28 December 2018
 Categories: Environmental, Blog

Switching from an electric to a propane water heater can provide a home with some very important and useful benefits. Yet, homeowners that have never owned gas appliances can find themselves unable to effectively weigh whether this is the right type of water heater to meet their home's need.

Improved Reliability

Unfortunately, there are many homeowners that live in areas that can be prone to experiencing power outages. During these outages, your electric water heater will be unable to produce heat, and the water in it will gradually cool off. In contrast, propane water heaters will retain their fuel supply during an electrical outage. Electrical water heaters will also rely on a series of internal heating elements to produce heat as electricity flows through them. However, these heating elements can degrade and fail, which can limit the heat produced by the unit. In contrast, a propane system will only have a burner, which will be less likely to experience problems.

Easier Maintenance

A propane water heater will be extremely easy to maintain. Most of the maintenance that these systems will have involve cleaning the burner and pilot light so that the fuel will not be blocked. This work should only be needed every few months. If you are finding that your system's burner and pilot light are needing to be cleaned excessively frequently, you might want to have the entire system professionally serviced. This may sound like an extensive and disruptive project, but these professionals should be able to complete this type of routine service call in only a couple of hours or less.

Rapid Hot Water

For homes with large families, it can be challenging to provide enough hot water for everyone. Propane-burning water heaters are able to more rapidly heat the water due to the high temperatures that burning propane can create. Furthermore, it is also possible for a homeowner to have a tankless propane burning water heater installed. These systems will effectively produce an endless supply of hot water.

Understanding the various ways that a propane water heater can benefit your home is necessary to being able to weigh this option. Luckily, you will not have to become an expert on these water heaters to be able to make this decision. Rather, knowing important factors such as these systems' higher reliably, easy maintenance needs and their ability to more rapidly heat water can all contribute to helping you make the right choice about this major upgrade.