No matter if you follow us here on the blog or on social media, a popular plumbing topic that we consistently bring up is anything related to water heaters. Whether that be analyzing the different water heater brands currently on the market, discussing maintenance tasks or even just the benefits of a new unit, your water heater is one of those appliances/fixtures that you need to be working on a daily basis. For those new to our blog, we can essentially divide water heaters into two categories: storage tank heaters and tankless models. Yes, you can certainly break down each of those deeper, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll stick with those two general segments.
On this week’s blog, we’re going to focus specifically on one of those two categories and that is the tankless water heaters. Even though the first tankless water heater was technically invented back in the 1920’s, it’s safe to say they’ve really started to make a dent in the market over the past 20 years or so. Despite this, you can also still make the assumption that storage tank water heaters continue to be the more common of the two. However, due to a number of unique benefits, it’s not hard to imagine that tankless water heaters will continue to become more and more popular. Throughout this blog, we’ll break down a handful of these benefits and hopefully provide some clarity to those considering having one installed. With that introduction in place, let’s hop right in and talk tankless water heaters.
Price Point
When it comes to any plumbing project (or home improvement project, in general, for that matter), price is inevitably going to be something you consider. This is true about faucets, toilets, remodeling jobs and of course, water heaters too. After all, for most homeowners, the three main factors that they consider are (1) the initial bill for the installation, (2) the longevity and how reliable that particular product is and (3) any maintenance involved to ensure it lasts the expected lifespan. It’s as simple as that. In terms of water heaters specifically, tankless units are generally going to come at a higher price tag, sometimes being twice as much as a traditional storage tank water heater. Having said that, there are clear advantages to tankless heaters, including their ability to easily last 20-plus years (much longer than their storage tank counterparts). So…if you were to evaluate the decision on a basis of overall return on investment, tankless could easily come out ahead. However, if we were comparing solely on the point of initial installation price, tankless is going to be more expensive than storage tank water heaters.
Aesthetics
Anytime you’re discussing one’s plumbing system and the manner in which it’s installed, functionality is always going to be the number one priority. And while aesthetics may not be nearly as important with most aspects of plumbing, there are areas where it comes into play. For instance, most homeowners would likely agree that modern-looking faucets can have quite the impact on a bathroom or kitchen, right? Even though you probably wouldn’t expect aesthetics to be discussed in regards to water heaters (they’re just responsible for heating up the water), there’s no doubt that tankless water heaters do offer a more appealing look than a traditional tank-style heater. Looks themselves don’t provide any benefits in this situation (especially because most water heaters are located in the basement), but many have found value in the fact that they occupy much less space. Since they’re able to heat water on-demand, you don’t need that large tank sitting with the hot water. Long story short, with water heaters generally being an unfinished basement, this isn’t a huge deal to everyone, but it is certainly something worth considering.
Efficiency
We talked about the initial price tag above for having a tankless water heater installed, but to understand the true price of each type of heater, it’s important to analyze everything from a long-term perspective too. In other words, how are the two going to differentiate price-wise in the years to come? One factor to consider in this debate is efficiency. In the plumbing industry, “efficiency” has been a popular buzzword for years. After all, just look at low-flow showerheads or toilets for example. It’s amazing how much less water is used nowadays in comparison to a few decades ago.
Well, when you look at efficiency in terms of water heaters, it’s safe to assume that tankless heaters are generally going to be more efficient than storage tank heaters. The logic behind this statement is fairly straightforward. Tankless water heaters are also referred to as “on-demand” water heaters, so they’re essentially only heating the water when you need it, thus resulting in less energy being wasted. For comparison purposes, a storage tank water heater could easily heat water that’s not used and then be forced to reheat it. Will this be a drastic difference on your monthly utility bills? Not necessarily, but when you factor in that this difference in energy consumption will occur year-after-year, it’s not hard to see how it can add up over time.
Lifespan
The final element worth discussing is one that we briefly touched on above, but we felt it was important enough to deserve a section of its own. While the expected lifespan of a water heater is always going to be more of an estimate, it can definitely help in deciding between one or the other. As a general rule of thumb, homeowners usually see their tankless water heaters lasting 20-plus years. While it can last shorter or longer than this, that should at least give you an average number of years to work with. Meanwhile, on the other hand, storage tank water heaters are typically going to last 12-15 years. So, when you’re evaluating the pros and cons associated with each, the average lifespan will be more monitoring.
Keep in mind that variables, such as routine maintenance or everyday wear and tear, will have an impact on the number of years you get out of your water heater, so make sure to stay diligent on water heater best practices! If you ever need advice on what you should or shouldn’t be doing to keep your heater operating at optimal performance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team!
Tankless Water Heater Services in Kansas City
As we briefly mentioned in the opening paragraph, tankless water heaters (and any other water heater-related service) are undoubtedly a popular service for our Kansas City plumbing business. Your water heater is such an important component to your home’s plumbing system, to the point that even having it down for 24 hours can be a real inconvenience. As such, Kansas City homeowners need a plumber capable of not only providing services in a timely manner, but also ensuring that they’re long-lasting repairs/installations too! No matter what the plumbing service may be, your friends at Stine-Nichols Plumbing are always here to help. With a team of licensed and trained plumbing technicians, we’re here to get your plumbing system back in working order.
If you’re ever interested in receiving a free quote for a potential plumbing project or simply have some questions about our various services, don’t hesitate to give us a call at (816) 348-3481!