The time is coming to start thinking about replacing your water heater… and you’re thinking about costs. installation and perhaps upgrading to a more efficient setup. Looking at the market, you discover tankless/on-demand water heaters might be just the thing.
These are the pros and the cons of tankless water heaters that you need to know if you’re thinking about switching:
Pros
There are plenty of advantages to having a tankless water heater, making it more than worth it to consider getting one.
- Lasts longer – Runs less, only as needed on demand, opposed to a conventional heater that runs 24/7 to keep a tank of water hot. This means a conventional heater will certainly not last as long. Tankless water heaters also have replaceable parts, and are able to be maintained periodically which ensures lasting life.
- Continuous hot water – Regular tanks are very limited and run out quick, while tankless units are able to heat water continuously as needed.
- Saves space – a tankless water heater is a small and compact unit that’s installed on the wall so it’s out of the way and takes up little space. Typical tank style water heaters though are pretty darn big and take up a lot of space.
- Easier to fix and get parts as opposed to having to replace a whole tank.
- Significant energy savings – as mentioned before, a tankless water heater turns on and runs on demand, so just considering that fact means it ultimately runs a fraction of the time compared to a tank heater. Tank heaters are ALWAYS running 24/7 to keep water hot (heating and reheating) so it’s ready to go. This means you will see some serious savings in terms of electric and/or gas bills.
- Reduced environment impact – they are repairable and have replaceable parts, not to mention they use less fuel as opposed to regular water heaters.
Cons
Although there are a lot of advantages, there are some cons to think about too.
- Installation cost – it is obvious when switching or upgrading any technology that there may be upfront costs for the item/product itself and also to have it installed. Tankless water heaters usually need new venting (if running on gas or propane) or proper wiring if it’s an electric type unit but these costs are soon returned as you begin to use such new technology due to energy savings of not having to reheat water in a tank constantly all the time.
- Output of water – tankless water heaters are significantly more efficient but their output is more limited compared to tank heaters. It will depend on what size you purchase – smaller ones have a hot water output of around 3-5 gallons per minute which is sufficient for smaller household. Larger capacity tankless heaters are able to provide a hot water output of 6-10 gallons per minute, sufficient for much larger households.