The gas storage tank, and why it is still usually the answer
The unglamorous option that most homes should probably still buy. It has the lowest upfront cost, the shortest install, and the largest pool of people who can fix it at short notice. Almost every article you will read is trying to talk you out of it, which is worth noticing.
How it works
A burner under an insulated tank heats forty to seventy-five gallons of water and keeps it hot around the clock. When you open a tap, hot water leaves the top and cold water enters the bottom, and the burner fires to catch up.
That standing reserve is the whole design. It is why a tank can serve three fixtures at once without any sizing calculation, and it is also why the burner runs when nobody is using hot water at all. Everything good and bad about this technology follows from those two facts.
- Your gas tank has already failed and you need hot water today
- You want the smallest possible upfront bill
- A like for like swap with no gas, venting or electrical changes
- You are renting the property out, or selling within a few years
- The existing space is a closet with no airflow
- Running cost is the highest of the gas options
- You are planning to electrify the house later anyway
- You genuinely run out of hot water most weeks
- The tank sits somewhere a leak would do real damage
What it costs
We model the installed price from the equipment price, because you can look up the box and you cannot look up everything that gets added to it. Ranges only, and never a single average.
- Rule of thumb
- roughly 2 to 3 times the shelf price of the unit
- Equipment, retail
- $900 to $2,200
- Typical installed
- $2,000 to $3,800
- Time on site
- 2 to 4 hours on site for a straight swap
What the work portion buys
- Labour for a like-for-like swap
- Permit and inspection
- Code items such as strapping, relief discharge and an expansion tank
- Hauling the old unit away
What it costs to run
The most expensive of the four to run in Turlock, at roughly $458 a year in fuel on our model. That is the number every other technology on this page is trying to beat, and it is worth holding in your head as you read them.
Those figures come from our Turlock fuel model, which is the one market where we hold both published utility rates. They will be in the right region for anywhere nearby and they are not a national average, so treat them as a comparison between technologies rather than a prediction of your bill.
Who makes it
Brand comes after technology, always. Once you have settled on this one, these are the manufacturers we hold research for.
- Rheem
- A. O. Smith
- Bradford White
Solid entries have a page. Dashed entries are in the research but not yet written up, and we would rather show you that than link you nowhere. All brands
Ask your installer these
- Is this a straight swap, or does anything have to move?
- Does the existing flue meet current code?
- What is included beyond the unit itself?
- Is the permit in this price?
- What size do you recommend, and why that one?