Pros and Cons of Tankless Water Heaters

Tankless water heaters have their advantages and their disadvantages. To know if this type of water heating system is right for your home you need to carefully do an exploration of the pros and cons of it.

Pros of Going Tankless

One of the pros of the on-demand water heaters is that tankless heaters are small in size and that means that standby losses hardly ever occur. In other words it is rare in this case for energy to be wasted when the hot water in the long pipes cools down or while the hot water is sitting in the heater's storage tank.

Less water is used in this type of water heating system because warm water is used immediately. There is no need to let the water run for any length of time in order to get a flow of warm water. With a tankless water heater operating in your home you are provided with unlimited hot water as long as the heating system continues to operate within the capacity that it can handle.

Another pro of tankless water heaters is that their equipment life tends to be longer than that of tank-type heaters due to the fact that corrosion is less of a problem. The tankless variety of water heating systems can last up to 20 years while tank-type heaters are expected to last in the range of 10 to 15 years.

Cons of Going Tankless

Choosing on-demand water heating can have some cons. You need to look at those as well in order to decide between tankless water heaters versus tank-type heaters.

Tankless heaters are not able to supply enough hot water at any given time with too many simultaneous uses in a home. For instance it could not handle someone taking a shower at the same time as someone doing laundry or using the dishwasher.

Many tankless heating systems are unable to heat water to a constant temperature at different rates of flow. What this means for the homeowner is that the water temperatures can fluctuate widely and in many instances this can be uncomfortable for the residents. This would happen most often in a dwelling where the water pressure varies from one extreme to another. However if you have a demand system that consists of a feature known as a modulating temperature control then this will not be an issue for you.

Electric water heating units tend to draw more power from them than do their tank-type counterparts. This translates to higher costs if the electric rates in your area involve a demand charge.

Water must be heated very rapidly to the temperature desired when you have an electric tankless heater in your home. This means that there is a high electric power draw. It is important to make sure that the wiring in your house can handle the demand placed upon it.