Tankless water heaters in Las Vegas

A tankless water heater heats water as it flows rather than storing it, so it does not run out and it does not spend all day keeping a tank warm. In a valley home with limited garage space and back to back showers, the appeal is obvious.

There is a condition attached, and it is the one most people are not told at the point of sale: on water this hard, an unmaintained tankless unit scales up and fails early.

What you gain

• Hot water that does not run out during consecutive showers
• No standby loss from keeping a tank hot around the clock
• A considerably longer service life than a tank when maintained
• Wall mounted, freeing up floor space
• No stored volume to dump on the floor if the unit fails

The hard water condition

Scale deposits on the heat exchanger are the primary killer of tankless units in southern Nevada. The exchanger is a narrow passage with intense heat transfer, which is exactly the condition that precipitates minerals out of the water.

The manufacturers are explicit about this. Annual descaling is a requirement, not a suggestion, and skipping it commonly voids warranty coverage.

• Tankless manufacturers including Rinnai and Navien tell owners to descale at least once a year, and more often on hard water, because scale on the heat exchanger causes premature failure. (Rinnai, maintenance guidance)
• Las Vegas tap water is published at 280 parts per million as calcium carbonate, which works out to about 16 grains per gallon. (Las Vegas Valley Water District, Water Quality Summary)

A softener changes the equation

Feeding a tankless unit softened water removes the mineral that makes the scale. Plenty of valley homeowners install both at once for exactly this reason, and it is the combination that makes a tankless unit make sense long term here.

Even with a softener, follow the manufacturer service interval. Softened is not the same as zero hardness.

Installation is not a straight swap

Converting from tank to tankless commonly needs a larger gas line, different venting, a condensate drain on a condensing unit, and isolation valves for future flushing. Electric whole-home tankless needs substantial electrical service that many homes do not have spare.

Ask specifically whether isolation valves are included. Without them, every annual flush costs more in labour.

All makes and models

Plumbers in our network work on all makes and models for this service. We do not claim an authorised dealer relationship with any manufacturer, and we will tell you if a part for a discontinued unit cannot be sourced.