If you’re in the market for a new water heater, one thing you might want to consider is purchasing a tankless heater. However, it’s best to go into this purchasing situation with your eyes open, being aware of all the potential pitfalls that you can run into and ultimately making sure that you’re buying the right product for your family. In the spirit of making informed purchases, I want to go ahead and take a little bit of a deeper look at both the function of a traditional tank-based water heater as well as some of the ups and downs of the newer tankless models.

On one hand, we have tank-based water heaters, the traditional setup that has been providing us with hot water for decades now. These units work really well because they are constantly burning natural gas in order to heat water which is then stored in a large tank until it is ultimately needed at a certain point of use in your home. This is an amazingly effective solution for heating water, but at the expense of increased energy bills and a less than environmentally friendly affect on the earth.

Because of these two problems, some companies such as Titan have formed with the express purpose of creating a workable solution to the traditional, tank-based model. The Titan tankless water heaters function not by constantly heating a large volume of water but rather heating water only as it is needed. The tankless water heater achieves this effect through the use of an intelligent heating element which activates itself whenever it senses the need for hot water throughout the home. For instance, if someone turns on a hot water faucet in the kitchen, a tankless water heater will spring to life and immediately heat enough water for that use.

However, the tankless method of heating water is not without some potential problems that you should be aware of before you make a purchase. Perhaps the single biggest potential issue here is when a tankless water heater does not provide enough hot water, or when it does not heat the water up quite enough. This is especially likely to occur when a tankless water heater is being used in a larger home with many family members. If four people are all trying to take a hot shower/use a hot water dispenser at once, you can imagine that a tankless water heater will be stressed beyond its normal limitations. Thankfully, manufacturers have devised ways to get around this issue, the most straightforward of which is to purchase multiple units. By producing tankless water heaters which are modular in nature, manufacturers can keep the cost of each module small enough so that a small family can get by with just one unit while a larger family can scale up as necessary.

Because of this issue, be sure to take stock of just how many people are going to be using hot water simultaneously in your home. By reading through a few of the more popular user review sites, such as Consumer Reports or Amazon.com, you should be able to quickly determine what the biggest issues are going to be with the tankless water heater that you are considering purchasing. Additionally, don’t be afraid to call your local Titan water heater retailer and explain your situation. A qualified representative should be able to determine how many heaters are appropriate for the size of your family so that you don’t have to go through any unnecessary hassle when you make your initial purchase.