You probably don’t think about your hot water heater until a cold shower suggests you need a new one. How to choose? Storage tanks cost less but tankless heaters save energy by only heating the water you draw.
Before you shell out hundreds for a storage-tank heater or thousands for a tankless, let our expert plumbers check to see whether your old water heater can be fixed. A corroded storage-tank model is history but a leaky drain or pressure-relief valve or a burned-out heating element can often be fixed.
Review some of the features of each options and rest assured we’ll get you set up right for your needs and budget.
Most hot water heaters are essentially steel cylinders fed by a cold-water inlet pipe (the dip tube) that protrudes into the tank (this line includes the shutoff valve). Water is heated in the tank, and hot water exits through a hot-water pipe atop the tank.
The electric family of hot water tanks offers a wide range of water heating solutions with exceptional energy savings and durability. You get you plenty of installation choices and long-lasting low-watt density copper heating elements.
Tankless models (a.k.a. instantaneous water heaters) are suitcase-sized units that heat water only when needed by using an electric coil (typically for low demand) or natural gas (for high demand) to heat water passing through a heat exchanger inside. They eliminate the risk of tank failure and the energy lost by constantly reheating water, though their heat exchanger can clog or fail.