In today's society, it's impossible to perform daily activities without a quality water heater. Just ask anyone who has experienced a faulty water heater! One faulty water heater and everything is thrown askew! Water heaters can fail to adequately perform for a number of reasons - age being one of them.

The only way to ensure that your water heater is up to the job and can meet the demands of today's growing family is to either replace your old water heater with a new one, or to have your current one serviced. In doing so, you can ensure that you and/or your family will enjoy the comfort (and sanitation) of hot water whenever you need it.

What's A Water Heater?

A water heater is a heater and storage tank built to supply heated water. Although you may not find one of these in your typical shopping mall, they're still major appliances. Just like the typical refrigerator, stove, washer, and dryer, you won't find a home without one.

Water heaters are also known as hot-water heaters or hot-water tanks. Both references are correct but there are different kinds depending in the type of energy they use. For example, you might hear of electric water heaters, gas water heaters (natural or propane), or oil water heaters. In the U.S., the most commonly used water heaters are natural gas water heaters.

Current Usage

There's only one use for water heaters - and that's to supply a consistent supply of hot water inside of a home. A single family home may use anywhere from twenty to forty gallons of heated water for Showering, laundry, cooking, and household cleaning chores.

As a home owner, you'll want to purchase and install a water heater that will not only supply a continuous supply of hot water, but also one that will accommodate your needs no matter how large your family gets and how many times the water heater is accessed.

Choosing an Efficient Water Heater

You can work with your contractor or water heater installer to make sure that you select one with a long warranty, one that will increase the resale value of your home, and one that evenly distribute heated water throughout your home without problems. There are several to choose from depending upon your individual needs.

For example, you might prefer a tank water heater that's insulated to conserve heat. These water heaters are designed to lower your energy bills by retaining a large amount of heated water at a time (without having to continuously run it's heating core).

A high efficiency water heater, which may employ the use of insulation or instant heating, is designed to use ninety-eight percent of its energy solely to heat water.

Electric and gas tankless water heaters however don't store water like the other kinds do. Instead, they heat water as it's being called or as water runs through the unit. You might also hear tankless water heaters referred to as tankless instantaneous, instant-on, or in-line water heaters.