Today’s featured project is a beautiful home in Flower Mound. Built in 1998, this 3,300-square-foot home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, an attached garage, and a third-floor attic.
Houses built around this time in Flower Mound tend to have many things in common. In the 1970s, Flower Mound experienced a residential construction boom after the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport opened. Since then, the town has become a place for up-and-coming residents, with several distinctions between “best place to find a job” and “best place to live.” Almost 9 in 10 residents have purchased and moved into a large 4-5+ bedroom home.
Today’s case study is a perfect example of where there are big homes; there can be big plumbing problems homeowners may have to face.
CALLING A FLOWER MOUND PLUMBER FOR A WATER HEATER REPLACEMENT
When Legacy’s Advocates booked this call, the customer requested an assessment to switch from a tank to a tankless water heater.
History Of The Water Heater
The homeowner had two water heaters, one in the garage and the other in the attic. After the tech assessed the two water heaters, he provided two estimates: replace the 50-gallon gas water heaters with a Reliance Gas Water Heater or install a Rinnai Tankless Water Heater.
The tech verified that the two water heaters integrate into a hot water system to generate hot water for the entire house. This was most likely created after the Great Texas Freeze of 2021, when many North Texas homes lost power, resulting in leaking water heaters and frozen pipes. Hence, the customer decided to keep the garage water heater in place as a backup and went with the estimate to replace the attic gas water heater with a tankless model.
What Is The Difference Between A Tank & Tankless Water Heater?
Before we dive into the installation, you may wonder why you chose a tankless water heater over a traditional tank model. The concept of tankless water heating dates back to the late 1800s. Unfortunately, early systems had multiple issues, so it wasn’t until the 1990s that tankless water heating became a viable option for American households.
- Capability: Most tank-style heaters range from 30k to 50k BTUs, the British Thermal Unit. One BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of liquid water by one degree Fahrenheit. On the other hand, most tankless heaters require 199K BTUs, resulting in water heating up much faster.
- Performance: Tank-style water heaters can provide a great deal of full-temperature hot water to many fixtures simultaneously, and hot water will flow until their reserve of heated water is depleted. However, once the hot water runs out, you must wait until the heater brings more water to the right temperature. On the other hand, tankless water heaters can deliver heated water endlessly, but they have limitations regarding temperature increases and flow rates.
- Temperature: Tankless water heaters typically heat water about 35°F above the incoming water temperature; different models have different “standard” flow rates, and an individual unit’s maximum flow rate can slow down when the incoming water is more than 35°F colder than the thermostat setting. In other words, if your incoming water temperature is too cold, the system may throttle your flow rate to compensate, as it needs more time to heat the water as it passes through.
- Venting: Tankless water heaters need considerably more fresh, combustible air to function properly than tank-style heaters. The type and size of exhaust venting are also much different from a tank-style heater, which may necessitate replacing old venting.
Installing A Tankless Water Heater
A week later, Legacy dispatched Jermey, a senior Legacy Plumbing technician, to install the tankless water heater and inspect the garage gas water heater.
Removing The Gas Water Heater
Unfortunately, removing a water heater isn’t as simple as it may sound, especially in a 90-degree third-floor attic. That is why it is typically the first thing done when we arrive in the morning for a job. It is also a two-person job due to the location and how heavy the water heater could be. Most tank-style water heaters weigh 100 to 150 pounds, and in an attic, you don’t usually have the ideal long passageway. Removing a gas water heater involves many steps: turning off the water heater, turning off the main gas supply valve, breaking the gas line at the union, and disconnecting the gas supply. Once the water heater was removed and disposed of, Jeremy and his apprentice, Benjamin, were ready to install the tankless model.
Installing The Tankless Water Heater
Installing a tankless water heater is not easy; it requires a high-level licensed plumbing technician with the skills and experience to ensure nothing dangerous happens. Fortunately, tankless water heaters weigh about 50 to 70 pounds, almost 100 pounds lighter than the tank-style models, so getting the heater into the attic was a little easier for the guys than a tank-style model would have.
At Legacy Plumbing, we only install Reliance, Navien, and Rinnai tankless water heater brands. In our experience, these brands outperform and outlast other options available. This customer decided on the Rinnai manufacturer, so Jermey and Benjamin installed a Rinnai 199 BTU high-efficiency condensing tankless water heater with a circulation pump including a BTU load calculation, service valves, water, gas, vent and condensate connections, and a sediment trap. We also ran PVC venting through the roof and painted it brown to match the existing venting.
Now that the tankless water heater is installed, the job isn’t quite finished yet. Before we move on to the project’s final phase, I wanted to highlight some maintenance information all homeowners should know when installing one.
Tankless Water Heater Maintenance
When tankless water heaters rapidly warm up water flowing through them, hard calcium deposits and other minerals can build up within their components. These deposits may cause the water flow to slow down, thus forcing a system to work harder to function properly. Over time, it can cause irreparable wear to the system, requiring a heat exchanger replacement. And for most tankless water heaters, this type of damage and systemic failure is NOT covered under the manufacturer’s warranty. Properly maintained tankless water heaters can last for over 20 years. If improperly maintained, your system could need replacing in as little as 6 or 7 years.
In most households, descaling the system and inspecting it once a year is adequate. However, larger households may need servicing twice a year, while single-occupant households could easily go two years or more between maintenance sessions. It’s worth mentioning that some manufacturers have begun adding sensors to specific models that monitor the scale build-up and alert users when service is needed. We strongly encourage homeowners to defer to the sensor when it tells you a system checkup is needed.
Testing Water Heater
The testing process for water heaters involves testing the heating elements to ensure the systems get hot water. For the gas water heater in the garage, we isolated the heater and left the gas off for a backup heat source in case the power ever goes out. Jeremy also took photos of all the connection points and venting running through the roof for the homeowner’s future documentation and city inspection purposes.
Flower Mound City Inspection
After the city inspector passed the test and the installation met state and city plumbing codes, the project was officially “completed.”
WHY LEGACY IS THE BEST FLOWER MOUND PLUMBER FOR TANKLESS WATER HEATER REPLACEMENTS
Tankless Water Heater Warranty
Depending on the manufacturer, Legacy’s tankless water heater exchangers are warranted for 12 or 15 years, with the parts warranted for five years and labor warranted for one year. They are fully transferable to new homeowners if the house is sold. Because Legacy Plumbing backs them, homeowners can rest assured that their new tankless water heater will be reliable for many years.
Is a tankless water heater right for you? Experts at Legacy Plumbing can help you find the answers to these questions and much more! Talk to one of our advocates today.
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