Which One is Better? Tankless Water Heater or Conventional Water Heaters?

Sarah Lavinski
DIY Plumbing
Published in
4 min readMay 17, 2019

Realize it or not, water heater can be one of the crucial instruments at our house. At some point we will realize about it when we go to the shower and we run out hot water. Nowadays there are two types of water heater that become common to be installed in houses. One of them is tankless water heater and the other one is conventional water heater (the one with tank). Before we go further to choose which one is better, let’s have a slight look into both of them.

All you need to know about tankless water heater:

So far, there are a lot of tankless water heater reviews and most of them are a good review. Some of them say that this type of water heater save big space, some of them says that it is more efficient, save money over time and have a long life span. Well, most of those good reviews are true actually.

From the name itself we can conclude that this water heater is small and doesn’t need a tank to store the hot water. Tankless water heater use high powered burner to change cold water into hot water and we can use it immediately without storing it in a tank, so we can use hot water every time we need without worried about running out hot water. Tankless water heater has proved to be more energy efficient because the need to use energy (gas or electricity) is only when we need the water. Also, with good maintenance of tankless water heater, it survives around 20 to 30 years.

Tankless water heater installation is a little bit complicated than water heater with tank. If we already use the old type of water heater (with tank), we need to remove it first and install new line for gas or electricity and other thing to install, but we can ask for help from an expert plumber to make it easier and safer. Tankless water heater cost is around $2,000 to $ 4,500 to buy and install.

All you need to know about conventional water heater

Conventional water heater is still become a good choice especially for someone who has a large house. We can found best tank water heater available in many stores. Conventional hot water heater has tank to store all the hot water and make sure it’s ready to use before it emptied and need to refill so it can be heated again.

Different from tankless water heater, conventional water heater need more space to put the tank. The tank’s function is to store the water then to heat it and keep it warm until the water inside is used. Tank water heater is simpler than the one without tank, the price, the installation and maintenance is also cheaper. It only cost about $ 600 to $ 850.

When we decide to use tank water heater we need to consider about the tank water heater efficiency. Because the tank water need to heat and reheat when the temperature goes down (to maintain the temperature) it can cause bills increase. When you live in cool environment then your heater might work harder.

With cheaper price and maintenance than tankless water heater, conventional storage water heater have shorter life span. It will last around 10 to 15 years, then you should replace it with new one.

Comparison between tankless and conventional water heater

In the table below you can see clearly and simply about tankless water heater vs tank water heater in many point of view also the comparison between tankless vs tank water heater calculator (which one is cheaper and efficient).

From table above we can think carefully and choose the best water heater to be installed in our house, and with this water heater comparison we can finally see which one is the better. Well, different people with different condition might end up with different choice.

How Downey Plumbing handle water heater installation

We can call our self an expert in plumbing area with over 30 years experience, so if you have a problem with your water heater and need a tankless water heater services in your house we always ready 24/7 to solve your plumbing problem. With our best plumbing expertise we work to our customer satisfaction.

If you want to know plumbers near me, you can open Downey Plumbing for more information and call a plumber to help you right away.

Source: Downey-Plumbing

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