If there is any appliance in your home that’s easy to take for granted, it’s likely going to be the water heater. This is true even though it’s one of the home comfort appliances we rely on the most—can you imagine being without hot water?!
When it’s time to replace your water heater, or pick a water heater for a brand new home, then you’ll want to trust experienced professional plumbers to help you with the job. This includes helping you decide between the traditional tank water heater or a tankless water heater. They each have their own benefits, but which is best for your home?
Read our guide below and we can help you decide.
The Tank Water Heater
The tank water heater is the most common type of water heater you’ll see in homes throughout the country. One reason for this is that they simply do the job required of them, at a low price. The distinguishing feature of the tank water heater is—well, the tank. These storage tanks vary in size, with different options for how many gallons they hold.
Why are the different sizes needs? Well, once a tank water heater’s hot water supply runs out, there’s a delay in time as the system heats up a new batch of water. By having a bigger reserve of water to draw from, you’ll be able to use the hot water for longer, or for more appliances at once, without it needing to refill so often.
Unfortunately, there is a drawback to tank water heaters. That is that if your water heater is larger than you need, it will suffer from standby heat loss. This means that the hot water inside of it will cool off before you can use it, and will need to be heated up again. As you can probably guess, this gets inefficient and expensive.
The Tankless Water Heater
Tankless water heaters are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to the tank water heater. They function in a drastically different way from a tank system. As the name implies, they do not use a storage tank. Rather, a tankless water heater works by passing water over heat exchangers in the system.
Tankless systems are considered to be far more efficient than traditional storage tank water heaters. They do not suffer from standby heat loss, and these systems can last about 5-10 years longer than their tank counterparts.
This doesn’t mean they don’t have drawbacks, however. Tankless systems can be overwhelmed. If there are too many plumbing appliances and fixtures demanding hot water from one tankless system at once, then it may not be able to provide hot water at all outlets. This can mean that you need more than one tankless system in your home.
As you can see, both of these options have merit. The best way to determine what’s best for your specific home and needs is to contact our team. We’ll help you make an informed decision.
When you’re ready to install a water heater in southern Vermont, get in touch with HB Energy Solutions. Contact us today!
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