>Sounds like something wasn't operating properly with your tankless
>water heater? Nearly every one I've experienced so far (some new
>gasoline stations are utilizing those as well) take less than an
>oral count to "one thousand five" (starting at one thousand one) to
>have hot water at the faucet. Sorry, I didn't have a clock or watch
>with seconds counts to be more accurate on that.

I don't know whether my friends had an electric or gas heater--I'm
guessing gas because I know their house is heated with gas. They had
repeated service calls from the installer (and that was one of the
local oil companies, so the unit was almost certainly propane). The
company finally told them that this was typical of tankless water
heaters, and that's when they decided to have it taken out and go
back to the tank.

I've seen the tankless units in gas stations too, but never got any
hot water out of them. I've run the water for as long as I was
willing to run it and it never got hot. I don't know whether the
units weren't turned on, or what the problem was, but considering my
and my friends experience with them, I'm not impressed.

> For me here, the tank hot water heater takes 8 or more minutes
> for hot water to get to my bathroom sinks' faucet, at a flow-rate
> of at minimum 7GPM. That's almost 50+ gallons of water waste each
> time you want hot water.

Good gosh, that's awful. It takes about 30 seconds to get hot water
from the hot water tank near the back of my 70' mobile home to the
faucet in the front bathroom, so I can't complain. But I have a good
friend who runs the water for longer than you are describing before
she gets hot water, and she just shrugs and says "What can I do?" I
told her I'd use cold water before I'd run it down the drain like
that. Or heat some on the stove if I just had to have hot water for
something. Sounds like you need to have some plumbing redone.