Not Every Water Heater Installation Is Routine, And Our Team Is Ready For Them All | Richardson, TX
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For homes with a standard tank-based water heater, a replacement can be simple and straightforward, draining and disconnecting, swapping one out and the new one in, and reconnecting followed by filling and testing. Our bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North Dallas water heater installation team, serving Richardson, TX, is efficient and tidy, making the changeover at your convenience as long as you call us before things get ugly. We can also help if your water heater reaches a dramatic end, leaking, bursting, or worse, with cleanup in addition to emergency replacement. Where we also shine, however, is when it’s time to make a change and save some energy with a hybrid or tankless water heater, and there’s some planning and logistics to be done to make the change from a standard unit.
Our Water Heater Maintenance Team Helps Determine When Replacement Is Indicated
When you have our maintenance team visit, inspect, and maintain your water heater annually, you can improve the efficiency and service life of the unit. You can also keep informed about its condition so you can plan an appropriately timed replacement, for example with tank-based units where the corrosion and weakening of the tank lining is often the determining factor. Tank-based units tend to last 10-15 years. However, it’s only as you reach the 20-year mark on tankless models that new water heater installation becomes necessary in many cases. Our water heater experts will keep the anode rod up to date to prolong the life of the tank by reducing corrosion, and making sure the pressure relief valve is working properly to ensure that pressure buildup doesn’t damage the tank if it occurs. Tank damage with 40 gallons of hot water inside can be a very messy situation, so timely replacement is very important, especially if you have stored materials subject to water damage nearby.
A Quick Swap Replacement
Many homeowners simply replace the standard tank-based water heater with another similar model when the time comes, and continue for another decade or more getting the hot water for their home’s needs from a constantly available supply held and heated in the tank. When it’s time to change out the water heater, the water heater installation team can usually make a quick change with the same connections the old unit used. One possible change is switching energy sources, such as electric to gas, which may require some work to disconnect and terminate the electric wiring and run an appropriate gas line instead. Plumbing should be the same, though. Homeowners can save money over convenient electric water heating with a unit heated by gas, as long as the price of natural gas is competitive.
Pulling Heat from the Surrounding Air with a Hybrid Unit
A nearly equivalent replacement with significant energy savings is the hybrid tank-based water heater. It requires a bit more vertical space due to the heat pump system located on top of the tank, and typically the backup heater is electric. Wiring must be present or added before water heater installation to power the backup heater and the heat pump system, which is basically an air conditioner style compressor operating in reverse to pull heat from the air and use it to heat the water. Electricity costs to run the compressor and related control electronics amount to much less than the power used by electrically-heated water heaters, so the return on energy costs is much higher. Swapping a standard water heater for one of these hybrid units is not much different from standard water heater installation as a replacement in most cases.
Tankless Water Heater Installation Frees Up Space
On the other hand, the installation of a tankless water heater is quite different than replacing a standard tank-based heater with another of the same. It requires either electric power or gas, but due to the way it heats the water passing through, it needs more energy than a unit that takes its time to slowly heat a tankful of water. This can require electrical wiring upgrades or gas line changes to meet the unit’s needs. The tankless unit doesn’t require all the space that a tank-based unit does, so once the old standard unit is removed, there’s some free space to repurpose, and the tankless unit can be located out of the way. Newer tankless units are often designed to make connections to existing plumbing easier than older models did, making installation easier, but still more involved than simple water heater replacement. On-demand heating of your hot water requires a lot of energy in the moment while hot water is flowing, but when there’s no demand, there’s no energy use, not even to heat up stored water like the tank-based units do. That results in substantial energy cost savings over the long run.
Following Up on Our Expert Installation with Expert Water Heater Maintenance
Each type of water heater requires a different maintenance and inspection checklist, and they are important for efficient operation and long service life. In particular, maintenance of the tankless unit requires vent cleaning and sediment removal on a regular basis, without which the unit may shut down and display an error code until the service is performed.
Your Water Heater Installation Experts Serving Richardson, TX
bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North Dallas carefully and expertly performs replacement water heater installation and coordinates changes to other water heater types with equal skill. We can help you look at your family’s hot water needs and energy costs and make an informed decision of which kind of water heater is right for you, and in the case of tankless, the flow rate that will meet your hot water usage needs. These services are just part of our wide range of residential plumbing expertise, offered to our customers in Richardson, TX and our local service area. Call us to plan the details of your timely, informed water heater installation today!
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