Serious - jsut what are you doing under your sink that you feel an instant hot water heater will take up too much room?

define expensive.

size - pretty much one size- about a gallon.

rec: - there are pretty much 2 players: In Sink Erator and I've forgotten the other manuf., but they make the units for Franke, Mt. Plumbing, and just about every one else.

Mtrot- I'm willing to bet your problem is not the ISE product , but rather that you have crappy water that eats the tanks away. Do you have an elect. heater for your house? How often are you replacing the anode or the tank on that? Get a water test done. Bad water conditions will eat through an electric heater's tank like candy no matter what brand.

ISE makes an all stainless unit, and I'm sure that would last longer than a year even in a caustic envronment.

How timely is this :o I'm on hold right now waiting for an Insinkerator supervisor. Long story (7 years). From the very beginning we haven't been able to drink the water from the hot water dispenser because of the smell and taste. I finally just used it to clean out dirty pots/pans. Then the odor got so bad that I couldn't even stand to do that. We unplugged and drained it. We knew we needed an in line filter but it just wasn't that important so it's been sitting, unplugged and drained, for 6 1/2 years. Last week I finally called Insinkerator to inquire about a filter. Of course they recommended their filter specifically for instant hot water dispensers. The ONLY filter they mentioned having is the F201. Bought it elsewhere on line because if was less expensive. Plumber installed it last night. Ran water thru the filter for 3 minutes, filled the tank, drained and refilled. Water is as bad as ever :( This isn't even water that's sat for any length of time and hasn't been reheated over and over again. Hot water out of the kitchen faucet doesn't smell like this. Boiled water on the stove doesn't smell/taste like what comes out of the hot water dispenser. I tasted just a sip of the cooled water that came out of the dispenser. It literally burned my throat :( When this first happened 7 years ago Insinkerator replaced the holding tank. That didn't help. So I'm looking at the installation manual that came with the filter system. There are TWO different filters. Insinkerator only mentioned one. The one I bought says "reduces chlorine taste and odor". The 601R model says "reduces sediment, chlorine taste and odor, plus cysts, lead, mercury, asbestos, benzene, alrazine and 2,4-D. I know our problem isn't chlorine so I would have chosen the other one IF Insinkerator would have mentioned the other model :o There is nothing they are willing to do to help me. I have to buy another $100 filter in hopes it would solve the problem (with no refund if if didn't). I'm out the $100+ for the filter and plumber :( I don't know if there are others with this problem or if I'm just lucky :o
Monica

Dollar to donuts your "replacement" tank years ago was a refurb. or used. Send a sample of your water and a sample of the water coming out of that tank to a testing lab and you'll find all kinds of critters growing in the tank that were prob. there when you got it.

Everyone is going to give you the run around 7 years in.

antss, the water smelled and tasted bad before the replacement tank...that was the reason for the replacement tank. All that's a moot point now. Plumber came back out tonight to replace the plastic line with copper (his idea). When he opened the cabinet, there was water standing in the bottom of the cabinet. It was coming from the bottom of the unit. It was rusted on the bottom. Faucet Depot is letting me return the filter even tho it's not their policy. We had the plumber uninstall the dispenser. I won't be getting another one.
Monica

antss,

Thanks for the tips. No, the water heater is a A.O. Smith Promax gas unit, which is maybe 3 or 4 years old. And the water heater before that one was also a gas unit.

The last water quality report from our city was very good, but it has been a while since it came in the mail with the bill.

The Insinkerator Hot Water tank unit is leaking both at the drain plug and where the power cord exits the bottom of the unit. I was able to tighten the threaded drain plug, and that did slow down the leak there a bit.

Gas tanks are not prone to the effects like electrics it's the elect. current that cause the problems.

of course the city is going to tell you their water is good, get an independent report.

I'm not pushing ISE, I use the other guys, but I'm convinced your problem is not a manufacture problem.

The old ISE tanks were noted for not having a long life span due to corrosion. THey switched to stainless tanks a couple of years ago and you can purchase the replacement tank aftermarket and replace your old corroded one. That's what I'd recommend. I've had several customers do just that and they are pretty happy with their dispensers. The only other complaint that is "usual" with them is "spluttering" when dispensing, which means the temp is set too high.

If you have good quality city water, or good quality home treated water, the stainless tanked unit, and don't set the temp too high, they pretty much are a foolproof appliance that gives years of service. Oh, and you DO need to have the separate dedicated electrical circuit for them. They draw a lot of amps and can blow fuses if you have anything else on circuit with them.

antss,

Upon further investigation, it turns out that when the knob up on top is turned to activate the flow of water, water is leaking from the under counter portion of the faucet assembly and running down the copper lines onto the top of the heating unit. I don't know if that is the only leak, or if the heating unit is leaking as well. We are going to stop using it for some time in order to see if the leaking completely ceases when no new water is run through the whole thing.

I just want to follow up on this thread to say that I do believe that Insinkerator has improved the longevity of their hot water dispensers. Referring back to my posts in 2009, I did get a new Insinkerator hot water dispenser at that time and it just went bad, which means it lasted nine years this time, and we use the hot water dispenser heavily. In 2009, they changed from a metal exterior tank to a rubber exterior.

A couple weeks ago, I called them and told them the 2009 tank was leaking. It was way out of warranty, but they did offer me a 35% discount on a new tank, which arrived in about 4 days. So, I'm now reasonably satisfied with them at this point.

Nice of you to mention this. I had one circa 2006 and the tank failed within about a year. I was thinking of buy a HWD for a different house and not considering ISE for this reason. A friend in the kitchen industry recommended Mountain Plumbing. Maybe I will reconsider ISE.

We just installed our second Insinkerator instant hot water heater. We've had one in our main kitchen sink for years (maybe 10? at least 5) with no problems. Just put in a bar sink in our pantry and put a second one in there for tea (and instant simple syrup for cocktails) - which seemed like a ridiculous indulgence but with all the $ we spent on the cabinets not so much. This area is quite small and narrow and there was an issue with space. There's also a garbage disposal - had to work to make sure everything would fit but it did.

The first one, we bought maybe the second cheapest model from HD, and the one we just bought was similar. The big price differentiators seem to be 1) adding filtered cold water and 2) fancy spouts. We opted for the simple spout with a red dot on it, which helps people know what it is (we have a lot of guests).

Obviously we've been more than happy with ours.

Coming from a countertop hot water dispenser that lasts about 2 years anyways, I find the Insinkerator we have now to be a pleasure. It is hooked up with the Insinkerator optional water filter. Water is extremely hot. Even if I have to replace the unit every 2 years, I will be extremely happy and find it indispensible. Our Insinkerator just does hot water and looks good.

We use it for hot tea, pour over coffee, and warming baby milk.