Water Heater Repairs and Installation Services

If you are in the market for a new water heater, it is worth considering the difference between a tankless water heater and a traditional water heater. Understanding the difference between the two will help make your buying decisions much smoother.

A traditional water heater is most likely what your home has. Its sizeable distinct cylinder shape can hold between 30-60 gallons of hot water. However, its smaller version, or the tankless water heater, is a little rectangular box that uses whichever heat source (electricity, gas, etc.) to heat water the moment you need it. When a nozzle is turned on, for a sink, an appliance, or a plumbing fixture, cold water will pour in from the pipes. A tankless water heater uses a gas burner or electricity to heat the cold water and create on-demand hot water.

A tankless water heater can produce around 3-5 gallons of hot water per minute, which is more than enough for the average home. If a shower and the dishwasher are on at the same time, that will most likely stretch your tankless water heater to its limit. In reality, unless this overlap happens often, a tankless water heater is an excellent option for a home. Some businesses like a hair salon or restaurant may require more on-demand hot water than a tank can handle, making a tankless water system an excellent choice.

Everyone has been in this situation before: The family is trying to get ready to go somewhere, and everyone needs to take a hot shower. By the time it is your turn to shower, all the hot water is empty because your conventional water heater system is empty. With a tankless water heater, this problem will not ever happen again. Energy Star says that families who use more than 86 gallons of water per day can increase their energy efficiency by 14%. For families that use 41 gallons or less, the energy savings are even higher, at around 24%-34%.

The initial expense of an on-demand water heater is more than the upfront cost of a traditional water heater. However, tankless hot water heaters have a longer lifespan. Also, they are extremely energy efficient, reducing energy bills. The significant energy savings offset the difference in the upfront cost over a period of a few years.

Water heaters do not use power when they are not in use. They do not have any standby energy loss as conventional water heaters do.

The easiest way to think of this would be a power strip for your home. A power strip is continuously draining energy and costing you money when it is plugged in, even while you are not using it. A conventional water heater has the same energy drain. With a tankless water heater, you no longer have to fear “vampire energy”, or “leaking electricity”.

Also, conventional water heaters have a lifespan of around 10-15 years while a tankless water heater’s average life expectancy is more than 20 years. If running more than two hot water appliances at the same time is important to you, you can install a second tankless water heater with a parallel connection.