On-Demand or Tankless Water Heaters
Thinking about replacing your water heater with a tankless water heater? You can talk to 5 different Denver plumbers and you will get 5 different opinions. Each plumber’s opinion will come with some sort of bias, for or against replacing your water heater with a tankless unit.
You can read all the manufactures’ website about how great tankless unit is. However, we want to provide you with a non bias point of view. As with anything there are always some pros and cons.
The Pros to Tankless Water Heaters
1. They are compact in size. They can be hung on a wall, placed in closet and in some cases your plumber can mount it under sink.
2. There is an endless supply of hot water. A traditional hot water heater is limited to the tank size (typically 40-60 gallons) If you want to fill up that large spa like bathtub, you will not have to worry about running out of hot water.
3. The equipment itself has a longer life expectancy then a tank water heater. The average life span of a water heater is 13 years. The life expectancy for a tankless water heater is 20 years.
4 A tankless water heater can save 10%-20% on your energy cost for heating water. Typically, 20% of Denver’s household utilities bill is used for heating water. The savings comes from only being on when there is a call for hot water. A tank water heater has to run periodically to keep the water in the tank up to the desired temperature.
5. The chance of flooding is limited, because you do not need to worry about a ruptured tank.
The Cons to Tankless Water Heaters
1. Most tankless water heaters can not supply enough hot water for when there are multiple calls. Such as running a dishwasher, shower and laundry simultaneously.
2. You will need to have yearly maintenance done on your equipment. This involves flushing the system out to help remove any scale and lime that have collected over the year. In most cases, you do not need to do any maintenance on a tank hot water heater.
3. Tankless water heater repairs can be costly. Most units have substantially more circuitry then the conventional water heater, thus increasing repair cost.
4. The cost of the equipment and installation can be 2 to 3 times more then traditional hot water heaters
5. If you are replacing an old water heater the installation cost can be dramatically more then just replacing “like” with “like”. Your Denver plumber might need to run a new gas line, venting, etc. See installation Considerations
For most Denver homeowners, upgrading to a tankless water heater might be a good idea. There are many plumbing companies in Denver which are qualified (See selecting a contractor) and can provide you with advice and an estimate for installing a tankless water heater.
Finally, installing a tankless water heater is not a good idea for a DIY’er. There are many things to take into consideration which most likely will exceed your knowledge base. Don’t put you, your family and your home in jeopardy, higher a plumber. There are lots of good reputable plumbers in Denver.