Water Heater Options Offered by Our Guildford County Plumbing Supply Company

Among the many different types of water heaters available on the market today, a few of the most common types include:

• Storage water heaters: These are the most common type of water heaters used in Guilford County homes and commercial buildings. They have a large tank that stores hot water, which refills as needed to ensure it's always available on demand. 
• Tankless water heaters: Also known as on-demand water heaters, heat water as needed. This makes them more energy efficient than storage water heaters, but they can be more expensive to purchase and install. Tankless water heaters are also not a good option for homes with large families or homes that use a lot of hot water.
• Gas water heaters: These generally run on either propane or natural gas as their fuel source and come in tankless or high-capacity storage tank varieties.
• Electric water heaters: These heaters run on electricity and provide on-demand hot water to other areas of a home or commercial building from its large tank. A typical residential tank may be anywhere from 40 to 75 gallons.
• Solar water heaters: Use the sun's energy to heat water. They are a very efficient and environmentally friendly option, but, similar to tankless water heaters, they can be expensive to purchase and install. Solar water heaters are not a good option for homes in cold climates, as they will not be able to generate enough heat during the winter months.
• Hybrid water heaters: One type of these is heat pump water heaters. Combine the features of storage water heaters and tankless water heaters. They have a small storage tank that is used to store hot water when it is needed immediately. When the tank runs out of hot water, a tankless water heater kicks in to heat more water. Hybrid water heaters are a good option for homes that want the energy efficiency of a tankless water heater without the high upfront cost. A hybrid unit may also have to do with design and energy source; for example, there are both electric tankless water heaters and gas tankless water heaters.

Water Heater Brands We Carry at Our Greensboro, NC Plumbing Supply Company

We carry a wide range of hot water heaters in our warehouse, including ones you know and trust, such as:

• Bradford
• Rheem
• Rinnai
• AO Smith
• General Electric (GE)
• Kenmore
• Rudd
• Bosch
• Many more

Drop us a line or call our experienced service professionals to find out which options we have in stock and others we can order for you for installation at your customer's Guilford County home or place of business on a quick turnaround.

Factors That Impact Water Heater Choices

With all the different types of water heaters on the market, as a professional plumber, you may find yourself spending a lot of time explaining the benefits and disadvantages of each to them. Some factors you may want to highlight when doing that include

Differences Between Electric and Gas Water Heaters

We often hear from Guilford County commercial or residential plumbers like yourself that your customers often inquire about the pros and cons associated with gas and electric water heaters. 

Let's try to address some of the pros and cons of electric versus gas water heaters. Benefits associated with electric water heaters over gas ones include:

• It's more common for consumers to have them, meaning there's a wider array of options to select from when purchasing an electric unit over a gas one
• Electric heaters are less costly to purchase compared to gas ones
• Gas heaters are typically more complex to install than electric units

Some disadvantages associated with electric water heaters that make gas ones more ideal option include:

• Electric heaters tend to take longer to heat water than gas units
• Electric units are less efficient than gas water heaters, meaning they can be more expensive for consumers to operate than gas ones

Some factors you should encourage your plumbing customers to weigh when choosing between a new water heater, whether it's a gas or electric one, include:

• Energy rates: It's important that consumers are aware of their energy costs and the consumption rates of the different types of water heaters they're considering purchasing, as this may dictate which type of unit may be most cost-effective.
• Needs: Guilford County office buildings with many tenants, retail outlets with a lot of traffic, or residences where large families consume a lot of hot water often opt for a gas water heater. Gas units can provide more hot water at once than electric units can.
• Climate: Consumers in areas that experience extreme cold often opt for gas water heaters due to their ability to warm water more quickly than electric units. As you might assume, here in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, since there isn't extreme cold, many consumers opt to use electrical heaters instead.

How Storage and Tankless Water Heaters Compare

As a plumbing and pipe supply wholesale distributor in Guilford County, we often receive questions about the benefits and disadvantages associated with tankless and storage types of water heaters.

Benefits associated with tankless water heaters that often result in consumers opting to have them installed instead of storage ones include they:

• Are smaller and lighter than storage water heaters, which means they take up less space and they're easier to install and maintain
• Also known as on-demand water heaters, a tankless unit only heats water as needed, whereas water contained in a storage tank unit tends to dissipate heat over time
• Have improved efficiency since water does not sit in the tank like the storage type of unit, meaning that, despite them being more costly to acquire and install, use of them lowers consumers' energy bills 
• Have a longer lifespan than storage heaters, which leads to them needing to be replaced less often

Downsides associated with tankless water heaters that lead consumers to request storage units instead include they:  

• Can be more costly to purchase and install than storage water heaters, which are also commonly referred to as tank water heaters
• May be noisier to operate than storage water heaters
• Cannot provide endless streams of enough water, which is especially important if multiple people need access to adequate hot water for showers at the same time like tank systems can
• May not be appropriate for homes with hard water, which are mineral deposits, as they can build up and subsequently reduce the efficiency of the heater

Both types of units, storage and tankless heaters, come in a wide range of sizes and styles consumers can choose from.

What To Know About Energy Efficiency of Water Heaters

As a professional plumber in the Greensboro, North Carolina area, you likely receive a lot of questions from your plumbing customers about a water heater's energy efficiency. The energy factor (EF) is a number that accounts for the ratio of fuel consumption to hot water production, per the U.S. Department of Energy. The way the federal agency explains it, the bigger the EF number is, the more efficiently you can expect your heater to function. Many of these are also Energy Star designated.

Shop Hot Water Heaters at Pipe, Pump, Sales & Service in Greensboro, NC

Whether you're performing an install at a new home or looking to replace a unit that one of your plumbing clients reports as not getting enough hot water, we have the right product in stock. We also sell hot water heater repair kits that may be the ideal solution instead of replacing a unit. These kits include everything you may need to improve the functionality of these gas or electric heaters, including:

• Heating elements
• Thermostats
• Dip Tubes
• Thermocouples
• Ignitors
• Valves

We can confirm that the repair kit works for the specific make and model of the water heater you're repairing when you contact us for help. Please reach out to us for pricing for water heaters and accessories. Here at Pump, Pipe, Sales & Service, we're knowledgeable, offer high-quality products, competitive prices, and deliver your purchases to you. Let us know about your needs so we can let you know how we can best accommodate them.