Tankless installation and repair
We install, maintain and repair gas tankless water heaters from the major manufacturers in Orange and nearby cities such as Tustin, Villa Park and Yorba Linda. Sizing rests on two numbers: how many gallons a minute the household draws at its busiest, and how many degrees the unit must add to water arriving at its coldest. A unit that keeps up in summer but falls behind in winter was sized for the wrong season.
On installs done by others, the gas supply and the venting are the two things most often wrong. At full fire a tankless burner uses far more gas than the tank it replaced, so the old line is often too narrow or too long, and the heater short-cycles or shows a flame failure code when two showers run. The vent has to be the concentric or two-pipe system the manufacturer specifies, with the correct clearances; the old tank flue cannot be reused.
On a repair visit we start with the error code on the display, which is usually accurate: ignition failure, lost flame, blocked exhaust, overheating, or a flow sensor that no longer detects water. Most of those can be fixed. A cracked heat exchanger usually cannot, and we will tell you that up front rather than patch something that will fail again by spring. Either way, the price is in writing before work starts.
Descaling in hard Orange County water
Water across Orange County is hard, and minerals coat the inside of a tankless heat exchanger faster than most owners realize. The warning signs are a longer wait for hot water, noisy firing, and overheat codes during an ordinary shower. Ignore them long enough and the exchanger fails.
Descaling is routine work: close the service valves, pump a descaling solution through the exchanger, flush it, and clean the inlet filter screen. Without service valves the job becomes much bigger, so we fit them on every tankless unit we install, asked for or not.
Signs your tankless needs attention
- Hot water fades when a second fixture opens
- An error code appears and the unit shuts down
- Plenty of hot water in summer, never quite enough in winter
- A rumbling or kettle-like sound when the burner lights
- Water temperature that rises and falls during one shower
- More than two years in service without a descale
Choosing tankless or a tank
Tankless makes sense for a household that keeps running out of hot water, wants floor space back in the garage, or plans to own the house for years, long enough to benefit from a unit that lasts longer than a tank. It is the wrong choice where the gas line cannot be enlarged at a reasonable cost and hot water use is light; then a properly sized tank is the honest answer.
If you are keeping a tank, our water heater page covers that work. A person answers the phone 24 hours a day, and before you see a price for either option we will tell you which one fits your house.
What a proper tankless install includes
- A gas line sized for the burner at full fire, not for the old tank
- Venting built to the manufacturer's specification and required clearances
- Service valves on the hot and cold lines for future descaling
- A condensate drain on condensing models
- Sizing based on winter water temperature, not summer
- Startup checks of flow and temperature before we leave