Should You Get A Tankless Water Heater?

Are you tired of waiting for hot water when you need to shower? Wouldn't you prefer to have instant hot water whenever you want or need it? Thanks to the invention of the tankless water heater, you can have instant hot water in your home. A tankless water heater, like the name implies, does not have a storage tank to store it's hot water. Instead, the water is heated up directly when the hot water tap is turned on. Cold water travels through a pipe into the water heater unit and is immediately heated up with either gas or electricity. With this method, you no longer have to wait for your storage tank to fill up with hot water before you can use it. You'll have a constant supply of hot water. But like any product, the pros of a tankless water heater come with it's share of cons too.

Tankless water heaters not only give you instant hot water, they also save you money on your utility bill as well. With a tankless, you're only heating water when you need it. You won't be wasting water the way you would normally do while waiting on a traditional water heater. If you're a household that uses around 40 gallons of water per day, you can see an increase of about 24-34% in efficiency. If you use around 85 gallons a day, you'll see an increase of 27-50%! Because tankless water heaters are smaller and more compact than traditional water heaters, you have a lot more options in choosing where to install it. You can even have a tankless installed at each hot water outlet if you wanted. Tankless water heaters normally last longer than regular water heaters and have lower energy and operating costs. With no storage tank to hold water, you don't have to worry about water damage in case the tank ruptured.

Although tankless water heaters come with many advantages, they come with some disadvantages too. For starters, tankless water heaters are more expensive up front. You can expect a tankless to cost about 2-4 times more than a regular water heater. Plus, you'd also have to factor in installation costs and any custom costs necessary to cover the work to adapt the tankless to your home. Tankless water heaters also struggle with heavy loads. A tankless water heater can only supply so much instant hot water throughout your house before it gets stretched thin. And although tankless water heaters are energy efficient, gas models still use up energy due to the fact that a pilot light must be lit at all times to get instant hot water.

Tankless water heaters are a great addition to any home. But be sure to do some research and weigh the pros againts the cons. Make sure that getting a tankless would be in your best interest.