Water Heater Installation in Grand Rapids, MI
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What a new water heater needs to handle here in Kent County
Winter nights here average 19°F from December through February, and homes in the county need heat running from October through May, eight months of the year. A water heater here is working through a long, cold stretch, not just a few weeks of it.
Power is part of the picture too. More than a third of Michigan households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024, and the county has seen 15 winter storms and 56 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A tank with a standing pilot will relight itself and keep giving you hot water through an outage. One that depends on power to ignite will not, until the power is back. Whatever you install also has to clear the federal minimum efficiency for its size and type, which is set by a formula tied to the tank's rated volume rather than one number for every unit.
- 19°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 8 months
- October through May, the months homes here need heat
- 34%
- of Michigan households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A heat pump water heater would save about $410 a year to run in Michigan compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Michigan home, from EIA household energy data and Michigan fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- Most storage water heaters last around 10 to 15 years, so if yours is in that range, replacement is worth planning for even if it still runs. Rust colored water from the hot tap, a tank that sweats or has any visible leak, or a pilot or igniter that keeps failing are signs the tank itself is going. A popping or rumbling noise from the tank means sediment has built up on the bottom, and that shortens what's left of its life. If you're patching the same problem more than once, replacing it costs less trouble than repairing it again.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- That depends on what you want out of it, not just on saving space. A tankless unit heats water on demand instead of storing it, so you don't run out of hot water partway through back to back showers or a load of laundry right after dishes. It also keeps running when power comes back after an outage the same as a tank does, so that's not a reason either way. The tradeoff is venting and gas line work during install, since a tankless unit needs a larger gas supply and its own venting than a tank did. A contractor can look at your gas line and venting and tell you what switching actually involves in your house.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is the gas line. Tankless units draw more gas at once than a tank does, so the existing line often needs to be upsized to feed it. Venting changes too, since a tankless unit uses its own vent rather than sharing one, and that vent typically runs through a wall or the roof rather than up through the old flue. Mounting is different as well, since the unit hangs on a wall instead of sitting on the floor, which frees up the space the old tank used. A contractor can tell you what your home's gas line and venting will need before the work starts.