Nick’s Plumbing knows water heaters, and we’d better. We’ve been installing water heaters all around the Houston area since . Now as tankless technology, condensing water heaters—both tankless and tank type—and other innovations like wi-fi-enabled tankless water heaters that can be controlled and monitored via an app become the standard, we’re installing more water heaters than ever.

Perhaps you’ve decided to go with a tankless unit for your water heater replacement, either because of the convenience of on-demand hot water or for the efficiency and energy savings. Tankless water heaters offer several advantages over their century-old predecessors, with several options available on many units for instant hot water, smart technology to control your water heater from a phone or tablet, and the safety of eliminating a giant tank of water from your house.

Also known as an on-demand water heater, these units provide hot water as needed without using a storage tank. Unlike traditional tank-type water heaters that continuously heat and reheat a large volume of water—usually to gallons—in a storage tank. Tankless water heaters only heat your water when there is a demand for hot water in the home and can be equipped with a recirculation pump for

By recovering heat from the exhaust gases through the condensing process, condensing water heaters can achieve greater energy efficiency than non-condensing models. The recovered heat is used to help pre-heat the incoming cold water, reducing the amount of energy required to heat the water to its desired temperature. After heating, the condensed water and trapped exhaust gases are safely released into the environment.

If you’ve made it to this page, you already know the benefits and drawbacks of switching to a tankless water heater, and you probably understand that they differ from their tank-type ancestors. As such, this blog will skip the usual introductory information about how tankless water heaters work and instead focus on the difference between non-condensing and condensing water heaters and what those differences can mean for your water heater’s performance and energy costs.