Indirect Water Heaters vs. Tankless

What exactly are the differences?

If you are in the market for a new water heater for your home here in Tennessee or southern Kentucky, you have options that you have to weigh to decide which kind is the perfect fit your needs, budget, and your family. Needless to say, you’ll have your fair share of options to choose from. One main difference is the style of water heater itself: is it Tankless, or Indirect? Here, we’ll cover the ins and outs of both tankless and indirect water heaters, so you know how each work, helping you make the right choice.

Tankless water heaters

Tankless water heaters heat water directly, and, as their name implies, without the traditional standing tank unit that you normally would find in the basement.

Cold water comes through a pipe into the unit, where the propane gas burner heats it and sends it directly to where hot water is needed. You get all the hot water you need, on-demand, immediately when you want it.

There’s benefits that come with this: With a tankless water heater, you don’t have a tank that heats up the same water over and over when no one is using it.There’s no tank to maintain, and no tank to fail. In fact, tankless water heaters last about twice as long as conventional water heaters with a tank.

You can also save up to 40% on your energy costs for water heating using this modern style unit. When you realize that heating water makes up about 20% of your home’s energy usage, that’s a nice savings!

Advanced Propane sells and installs top-quality tankless water heaters from leading makers including Nortiz, Rheem, American, Lochinvar, and AO Smith.

Indirect water heaters

Indirect water heaters are linked to your home’s boiler through piping. Hot water from the boiler is sent to the heat exchanger inside the water heater. The coils of the heat exchanger heat the water for you to use for bathing, washing, etc.

They can be very efficient. But, unless your boiler is a high-efficiency one, you also won’t get the efficiency touted as a benefit of indirect water heaters.

If you have a furnace, that forced air type of heating is not going to heat the exchange pipes.

If you’d like to add more propane appliances to your home or business, such as a high-efficiency tankless water heater, contact us today or call our office to get started!