Water Heater Installation in Fayetteville, AR
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What a water heater in Washington County has to handle
Water heaters run year round, unlike a furnace that gets months off. Winter nights here average 29°F from December through February, so a tank has more work to do bringing water up to temperature during those months.
Power loss is a real risk here too. Arkansas saw 24% of households lose power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and the area has recorded 16 winter storms and 99 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps working through an outage. One with electronic ignition or an electric tank will not, though most come back on by themselves once power returns.
Any new storage water heater has to meet a federal minimum efficiency, and that minimum is set by the tank's size. A larger tank and a smaller one of the same type are held to different standards, so the right figure for your installation depends on what size unit fits your household.
- 29°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 7 months
- October through April, the months homes here need heat
- 24%
- of Arkansas 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 $290 a year to run in Arkansas compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Arkansas home, from EIA household energy data and Arkansas fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is age combined with trouble. Most tank water heaters are built to last a certain number of years, and once a unit gets old, a repair is often just a delay before something else fails. Watch for water pooling at the base of the tank, since that usually means the tank itself is rusting from the inside, and no part can fix that. Rusty hot water, a burning smell, or the unit struggling to keep water hot are also signs the tank is near the end. If the unit is still fairly new and the problem is something like a heating element or thermostat, a repair usually makes more sense than a full replacement.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on whether your current tank is failing. 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. It also takes up less space than a tank. The tradeoff is that installing one often means changes to the gas line, venting, or electrical setup, so it's not always a simple swap. A licensed contractor can look at your home's setup and tell you what switching would actually involve.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is the venting and gas or electrical connections, since tankless units have different requirements than a storage tank. Gas tankless heaters need a larger gas line in many cases to supply enough fuel for instant heating, and the venting is different from what a tank uses. Electric tankless units can need a dedicated circuit with more capacity than a standard outlet provides. None of this means the switch can't be done, but it does mean the installation is more involved than replacing one tank with another, and a contractor needs to check your home's existing lines before quoting the work.