Furnace and water heater questions

The wife and I need a new furnace and water heater, our house was built in 79 and it still has the original heaters! We have oil heat plus a wood stove that we use as our primary source of heat so we don't go through much oil at all each year. I think last year we may have used 500 gallons for the year?

With that back ground, I wanted to know if any of you have any opinions on water and furnace brands. I've had 3 companies come out and give things a look but only 1 has sent me back an estimate. For that 1 estimate they're offering a John Wood direct fired water heater, a williamson thb 105 furnace and a carlin oil fired burner for $5950 total price. That includes taking the old stuff out and getting rid of it.

I know natural gas is the cheapest but that's not available, and like I said we keep the upstairs warm for most of the winter with wood, so does anybody see anything wrong with this estimate or any of the components? This will be the first major "upgrade" for our house so we are both a little nervous about making a bad decision but at the same time we need something before next winter.

 

For the water heater, do you not want to go tankless? You would see a pretty decent drop in oil usage. I'm on gas so I haven't looked much into the oil options.

 

I would think that whether a tankless water heater is practical or not would depend on how hard your water is. Some folks have complained about build up in the heat exchanger, requiring extra maintenance. Other people seem to be happy with them.

They sound like a good idea, basically.