A water heater is a life rescuer. If you are living in cold areas, you just need water heaters. Water heaters can make your life easy in chilled weather, and it gives you warm and hot water according to your need.
Sometimes we get confused when we go to the market to buy a good quality heater for our home because there are many kinds of heaters available in the market with different advantages and disadvantages. These heaters have many effective properties for your comfort, so it is a tough decision to choose between them.
However, when we choose from heaters with good properties like energy saving, giving hot water, and coming with reasonable prices, our first choice should be tankless water heaters.
Tankless heaters are more convenient and beneficial instead of traditional water heaters. Another name for these heaters is demand type.
In normal water heaters, hot water comes in your showers when you turn them on from its tank where water is heated already. On the other hand, cold water runs through this tankless unit, heats the water using gas or electricity, and gives you hot water.
The water heats instantly to the shower as it passes through the pipes through the heating element.
How does a tankless water heater work?
Tankless heaters heat the water instantly without using a tank. When you turn on your taps for hot water, cold water flushes through a heat exchanger in the heater, and then a gas or an electric element heats the water.
When you turn off the hot water, the system instantly goes into standby mode. For the safety purpose of your pipelines, there is a vent that exhausts if there are any gasses from your home. That is why you do not have to wait for a storage tank to fill up with heated water.
Normally tanks with fewer units provide 2 to 5 gallons of hot water per minute. This is less per minute compared to a storage tank heater. Gas-fired heaters produce a high flow rate instead to electric units. Even when you are using a large-size tankless unit, it cannot supply enough hot water when using it in a large family.
To resolve this issue, you can install more than one unit. Along with this, you can install separate units for different appliances because these items consume a huge amount of hot water.
Advantages of Tankless Water Heater
This heater is more efficient than a regular water heating method because they provide you with hot water on demand and save more energy on heating water.
Other water heaters that have tanks to store hot water heat the entire tank, even when you are not using that water. This will waste more and more energy because the heater has to heat the water repeatedly whenever you need it.
Below there are some benefits of tankless water heater:
1. Energy efficient
Everyone is concerned about the bills they are paying, and the best advantage of this water-heating unit is that it cuts your monthly bills because of its energy efficiency. These heating units give you the same performance as a normal and traditional water heater.
Before installing this unit, you only have to determine how much water is used daily in your home because these heaters give around 24% to 34% more energy efficiency in those houses that have a small family and in those houses that use less than 41 gallons of water daily.
2. Durability
The rough and tough material of these heaters makes them durable and long-lasting. Therefore, if you want to replace your old water heater with a new and modern unit, it is the best time. Normal heaters with storage tanks can last for 20 to 25 years; meanwhile, tankless units have an average double lifetime.
3. Replaceable Parts
Another plus point of these heater units, their parts are replaceable. If any part is damaged, you can replace them easily. The system inside this heater is not complex. You can easily maintain it on your own.
4. No wait for Hot Water
The main advantage of a tankless water heater is its efficiency in heating water, so there is no need for a long wait for hot water. Heaters with storage tanks will heat a full tank. Meanwhile, tankless models heat the water quickly.
5. Occupies Less Space
The less space advantage of a tankless heater is a hugely appealing point for buyers. Instead of installing big and large heating units, which occupy more space, these tankless models can be installed anywhere.
The only important thing to remember when you are installing these units is to make sure you have an electricity connection there. You can easily install them in your yard, even inside the house, without worrying about high heat levels.
You can easily relocate them if you are moving somewhere else in the future. The average size of a traditional water heater is around 50 to 60 inches tall and 20 inches in diameter. They usually come in cylinder shapes.
6. Flow rate
Whenever you are going to buy this tankless unit, always look at its flow rate. Flow rate is the capacity of water that a unit can heat at a time. You can measure the flow rate in gallons per minute GPM. If the GPM is higher, it means you get more hot water at a time.
7. Fewer Leaks and Water Damage
One of the biggest drawbacks of a tank-style water heater is minerals from hard water can cause a leak in the storage tank. On the other hand, tankless units do not have any tank to store the water, so there is no risk of leaks and water damage. Because of their size, there is less chance of a leak in them.
8. Less Maintenance
One of the best advantages of this tankless unit is that it does not need regular maintenance. Once you service the unit, forget its maintenance for ten years. There is no need to check the anode rod as you check in tank style.
Make sure you clean the filters on time and check that there is no sediment built in your cold water supply line. These steps shall be enough for many years.
A tanked water heater heats the water to approximately 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and when water gets heated, a huge amount of water is wasted. While a tankless unit heats water on your demand, and as a result, no or less energy will be lost.
9. Environment friendly
Tankless units are more efficient because they use less fuel to heat the same amount of water. The efficiency of traditional heaters is around 40 to 60 percent, while tankless heaters have an almost 80 to 99 percent effective rate.
It means that these systems have the power to convert 1 unit of fuel to one unit of heat. Due to its low fuel consumption, it is an environmentally friendly heating system.
Disadvantages of Tankless Water Heater
The disadvantage of tankless water heating unit is:
1. High installation cost
The biggest disadvantage of a tankless unit is its cost and installation. The main reason for their high cost is their installation. That needs special wiring to handle the voltage, or you have to install a new vent pipe for it.
Hard water causes the heater to work hard, and with time, it breaks down. Because of this issue, some professionals recommend you install a water softener system to avoid breakage.
Installing this system can add cost. For the safety of your heating unit, regularly monitor them and change their filters without wasting time.
2. The inconstant temperature while multiple uses
As your full family, take a hot bath without worrying about water shortage. At the same time, if multiple showers are running, the tankless unit is not able to give the same water temperature to everyone.
It does not only depend on the showers or tapes. If you are dishwashers, washing machines, and showers running at the same time, you can definitely face this issue.
3. No hot water during a power outage
One biggest disadvantages of these heating units is if you face a storm and you are out of power, you will not get hot water until you get power back. These heating units can be powered by gas and electricity.
However, even in gas water heaters, you need an electric control panel to operate the unit. In this situation, tank-style heaters are more significant than tankless ones. They do not need any power source, and the water in the tank stays hot for some days.
Are tankless water heaters worth it or not?
The tankless water heater has shown endless advantages in past years over traditional tank-style heaters. These heating units provide unlimited hot water according to your demand. The temperature of the water does not remain constant during multiple usages, and you run out of hot water during a power outage. However, we can say these units are far more useful for you, so you can easily choose them for your home.
