Tankless Water Heaters

This is a proven fact that the average gas savings with a tankless water heater for a regular-sized house is only about $60 – $80 per year. However – unlike most storage heater models that only operate on gas – tankless units also operate on electricity and you can count on higher electrical charges, with some models dramatically reducing your gas savings.

Traditional hot water tanks need almost no maintenance. The tankless ones, however, need to be maintained – at the very least – every two years. When you boil water, there is a high chance of calcium buildup. In a tankless water heating system, this happens inside the heat exchanger tubes, inhibiting water flow, dropping the water pressure and reducing system efficiency. To remove this buildup, you need to pay the technician at least $200 – once every two years – to flush out your system with some sort of an acid and using special valves and other relevant equipment.

Taking the maintenance costs into account, not only you are left with no savings but you actually have to pay from your own pocket to have your system run properly. And do keep in mind that if you do not keep your tankless water heater maintained, the tubes will eventually become clogged and not only does the water pressure drop drastically, but so does the system efficiency!!

To be completely frank, if you are replacing your old storage tank with a tankless heater, you are not likely to save much in space with the way many technicians go about their installations. To make it an easy job, the installer chooses a wall very close to the location of your old tank and he will use 2 one-piece plastic pipes from the old to the new water line connection. Then he will hook up the gas line and the new wires as well as the new venting system and you are left with very little – if any, in fact – saving in space

90% of storage water heaters work with only gas and even in case of a gas interruption, you still have access to a tank full of hot water. With tankless models, however, not only during gas interruptions but even in times of power outages, you will not have a single drop of hot water and that can be something to consider as well.