Home Improvement

Gas hot water heaters are common in many homes and have been used efficiently for decades. In order to make sure that your gas hot water heater is working to its full potential, regular routine maintenance is required.

Natural Gas water heaters are used to provide hot water, using natural gas and a flame to provide the heating combustion required to keep water to its desired temperature. When choosing a gas water heater, you have two choices. You can go with a traditional water heater that uses a tank to store water, or you can choose to go with a tankless gas water heater that heats water on-demand.

The way a tank gas water heater works, is through convection. This basically means that the tank is heated from the bottom of the tank, As the water is heated it rises to the top of the tank. The water is pulled by a discharge pipe through the house from the top of the hot water tank. This ensures that you are always getting the hottest water in the tank when needed. A tank model gas water heater will continuously keep a supply of hot water stored.

Tankless gas water heaters are becoming more and more common in homes as their inefficiency is realized by homeowners. Tankless gas water heaters use what is called flash heating to heat water. Basically this means that water is heated on-demand only, so there is no wasted energy heating an entire tank of water that may sit for hours and hours without being used. A tankless gas water heater is definitely considered more energy-efficient than a tank model water heater. For this reason you will see more and more tankless gas water heaters being installed in new homes, and may eventually see tank water heaters phaseout completely.