Your home’s water heater is one of the main components of your plumbing system, and it works to provide hot water to all of the faucets and other water-using appliances in your home. There are several different types of water heaters available, each of which operates in a different manner to perform the same function.
Understanding the differences in each type of water heater and what they have to offer your home’s plumbing can help you figure out which variant is the right choice for your plumbing needs.

CONVENTIONAL WATER HEATERS

Conventional water heaters use a large storage tank with an installed heating element to keep a supply of hot water at a constant temperature, able to be used at any time. They are the most affordable type of water heater on the market and can provide hot water to multiple sources at once.
However, conventional water heaters do require time to recharge once all of your hot water has been used. This can be offset by installing a larger tank, but that will take up more space within your home. Conventional water heaters are also not very energy efficient and can drive up your monthly electrical bills.

TANKLESS WATER HEATERS

As their name would suggest, tankless water heaters do not have a large storage tank to hold hot water in. Instead, they heat water up on demand. This means that they will not have to constantly cycle on and off to maintain a supply of hot water, which can save you money on your energy bills each month.
Further, their lack of a tank means that they take up much less room, which makes them ideal for smaller houses and apartments that don’t have the storage space for a conventional water heater.
However, tankless water heaters do represent a higher initial investment than conventional water heaters do, which means that they won’t be able to fit into every budget. Further, the fact that they heat water on demand means that they can have issues supplying hot water to multiple faucets or appliances at once, which can limit their effectiveness in larger homes.

SOLAR WATER HEATERS

Solar water heaters are designed to save you even more energy than tankless water heaters. Solar heaters use solar panels installed outside or on top of your home to generate power which then heats water in a conventional hot water storage tank.
This method of heating water can eliminate – or at the very least severely reduce – your energy bills each month.
However, solar water heaters are extremely expensive compared to other variants, as they require their own infrastructure to be installed in the form of solar panels and specialized electrical equipment. They also take up a great deal of space both within and outside of your home, and they require constant maintenance to ensure that the solar panels are kept in good condition.
There’s also the obvious downside that solar water heaters are only well-suited for consistently sunny climates; colder and cloudy areas just won’t generate enough power to provide an adequate amount of hot water.

HEAT PUMP WATER HEATERS

Heat pump water heaters work by moving heat from outside of your home into the hot water storage tank and don’t actually make use of a heating element to heat up water. This makes them extremely energy efficient and more reliable than solar water heaters.
However, heat pump water heaters work fairly slowly and are only well-suited for climates that do not have cold winters. While they may be energy efficient, they can have trouble heating up large quantities of water. Because of this, they are usually installed as hybrid units so that a conventional heating element or tankless water heater can take over when they are not able to generate enough heat.
For any questions that you may have about your home’s water heater or if you have any other plumbing concerns, please feel free to contact us at Vines Restoration Plumbing HVAC.

Annual checkups are recommended for a variety of household systems; and even if you remember to get your AC system checked at the beginning of every warm season, you may not realize that your plumbing system needs to be regularly maintained as well. Unlike your AC, your plumbing system works year-round and accumulates constant wear and tear.

So whether you decide to have your system inspected and cleaned as part of your spring cleaning or in the fall before winter storms can burst any unprotected pipes, there are a number of factors in your plumbing system that require a professional checkup each year. Here are a few examples.

1. Water Heater

Sometimes water heater problems can sneak up on you. For example, if there’s sediment buildup in the tank, you might not notice that your system is sounding more rumbly than it did a few months ago – after all, each day sounded about the same as the day before.

A plumbing inspection includes water heater checkups, and a plumbing technician can find and diagnose problems such as sediment buildup, thermostat problems, valve problems and leaks in a tank easier than you could on your own.

A technician can also help you with problems that are just annoying, such as slightly-too-high water pressure. A technician can also perform regular maintenance services such as flushing out the tank and putting in a new anode rod, meaning there will be less maintenance work for you later.

2. Sump Pump

Your sump pump probably doesn’t get used often, especially during the less-stormy times of the year. However, after months of inactivity, some sump pumps may develop a malfunction. You can’t be sure yours will work perfectly just because it did so last year.

Instead, including the sump pump in your annual plumbing maintenance and inspection visit will help ensure that it’s in good working condition next time there’s a storm.

Although there are several maintenance tasks you can do yourself, such as cleaning out the pump screen, a professional inspection will include testing of the alarm and backup power, checking for functional valves and correct pit size and more, so you don’t have to worry about those maintenance tasks unless you want to.

3. Water Pipes

Not all homeowners realize this, but your water could be negatively affecting your pipes in a variety of ways. For example, if the water is too hard, it could be causing a layer of lime scale to build up on the inside of your pipes, which can gradually reduce their diameter until no water can get through at all.

On the other hand, if your water softener is too strong, the chemicals might damage your pipes as well. In addition, a too-high or too-low PH can also have ill effects, causing erosion or other problems.

So no matter what type of water you have – well water or city water – an annual inspection to make sure your pipes are in good health is ideal.

The plumbing inspection will also include checking for any drips, slow leaks and other “small” problems that could develop into very large problems at some point during the next few years. Having a professional look at your pipes can be very helpful that way.

As you can see, there are a number of reasons that annual inspections are recommended for your plumbing system. These few examples show that there’s a lot that can go wrong if you don’t stay up to date with upkeep.

If you’d like more info about plumbing maintenance or if you’d like to schedule a repair or maintenance visit, contact the experts at Vines Restoration Plumbing HVAC today via our website.