Water Heaters, Part 2: Pros and Cons of Tankless

To continue our series on water heaters, we’d like to shift your attention to a relatively radical water heating solution – the tankless water heater. For years, homeowners have grown accustomed to the idea of having a big tank stored somewhere out of sight in their homes. However, a tankless water heater works differently from a traditional tank water heater in that it heats water on demand by running it through a series of coils.

This “on-demand” functionality can save money in the long run, since the water heater is working more efficiently, and only as needed. On the other hand, a tankless water heater may be more expensive to install, and if you have a large house, you may need to have multiple heaters servicing different rooms.

Tankless water heaters usually take up less space after installation, since there’s no need for long pipes connecting your plumbing fixtures to the out-of-sight tank. On the other hand, since the tankless variety often needs to be close to the fixture, you may lose valuable cabinet space.