How Does a Tankless Water Heater Work?

If you and your family have grown tired of scheduling your showers around your dishwasher or washing machine, a tankless water heater might be a good idea. Tankless heaters, also known as on-demand water heaters, continuously generate hot water without storing gallons of water. Learning about the benefits of these systems and how they work can help you decide whether a tankless water heater is right for your Atlanta-area home.

How A Tankless Water Heater Works

In traditional storage-based water heaters, water is heated in a large storage tank. This gives you a burst of hot water when you first turn on the shower or your dishwasher, but continued use can quickly empty the tank of hot water faster than your heater can create more hot water. In an on-demand system, cold water flows into the unit and is forced through heating elements, rapidly heating the water before it flows into your plumbing. Tankless heaters can be powered with either electricity or gas, with gas heaters delivering higher flow rates.

Benefits of Tankless Heaters

Tankless heaters never run out of hot water; as long as you don’t need more hot water than the system can produce, you can use hot water indefinitely. Additionally, since tankless systems don’t have to heat a large volume of water at once, they’re typically more efficient than traditional storage-based systems. On-demand heaters are also more compact than traditional systems.

Drawbacks of Tankless Heaters

Tankless heaters are inherently limited by the amount of hot water they can produce; homes that need a large amount of hot water all at once may need to stick with a storage-based heater or install multiple tankless heaters. Tankless systems are also a bit more expensive than comparable storage-based heaters.

Frustrations with limited hot water don’t have to be a fact of life. For more information about on-demand heaters and help with determining whether a tankless heater is right for your Atlanta-area home, find out about your options with Trinity Air or call (770) 285-1990.