Tankless Water Heater in Bowie, MD

Signs a tankless unit is worth considering

• The tank is past its prime and you'd rather not replace it with another one
• Back-to-back showers in the morning run the tank cold
• You want the basement or utility room space a big tank takes up
• An existing tankless unit trips error codes when two fixtures run at once
• Hot water flow has slowly dropped, which can point to mineral buildup inside the heat exchanger

What Bowie's water and housing mean for the install

Bowie is one of the few places in the county with two water systems. The City of Bowie system, built by the Levitt Corporation in the early 1960s, serves neighborhoods such as Kenilworth, Tulip Grove, Somerset, Whitehall and Yorktown with groundwater from five wells in the Magothy, Patapsco and Patuxent aquifers, treated to remove naturally occurring iron and manganese. The rest of the city gets WSSC Water drawn from the Potomac and Patuxent rivers. Neither report prints a hardness number, so a quick test at the kitchen tap is the honest way to decide how much scale protection a heat exchanger needs.

The median Bowie home dates to about 1981, and many Belair houses are older still. In those homes the heater usually shares a chimney flue with the furnace. A gas tankless unit can't use that flue; it needs its own sealed vent, and the gas line from the meter often has to be larger to feed a burner that fires much harder than a tank.

What affects the cost

• Gas piping. Upsizing the line from the meter is common for whole-house units.
• Venting route. A short run through a basement rim joist costs less than a long route.
• Electrical. Gas units need an outlet; electric whole-house units may need a panel upgrade.
• Permit. Prince George's County says water heater replacements need a permit, and all plumbing permits there come from WSSC Water.
• Scale protection. A softener or scale cartridge adds cost but protects the heat exchanger.

What happens when you call

You'll be connected with an independent plumber who works in Bowie. Mention whether your bill comes from the City of Bowie or WSSC, the size and fuel of your current heater and how many bathrooms you have. If you smell gas at any point, leave the house, then call 911 and Washington Gas at 844-WASHGAS (927-4427), option 1, from outside.