Hot water is one of the great joys in life. Whether you are soaking in a long hot bath or washing your dishes, you want to know that you are going to get hot water whenever you turn on the hot water tap. That is why you have a water heater. If your water heater is old or breaks down, you need to get a new one as soon as you can, so that you get back to your nice hot bath. When you go looking for a new water heater, there are two basic kinds for you to pick from. One is a tank model, the other is a tankless model.
Tank Water Heater
This is the more traditional kind of water heater. It has a tank that holds water and has an immersion heater or is surrounded by heating coils. Tank water heaters can be very small or very large, depending on what the use is. The heater has a thermostat on the outside and a monitor on the inside. When the monitor on the inside of the tank drops below a set temperature, the thermostat is triggered and the heating unit gets hot so that it can bring the temperature of the water back up to the temp you want. When you use the hot water, cold water moves into the tank so that it can get heated up to the set temperature. The heater can be electric or it can run on some kind of fuel oil. You will have to wait until the tank heats up the new water if you use all the hot water. How long it takes to do that depends on the size of the tank, the set temperature, and the efficiency of the tank.
Tankless Water Heater
These heaters are also called inline or on-demand heaters. Instead of having a tank, the water heater is tied directly into the main water line in the house. It doesn't have a tank anywhere. Instead, the water runs through tubes in the water heater. Those tubes run in between heating elements. When you open up the hot tap, the heating elements will start to heat up to the right temperature. As the water runs through the tubes, it will heat up. From those tubes, it will run out of your faucet, at the temperature that you want it to be at. Depending on how far the heater is from the tap, you may have a very short wait for the hot water to get to you.
If you need a new water heater, then you need to decide if you want a tank or tankless model.
For more information on hot water tank installations, contact a professional near you.
Share4 April 2022
Think about how different your life would be without plumbing. To get water, you would have to walk outside and pull it up from a well. To use the bathroom, you would have to venture out to an outhouse, which would certainly not be pleasant in the winter. We really have to thank plumbers for the work that they do, since it allows us all to stay comfortable and do our business inside of our homes. Life has been transformed, in so many ways, by the plumbing profession. Join us in honoring plumbers by reading the articles on this website.