What’s the Difference Between a Regular and Tankless Water Heater?

The technology for a standard water heater has been around for a long time, dating back to the 1950s when homes started getting plumbed with natural gas. By the 1970s, water heaters were commonplace, in both houses and apartments nationwide. While there have been upgrades, most of them were cosmetic or simply attaching sensors to the basic heater system that didn’t change much. However, now there is the option of a tankless water heater, which is a gamechanger when it comes to producing hot water in a home.

Why is a Tankless Water Heater a Viable Choice?

The original design for water heaters involved basically the same design one uses to make hot water in a tea kettle. Keep the water in a container that heats quickly and handles exposure to heat without catching fire or melting. Once the water gets hot enough, it can be delivered to its use. With literally a flame at the bottom heating the water, a traditional water heater spends a lot of energy raising the temperature of the water inside and then pumps it on demand to the faucet allowing the flow. The hot water is pushed through a feed system that allows the hot water to go out the faucet while new water comes into the tank to be heated as well. The displacement pressure moves the hot water along, but more hot water has to be heated first to be just as effective. This is where efficiency is lost, but by the time this occurs most uses for hot water are finished (washing, showers, laundry etc.).

Lots of Benefits Added on With a Tankless System

A tankless system provides immediate benefits versus a traditional water heater with both efficiencies, speed of producing hot water, and a better design. Advantages include:

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• A lower use of electricity, which with today’s utility prices produces real savings in the wallet.
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• A constant flow of hot water which a regular water heat can’t match. Eventually, the inflow of cold water overwhelms the traditional heater, and it needs time to warm up again.
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• The tankless saves space where it is installed since it doesn’t need a big cavity for the container tank involved.
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• Tankless systems don’t have the corrosion risk present in regular heaters, which ends up producing a longer lifespan in tankless systems as a result. That also reduces the need to replace a heater every 10-12 years with a tankless system lasting up to 20 years instead.
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• There is less risk of catastrophic failure or water leaks since there isn’t a storage of 50 or 80 gallons of water in one place. There’s a reason why traditional water heaters are placed in the garage because they tend to break and drain out the bottom all over the floor when old.
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Reduced Maintenance

No water heater system can function its entire lifespan well without maintenance, but tankless water heaters require far less simply due to their design. That means, much of the work involved in the set-up and installation versus periodic repair, trying to etch out more life from a failing system and old technology. The new approach can easily be installed by most licensed plumbers, and there is plenty of support and repair inventory for the models available today. Many plumbing companies are recommending tankless systems when a customer comes calling to replace their old water heater with a new one. 

Besides, what better time is there to upgrade a home’s plumbing system than when the old heating system needs to be taken out and removed? If you’re going to go deep in a big repair project, you might as well upgrade to a better system if possible.