On-demand hot water sized for how your household uses it, vented and supplied properly, and protected from hard water scale. We install and repair tankless heaters.
A tankless water heater fires only while a hot tap is open, so no stored water sits losing heat and the tank's floor space is freed. The trade-offs are a higher upfront cost, a dedicated vent, a gas line that can feed it, and scale protection.
It suits a house that keeps running out of hot water. A tank is often the better call when the gas service cannot reasonably be upsized or no outside wall can take a vent. See also water heater repair and replacement and the AquaTec Plumbing home page.
Most tankless trouble traces to an undersized unit, an undersized gas line, or unplanned scale.
A tankless heater is sized by flow, not storage. We count what could run at once, such as two showers and the dishwasher, and size for winter, when incoming water is coldest.
Estate homes in King City and large homes in Vaughan often have several bathrooms and a long run to the far wing, so we compare two linked units, a second unit near those bathrooms, or keeping a tank. A Keswick bungalow with one or two bathrooms is simpler: one properly sized unit usually covers it.
An existing recirculation loop needs a unit designed for it.
A gas tankless unit vents through its own pipe, usually out a side wall rather than into the old chimney. Code clearances from windows, doors, air intakes, the gas meter and the snow line decide where it can exit, and on the narrow side yards of older Thornhill and North York homes they can rule a wall out.
Those houses also have gas lines sized for a tank and furnace, while a tankless unit burns far more gas at full fire, so we check the pipe's size and length against every appliance and upsize it where it falls short.
If an older furnace still shares the chimney, we confirm it still drafts. The unit also needs an outlet, and a condensing model a condensate drain.
Hard water is what shortens tankless life here. Calcium drops out as water heats in the exchanger's narrow passages; temperatures swing, the unit shuts off mid-shower, then shows a service code. We see it on hard municipal water and on private wells.
Scale protection belongs in the install: a water softener where one is in place or planned, otherwise a scale-reduction cartridge on the cold inlet, with well water treatment handling iron and sediment first on a well. We also fit isolation valves with purge ports so the heat exchanger can be flushed without cutting pipe.
Look for a rental company's sticker on the tank or a monthly charge on a utility bill. If it is rented, read the agreement before booking, since it sets out what happens to that tank, and ask the rental company about it; we do not advise on the contract. We then plan the swap around its terms. An owned tank is drained and carried out.
Hot water is off from draining the old tank until the new unit fires.
Gas, power and water off; the tank is drained, disconnected and any chimney connection closed.
The unit goes on the wall, the vent runs to its terminal, and condensate is piped to a drain.
Gas is connected and leak tested; isolation valves and scale protection go on the water lines.
Air is purged through hot taps, the burner lit and temperature checked at the farthest fixture.
What you will notice. Hot water takes at least as long to reach a far tap as before, a tap reopened right after a shower can run briefly cooler, and the vent puffs vapour on cold days.
What sets the price. Unit size and count, the vent route, gas line upsizing, the condensate drain and outlet, scale protection and tank removal. You get a written price before work starts.
On untreated hard water we suggest a yearly service: isolation valves closed, power off, descaling solution circulated through the heat exchanger and flushed out, the inlet screen cleared, and the vent and condensate trap checked.
Tankless water heater repair starts from the error code. Usual causes: a vent blocked by snow or ice, a frozen condensate line, scale, or a sediment-clogged inlet screen on well water.
Seasonal homes on the Georgina shore. A tankless unit holds water and its freeze protection needs power, so at a cottage closed for winter it is drained in fall: gas and power off, valves closed, drain plugs out, condensate trap emptied. In spring it is refilled slowly, purged of air and leak-checked before firing. More on plumbing for Georgina cottages.
What York Region homeowners ask before switching from a tank.
Tankless service in every community we serve.
We check the gas line, vent and water first, and give you a written price before work starts.
