It’s a nightmare scenario to imagine your house full of people for the holidays when your water heater decides to pack it in! If your water heater is on its last legs, this is reason enough to avoid such a situation and replace yours. But you still might be wavering between a traditional storage model and a tankless water heater. A tankless water heater can be a particularly good solution at this time. Whether you’re home for the holidays, hosting others or going out of town, there are several great reasons to install a tankless water heater instead of a traditional storage model.
What is a Tankless Water Heater?
You might only be familiar with traditional storage water heaters. Tankless water heaters have been around for a while, but they’ve only recently begun to grow in popularity in the United States.
Traditional storage water heaters operate by heating water and holding it in the storage tank until you need it. In contrast, tankless water heaters do not hold any water at all. Instead, when you turn on a tap or an appliance that uses water, the water is heated as it flows through the tankless water heater. This can provide several advantages over the storage type of water heater.
Reliable Source of Hot Water
As mentioned above, if you are already concerned about your water heater’s performance, it’s better to replace it before the holidays instead of after. It’s understandable to want to postpone a big expense. However, you don’t want your water heater to fail during the holidays themselves. This could mean an expensive emergency replacement if you’re home with guests. If you’re away, you might return to the discovery that your water heater has heated its last tank of water in your absence.
And with a tankless water heater, you’ll never have to worry whether hot water is available, as you’ll discover below.
No Waiting for Hot Water
Anyone with a traditional storage water heater has probably had the experience of using all the hot water. You then have to wait for the tank to reheat the water. This can be especially frustrating if you have guests staying with you during the holidays and everyone wants to take a shower at approximately the same time.
If you’re going out of town for the holidays, you might want to turn off your water heater to save power while you’re gone. However, that means when you get back, you’ll have to wait for it to heat up again.
With a tankless water heater, there’s no wait in either of these situations because the water is heated immediately when you turn on the tap.
Hot Water Available for Multiple Fixtures
You might hear that tankless water heaters are not good for providing hot water to multiple appliances or fixtures, but this is misleading. Indeed, tankless water heaters can only heat as much water as can flow through them. This volume is called the “flow rate.” It’s usually measured in gallons per minute.
You can calculate how many gallons per minute various activities will take and make sure that you purchase a tankless water heater that can accommodate that number. For example, a washing machine has a flow rate of roughly 3-5 GPM, while a shower has about 2-3. Therefore, if you wanted to be able to make sure you had enough hot water to run your washing machine and for two people to take showers at the same time, you’d want a tankless water heater with a flow rate of 7-11 GPM.
During the holidays, all of those things could happen at the same time, and you still wouldn’t have to worry about running out of hot water for a second round of showers and laundry. This might not be the case with a storage water heater.
A plumber can help you determine the flow rate you need for your household and what kind of tankless water heater you should choose.
Less Concern About Flooding
With storage water heaters, there is also a risk that a leak could cause a flood. During the holidays, this could be especially disastrous if you’re out of town. If you’re at home, you’re more likely to notice the leak earlier, but some flooding could still occur if the water heater is in an out-of-the-way location. Flooding is also not a problem that you want to deal with while you have house guests. If you have a tankless water heater, you won’t have these worries. Of course, tankless water heaters can leak, but since they don’t hold water, you don’t run the same flooding risk.
More Efficient Operation
Tankless water heaters are more efficient to operate, meaning that they’ll cost you less money to run. Storage water heaters heat up a lot of water and then hold that water until it’s used. You pay for the price of keeping this water warm. In addition, they suffer from something called “standby heat loss.” This is the amount of heat that dissipates over time into the room where the water heater is located. Some loss is inevitable even with good insulation. The heating element of the water heater then has to cycle back on to maintain that temperature.
With tankless water heaters, there is no standby heat loss because there is no stored water. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, even in households that use a lot of water, tankless water heaters can be up to 14% more efficient. Based on this, even when you have a lot of people at your house for the holidays, you’ll still get a better performance than you would from a storage water heater. This is another good reason to install a tankless water heater before the holidays.
Requires Less Space
Space is at a premium in most homes, and a storage water heater can take up a substantial amount of it. Maybe it’s not enough space for a whole bed, but it certainly could be used instead for a stack of presents or someone’s suitcase. Tankless water heaters are smaller because they don’t need a storage tank. In addition, they can save even more space if they are mounted on the wall.
Longer Lasting
This isn’t specific to the holidays, but it will ensure that you have the water heater for many holidays to come! With storage water heaters having a lifespan of roughly 8-12 years and tankless water heaters lasting for around 15-20 years, your tankless water heater could potentially last twice as long as a storage model.
Tankless Hot Water Heater Installation in Indianapolis, IN
During the holidays and all year round, you need a water heater you can depend on. At Hope Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, we offer maintenance, repair and installation for both tankless and traditional storage water heaters. We’re locally owned, and we have 15 years of experience in the Indianapolis area. We’re a Nextdoor Neighborhood Fave, an Angi-Approved Pro and BBB-accredited with an A+ rating. In addition, we have thousands of five-star Google reviews from satisfied customers. When you need service for your water heater, contact the expert plumbers at Hope Plumbing, Heating and Cooling.
