Hot Water That Doesn’t Run Out
A tankless water heater makes hot water the moment a tap opens and keeps making it until the tap closes. No 50-gallon reserve to drain, no waiting for recovery after two showers, no tank in the attic waiting to leak. Summit Plumbing installs and services tankless units across the Springfield area, and we’ll tell you plainly whether one fits your house.
How a Tankless Unit Works
Open a hot tap and a flow sensor fires the burner. Water passes through a heat exchanger and comes out at your set temperature a couple of seconds later, for as long as you want it. Close the tap and the unit goes dark, which is where the savings come from: no energy spent keeping 50 gallons hot at 3 a.m.
Sizing is about flow, not gallons. A shower draws about 2 gallons per minute and a kitchen tap about 1.5, so you add up what runs at the same time. Most families land on a unit in the 8 to 10 GPM class, which delivers around 5 GPM of truly hot water at winter inlet temperatures. The Department of Energy’s tankless overview covers the math in more depth.
The Gas Line Question Nobody Mentions
Here is the part bargain quotes leave out. A standard gas tank burns around 40,000 BTU. A whole-home tankless unit burns up to 199,000 BTU at full demand. The half-inch gas line feeding your old tank usually can’t deliver that, and a starved unit throws error codes and lukewarm showers.
We size the gas line on every quote. Sometimes the fix is upsizing one branch, sometimes it’s a new run from the meter. Our gas line services crew does that work in-house, so there’s no second contractor and no finger-pointing. Venting gets the same scrutiny: tankless units need their own dedicated stainless or PVC venting, not the old tank’s flue.
Hard Water Is the Enemy, Descaling Is the Answer
Mineral scale is the number one killer of tankless units in our area. Scale coats the inside of the heat exchanger, the unit strains to hit temperature, and eventually it shuts down on an error code. Two defenses:
- Isolation valves installed on day one. We pipe every install with service valves so an annual descaling flush takes under an hour.
- Treat the water. A water softener slows scale at the source and stretches the time between flushes.
Descaling is part of our water heater maintenance service. On a tankless unit it isn’t optional: skip it for three or four years in hard water and the heat exchanger pays the price.
Is Tankless Right for Your House?
Strong fit: households that run out of hot water, homes where the tank eats closet or garage space, and owners planning to stay five-plus years (tankless units commonly last 20 years, about double a tank).
Weaker fit: small households with light hot water use, or homes where the gas line and venting work eats the budget. In those cases a quality tank from our installation team or a hybrid water heater often makes more sense. We’ll run the numbers both ways.
Tankless Water Heaters by City
See all service areas.
Get a Real Quote, Not a Guess
A tankless quote done right covers the unit, the gas line, the venting, and the service valves, in writing, before any work starts. Call Summit Plumbing at (555) 123-4567 or contact us online and we’ll size one for your home.