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Pros and Cons of Tank-type Water Heaters

By Scott Rodgers

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 22Mar2009
Word count: 520
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One of the first things you need to consider when buying or renting a house is the availability of hot water supply that will work well in all seasons. You must have heard about the ultra-modern solar powered heaters or tankless ones. But the truth is that conventional tank-type water heaters that come with a big storage tank are still better in many cases. This article briefly overviews some major advantages and disadvantages of tank-type water heaters over others.

Typically, these water heaters take cold water as input and amass it in a storage tank, heat it inside the tank, and supply hot water into the house through another pipeline. Though many of these heaters are run on natural gas, you can also find ones that are powered by electricity, fuel oil or propane. In propane and gas-fired heaters, a burner is situated beneath the tank. A thermostat is used to maintain water at a desired temperature. Whenever water inside the tank goes below that set temperature, the burner automatically fires up and heats water till it reaches the thermostat temperature again. Heaters running on fuel oil operate in more or less the same manner, except that they fire up through an electric spark and the burner mixes air with oil.

Since these heaters have large storage tanks, they can supply hot water to multiple outlets simultaneously without affecting the flow and warmth of water. In addition, the thermostat enables the system to keep water at the desired temperature at all times. So you can get hot water instantaneously whenever you open the tap. If you get cold water initially even with a tank-type water heater, then it's probably because your pipelines aren't insulated well and heat escapes through them, cooling the water inside the pipes. Furthermore, since the thermostat constantly heats water at regular intervals before the temperature can go too low, you seldom experience frozen pipes.

These benefits are mostly linked to the presence of a storage tank and a thermostat. On the other hand, these two elements are the very reasons of their disadvantages. Firstly, constant heating of water results in high energy bills and most of this energy goes wasted if you don't consume hot water in large quantities frequently. This phenomenon is commonly known as standby heat loss and can be avoided by using tankless, on-demand water heaters. However, if your storage tank is insulated very well, you can minimize standby heat loss by a significant amount.

Secondly, the presence of a large storage tank necessitates allocation of a large space to place the water heater. This can be a problem if you live in a small house or apartment. Some poorly insulated heaters are too hot to even touch from the outside and constantly emit heat to the surroundings. So in many cases, it is not feasible to install these heaters inside a room, especially if you are living with kids.

But despite their disadvantages, conventional tank-type storage water heaters are common because they are cheaper, can fulfill needs of a large household and work well even in extremely cold climates.

Scott Rodgers is a master plumber who has recently begun writing articles for both a plumbing and non-plumbing audience. To view more of plumbing articles, visit http://eLocalPlumbers.com

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