
Your old water heater is on the way out and you’ll soon need to have it replaced. It’s good to get ahead of a water heater failure and schedule a new installation. Taking the initiative also gives you more time to consider your replacement options. There are more choices now than ever before when it comes to water heaters, and there’s one in particular that stands gleaming on the top of a hill: the tankless water heater.
If you’ve read about tankless water heater systems, you’ll have run into a slew of superlative reasons praising the many benefits of making the switch. We won’t contradict most of the benefits of a tankless water heater. But we do have to contradict the notion that choosing tankless is automatically the best choice for a home. Water heater selection is more complicated.
Where the Tankless Water Heater Excels
Let’s start with why tankless water heaters have so much appeal for homeowners looking to replace a storage tank water heater:
- Great energy savings. A tankless water heater only runs when there’s a demand for water, rather than running to keep replacing heat lost through the tank walls.
- No running out of hot water. This benefit gets people the most excited to invest in a tankless system the moment they can. Tankless water heaters can’t run out of hot water because they don’t store a supply to run out of. They keep heating up more.
- A longer system life. Because a tankless water heater consumes less power and runs less often, it can outlast a standard system by five or more years.
- Small size. You can install a tankless water heater right on the wall. It doesn’t consume a large amount of basement or closet space.
But Wait a Minute…
This all sounds great. But we have to pull you back down to Earth. Tankless water heaters are not ideal for all homes and situations. If you are looking for a new water heater, you’ll need to consider several factors about tankless water heaters that may make another type more appealing.
- Tankless water heaters cost more than storage tank water heaters. They save energy and can pay back their installation costs after several years—if they’re right for the home. The upfront costs may not fit with your current budget plans.
- Installing a tankless water heater is not always as simple as just moving out the old tank unit and sticking the new system in its place. Often, plumbers must make several major changes to the piping and the gas line to accommodate the new system, and this increases the cost for installation.
- Although a tankless water heater won’t run out of hot water, demand from multiple taps on at the same time can overwhelm it and cut into its efficiency. Because of this, tankless water heaters work better for smaller households where hot water demand won’t overlap.
You don’t have to worry about making the choice for a new water heater on your own. When it comes to home plumbing in Rockville, MD, whether installing a tankless water heater or fixing a leak, Tuckers is the team to trust—we’ll get you the right water heater.
Call Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing for water heater service. We pledge to exceed expectations at every turn.