Tankless Water Heaters Explained

If you have a tankless water heater in your home or business, it's usually best to call a professional when there's a problem because these are complicated machines. However, it's good to have a basic understanding of how this plumbing feature works so that you can discuss the situation with the repair person and understand what they're doing.

Tankless water heaters have two main advantages over traditional water heaters. The first is that they're more energy-efficient. The second is that with a tankless water heater, the user never runs out of hot water. The hot water running in a shower won't suddenly go cold.

Tankless water heaters are also known as in-line water heaters. A basic difference between them and traditional water heaters is that they heat up water as it's used rather than keeping an entire tank of water heated and waiting to be used. With traditional water heaters, heat is always being lost through the walls of the tank no matter how well they are insulated. Essentially, with tankless water heaters, money isn't wasted in keeping water heated when it's not in use.

Something to be aware of with tankless water heaters is that when a hot water tap is first turned on, there is going to be a delay of at least ten seconds before the water runs hot. This is because the water is being heated up while it's running. Once hot, however, the running water will remain so indefinitely.