Noritz tankless water heater
Is there such as thing as instant hot water? I suppose not, but with a Noritz tankless water heater, we can get pretty close. Let’s clear up some misconceptions and highlight some advantages of tankless water heaters.
Clearing Up Some Misconceptions:
Tankless water heater companies, such as Noritz, claim to have “instant” hot water. If by “instant” you mean, “I turn the hot water on and it can scald me unless I temper it with cold,” then that’s not what it’s meant as instant hot water. Now if you mean “instant” to mean something like “instant mashed potatoes.” That’s much closer to what the folks at Noritz mean. There’s a process to it. Let’s look at it.
Noritz tankless water heaters only heat hot water when it is demanded of them. That means when you turn the water on your Noritz tankless water heater triggers and heats the flowing water. This, of course, takes a few seconds, but it’s about as instant as it gets. “Instant” hot water isn’t, in my opinion, a tankless’ best advantage.
Another misconception is that tankless hot water heaters heat water to unsafe temperatures. A Noritz tankless water heater has a temperature gage that is adjustable by the home owner. There’s no reason to fear water being heated too hot unless the thermostat is adjusted too high. Showers should never be hotter than 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pointing out advantages:
Imagine, if you will, waking up after sleeping in on a cold Saturday only to find out that your teenage daughter or son has spent all morning in the shower, and you’re in desperate need of one. Chances are that if you have a normal, 50-gallon tank system that it’s just now trying to heat more water for you. You have a choice: take a freezing cold shower or wait. A Noritz tankless heater does not have that issue. Within seconds, you’ll be enjoying a piping-hot shower, and afterwards some hot cocco which took much longer to heat than your shower.
Another advantage of a Noritz tankless hot water heater is the flip side to that coin, when the hot water is not being used. Remember that 50 gallons that had to heat up before? Well with a normal tanked heater, it has to keep that much water heated all the time. That means that when the temperature falls below a threshold, the water heater has to kick into action and keep the water at the preselected level. The constant heating, over the life of a water heater, will add up to a substantial bill.
Speaking of substantial bills, Noritz tankless water heaters have a 12-year warranty on them. That’s right, just when a normal hot water tank is going out (on average they go out in 10-12 years), a Noritz tankless water heater will still be going strong. So what happens if a Noritz breaks?
The list of what doesn’t happen is longer than the list of what does happen. Most of the time, when a tankless water heater goes out, the worst thing that happens is you don’t get hot water until it can be repaired. One thing that doesn’t happen is that your house being flooded with thirty to eighty gallons of water when a tank busts (you know because there isn’t a tank). These failures in tanks are usually caused by rust. Noritz tankless water heaters also don’t have thirty to eighty gallons of rusty water. These kinds of failures are expensive to clean up and an expensive replacement job is needed to fix the issue.
If you’re worried about longevity, Noritz tankless water heaters last about twenty years or longer. That’s right, when your neighbor has replaced his hot water heater twice, you’ll still be on your first tankless. And in the unlikelihood that something should break on a tankless, all the parts are modular and easily replaceable. This can extend energy efficiency as well as the life of the unit.
As with any other major purpose or change to your home, please do your research on whether or not a Noritz tankless water heater is right for you. It’ll help avoid dreaded buyer’s remorse.