BoschElectric Mini-Tank Water Heater Tronic 3000 T 2.5-Gallon (ES2.5) - Eliminate Time for Hot Water - Shelf, Wall or Floor Mounted

This 4 gallon mini-tank heater is perfect for my kitchen. The total cost for the tank and the installation was about $325.00—higher in my case because the tank did not quite fit under the sink and I had to move it to a cabinet 6 feet away, on the other side of the dishwasher. This added the cost of two 6 foot hoses, two brass connectors, and a 12 guage extension cord. The normal cost would be under $300.I opted to abandon the hot water at the sink and run only cold water into the mini-tank. This way, running hot water in the sink never impacts my gas water heater. The downside is that I can run out of hot water at the sink, if I use too much at once, but the upside is that it saves a lot more energy and water. By turning up the temperature on the Bosch to ¾, I have eliminated the chance of running out for my own needs.My sink is located about 30 feet from my water heater, which is actually more like 40’ of piping. It was taking a good 30 seconds to get hot water every time, and I started collecting the 2 gallons of wasted cold water for my outdoor garden.Now the hot is basically instant. Because of the unusual 6’ distance, it takes one second to get hot water. If it were under the sink it would be quicker. Installation was quite easy. Even with this less desirable location, the hoses and extension cord passed easily behind the dishwasher. I did it myself, no plumber or electrician required.Why not get a demand water heater for the kitchen sink? Money. Any demand water heater you buy will require a new, dedicated electrical line with a dedicated breaker. This will easily cost you $1500 or more for the electrician to install it.A demand water heater retrofit really only makes sense if you are replacing your main water heater, and in my case, I would STILL want my mini-tank, because the distance problem would not be solved.It would make some sense to have a demand water heater installed at the sink for NEW HOME construction, but the retrofit is far too expensive to justify.Now that I have converted my sink hot water usage from gas to electric, I can start working on converting to solar. Get this mini-tank. It will save you water and energy, even if you connect it to the hot water line. What you will need for a standard, under-the-sink installation:2 ½”npt to 3/8” compression hoses, 2’ long1 3/8” compression tee1 3/8” female to female connector (male on both ends)Aluminum water heater panYou will use the connector to connect the 2’long 3/8” hose to the hot water hose for the sink tap.For my installation, I used the following:2 ½” npt to 3/8” compression hoses, 1’ long2 3/8” dishwasher supply hoses, 6’ long3 3/8” female to female connectors, two to connect the 1’ hoses to the 6’ hoses,1 3/8” compression tee1 12 gauge extension cord, 8’ longAluminum water heater panDepending on your kitchen and location, you may want to plumb a PVC pipe into the over-pressure valve and either to a floor drain or to the outside. My kitchen has waterproof tile floors, so I can take a chance on an overflow filling the drain pan and spilling out onto the kitchen floor. I can just mop it up.I connected the 6’ DW supply hoses to the 1’ hoses. It was the easiest way to get the long 3/8” compression hoses to connect to the ½” npt connections at the water heater. Oh also, you need a good flashlight or headlamp, and a couple of pairs of adjustable spanners (small crescent wrenches).Note: Technically, you will need an electrician to install the 7 gallon version, but it does not require a new or dedicated circuit, as it still only pulls 12 amps. If you are comfortable connecting the electrical line into your existing box, you will be OK. Add a little cost for connectors or possibly a larger electrical box. In some municipalities, you may need a permit and inspection because this may qualify as adding an electrical circuit. The 7 gallon would be nice, but it also takes longer for the tank to heat and takes up more room. All good products though.I updated this on 3/19/2022 to correct some typos.

We bought a ranch house recently with a crawl space and 60+ feet of distance from the tankless hot water heater at one end of the house to the master bathroom. It takes 1 and a half minutes for hot water to start flowing from the bathroom sink tap after the tap is turned on. Same for the guest bathroom across the hall). Not fun for the wife when she wants hot water and wants it immediately to use for washing her face and hands. And a waste of water and energy as well. I did the research and this water heater seemed to fit the bill for our needs and situation. I picked up a water tap splitter and 2 hoses from HD and was delighted to have installation go smoothly and problem free - mostly. It took a bit of investigation to decide on drilling a hole at the bottom side of the sink cabinet and running a short extension cord from the receptacle on the wall beside the sink to the heater. The other option was to run an electrical cable into the sink cabinet and install a receptacle there for the heater plug. Which would have required drilling a hole through the cabinet base and the ceramic tile floor. My wife was OK with using the side receptacle. The receptacle is near the side edge of the cabinet and the extension cord runs along the edge of the back of the cabinet and wall to the bottom so visually it does not look out of place. Oh, and the extension cord plug is the flat kind so that helps it to blend in (not stick out like a normal electrical plug). Left the water heater setting at the Normal setting on the dial and hot water (111 degrees F.) starts flowing as soon as the water that is the line between the water heater and the tap clears (2-3 seconds). We find the normal setting is hot enough for us to use as is. Leaving the hot water tap FULL OPEN results in hot water flowing for 2 minutes, with it slowly getting less hot over that period of time towards the last 30 seconds to a minute. Which works for our needs. You could increase the hot water temperature and mix cold water to lengthen the time I suppose, but for washing our face and/or hands, the two minutes is sufficient. The other option is to open the tap less than half way and that would allow for more time as well. Overall, very pleased with this heater and plan to order another one for the guest bathroom. Off course Murphy's Law did visit me during installation. The disconnected hot water shut off valve started every so slowly to leak - a few drops over the course of several hours. The seal had deteriorated. (41 year old house). Fixing that was much more trouble than installing the hot water tank. But after several trips and tries of different valves I finally managed to take care of that problem.

It gives my kitchen sink instant hot water.Saving me from running /wasting / waiting for hot water to get there. I used this same model before. It lasted four and a half years. So I’m pleased.