make it worth it.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Using a tankless water heater for radiant floor heat
- 2Propane boiler vs combi boiler: how to choose?
- 2How do I know what size tankless water heater I need?
- 2Which plug-in space heater is actually the most efficient?
- 6Why does a new water heater require so many infrastructure upgrades?
- 7Can I replace a hot water heater with a direct swap if ports match?