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9 Tips on How to Choose a Tankless Water Heater

9 Tips on How to Choose a Tankless Water Heater

Dec 2,2022
Gas Water Heater
So, you're thinking about buying a tankless water heater for your home - but you don't know where to start? Well, don't worry because you have come to the right page! Tankless water heaters can help you save money and space - this will be your essential guide to choosing a tankless water heater for your home.

Let's review a few tips you need to know!

1. Benefits of Instant Water Heaters

Here are a few benefits of installing a tankless water heater in your home. These are the things you should keep in mind when looking for the perfect center of the water.

Takes Up Less Space

Tankless water heaters are the way to instantly produce water for anything in your home. You don't have a huge bulky tank to hold the water for you, you have a small compact device that heats the water as it flows through it.

Unlimited Hot Water

With this type of water heater, there is no limit to how much water you can store. You can run hot water as long as you want. You'll never have to worry about the person in the shower taking up all the hot water!

Lasting

Tankless water heaters last twice as long as regular water heaters. Most standard ones last up to 20 years or so.

Energy Bill

Installing a quality tankless water heater in your home could cut your energy bills in half! These units are very efficient and can save you a lot of money.

2. Find out What Size You Need

The first thing you should do is find out the exact size tankless water heater you need. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average American household typically uses 64 gallons of water per day. Needless to say, that's a ton of water! So how do you determine what size tankless water heater you need?

Tankless water heaters come in many different types and sizes. Instead of looking at capacity, which is 60 gallons in a typical tank, look at gallons per minute (GPM).

Tankless water heaters also use the Britsh Thermal Unit input to help determine energy efficiency ratings as well as GPM.

Therefore, you need to look at your home's GPM, BTU, and temperature rise in your home. Here's how to find out -

See BTU's

One BTU is equal to the same amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1℉. Therefore, the higher the BTU of the water heater, the greater the water flow.

When comparing BTU and GPM, it will usually show that 31k BTU will yield 1.2 GPM, or 190k BTU will yield 5.7 GPM.

Calculate Gross Margin

Look and see how many appliances in your home need hot water with tankless water heaters. Then determine how much you're likely to be using at any one time. Then just add the GPM of all those devices.

E.g, tankless water heaters have a flow range of 1.2 to 6 GPM. Typically, a simple sink is rated at 1.2 GPM and a shower is rated at 2.6 GPM. So, a 4 GPM tankless water heater can handle both the shower and the sink.

Calculate Temperature

Find out the temperature of the water coming into your home and subtract that from your desired hot water temperature.

Once you figure this out and find out the flow rate of your potential new tankless water heater, you'll know if it's capable of meeting your home's hot water needs.

3. View the Warranty

You want to be sure to check out any warranties that may come with your new tankless water heater. A quality heater will come with an extended warranty that will cover you if it breaks down.

Also, keep in mind the type of water that's coming into your home -- if it's hard water, it could wear down your new appliances faster. If your water is hard, then you'll want to look for a tankless water heater with a longer warranty.

Remember, this is an essential device that you use every day - so look for a warranty for your new device!

4. Tankless Water Heater Efficiency

Tankless water heaters can save you money because they're so efficient -- they'll always outperform regular water heaters. When looking at tankless water heaters, use the energy rating (EF - Energy Factor) to get a handle on the efficiency of the unit.

EF Rating

The higher the EF rating, the better and more efficient the device. EF is determined from the energy coming from the water heater and then divided by the energy going into the unit.


If you have access to natural gas or propane, it's a great idea to have a gas tankless water heater! These units give you the fastest response time and heat output.

While you can get instant heat with quick response times, using a gas unit will generally use more gas than a traditional water heater. So keep that in mind in case you choose one of these, you might need to add more gas to your home.

For gas units, you will also have an ignition unit, which will play into some of the differences in these units. There are 3 different types to look at when purchasing one of these devices.

Power Ignition

These require no batteries or connection to your electrical system. They are activated when water begins to flow through your new appliance and turbine.

Direct Ignition

With direct ignition, you need to connect it to either the electrical system or the battery. This type is simply ignited once the water begins to flow through the device.

Standard

Just like a traditional water heater, the indicator light will be on continuously - this doesn't require it to be connected to a power source or detect any water flow.

6. Your Climate

Another thing to look at when choosing a tankless water heater for your home is the climate where you live. This can help you determine the best equipment for your home.

Depending on your climate, it can have a big impact on your GPM rating. As we discussed earlier, when determining your GPM rating, you're looking at how cold the water coming into your home is. The colder it is outside, the harder it will be to heat the water, which will lower your GPM.

This also varies from season to season, so you should look at the coldest month of the year for your particular climate and use that as a basis for determining your GPM.

Likewise, if you live in a warm climate most of the year, getting a higher GPM rating may not be your top priority. Instead, consider finding an outdoor unit that can heat water in that climate.

7. Vent the Tankless Water Heater

Another thing to consider when buying a new tankless water heater is ventilation. Do you need to ventilate your unit?

Indoor Unit

Not all appliances require venting -- in fact, only indoor gas tankless water heaters do. You don't have to worry about that since electric units don't emit any exhaust.

Vented gas units are not like vented traditional water heaters. You should always consider hiring a trained professional to assist you in installing your water heater.

Remember, if your unit is outside, ventilation is not required. Ventilation is only important in confined spaces and in occupied buildings.

The Outdoor Unit

These types of units are designed for outdoor use and can handle the elements. Instead of trying to figure out how to get indoor air outside, you no longer have to.

Although these are built to withstand outdoor elements, they have their limitations. If extremely cold temperatures are common in your area, it might be a better idea to look for other options.

One of the great things about this type of equipment is that they are much less expensive and easier to install than your in-house equipment.

The above briefly introduces some precautions for choosing an instant water heater. If you want to buy an instant water heater, please contact us.

Greidea is a professional custom gas water heater manufacturer. In our R&D department, 16 engineers are employed to guarantee our R&D advantages and continuous improvement. Spend 3% of revenue annually on research and development. With an excellent manufacturing team and quality control team, we can achieve an annual output of 800,000 sets of gas stoves and 300,000 sets of high-quality range hood products.
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