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Hot Water On Demand

“Hot Water” is not the next big movie on the On-Demand channel, but it could be available in an instant with the help of a tankless water heater. This may seem like old news, but the plumbers of All Pro Plumbing in Southern California still get many questions about them, which is why some explanation is necessary.

Neither the actual date of creation nor the inventor of the water heater is known for certain. Some speculate that Benjamin Maughan was the first; others say that Edwin Ruud, who produced a line of water heaters near the beginning of the 20^th century, was the creator. Either way many of the first water heaters were similar in that they used large gas burners to heat large amounts of water in cylindrical canisters. Some crude forms of heating water for a bath even involved heating the water pipe going directly to the bath faucet, which was very dangerous. Luckily, today our water heaters are much safer, but the practice of heating large quantities of water has not changed in the slightest.

The typical home uses hot water for an average of about 1 hour per day. The problem with this is that the typical water heater heats water for 24 hours a day. That means that for 23 hours of every day, you are using unnecessary energy and driving up the cost of your gas or electric bill. Not only that, but such inefficiency only adds to the problem of global climate change.

To begin to heal these blows to the wallet and nature, many people have turned to the tankless water heater. This is how it works: When you turn on your faucet for hot water, the gas burners or electrical heating elements turn on and start heating the water through the pipe that goes into the tankless water heater. The length of time you have to wait for hot water only depends on the distance your faucet is from the water heater. Once you turn off the faucet, water stops flowing through the pipe and the heating elements turn off, saving you money on your next utility bill.

The mistake that many people make is in hiring an non-certificated “professional” to install their tankless water heating unit. Several factors have to be taken into account for your tankless water heater to work properly: the size of the unit, the size of the gas line, the material of the vent pipe, and the placement of the unit in your home. I have been a plumber for almost 20 years and I cringe every time a homeowner, under the direction of a “expert” at the local hardware store, decides to just change out their old water heater and put the tankless water heater in the same place. They're wholly different animals, and should only be tamed by someone certified to do so. The only way to make sure that your hot water needs are met with a tankless water heater is to have a certified plumber in a certified company assess your needs and professionally install a correctly sized tankless water heater in your home – then, and only then, will you have all the hot water you could ever desire.

If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to contact a plumber with tankless water heater certification at All Pro Plumbing, based in Southern California.