FREE to a good home --- 40 gallon electric water heater

We just replaced this with a tankless water heater. This one is 10 years old but was working fine.

so how does the tankless water heater work?

so how does the tankless water heater work?

You turn on the water and it gets hot! Ok I'm a smart ass!!!!!
We have an on demand in our 40 ft 5th wheel (we live in full time on the Tillamook Bay) it's  propane and senses water flow ignites a fire under copper coils with a 12 volt fan pulling in fresh air, you use only the hot side to get hot water (it has a dial to advise)  if you want the water hotter you slow the flow so it's in the flame longer = hotter it's nice being able to table a 25-30 minute HOT shower after a day of fishing. As long as we got 12 volts and a tank of gas we got hot water.

The tankless WH is fabulous. It's a 94% efficiency Rheem model and we've been using it for 4 months now. So far it's working flawlessly, and we're saving enough money that it'll pay for itself in no time.
 
If you are thinking about installing one DIY (a non-trivial job, btw), I highly recommend Rheem. You can call them with technical questions, and you'll get a live person who knows what they're talking about. I had one issue (which turned out to be due to water pressure fluctuations---no problem with the WH itself) and they spent 20 minutes on the phone walking me thru a diagnostic procedure. In contrast, Rinnai won't give you the time of day (I installed a Rinnai direct vent propane heater, and I learned that calling them is a complete waste of time).