In China, electric water heater are mostly categorized into storage and instant electric water heater. Though electric tankless water heaters are sold in many home appliances stores, either online or real-stores. But over the past few years, electric storage water heaters ranked No.2, right after gas tankless water heater in terms of sales of hot water heaters for household. Therefore, we herein compare pros and cons of storage type electric water heaters with gas instant water heaters.

Honestly, we think gas instant water heaters prevail in more fields.

Let us start with how an electric water heater works.

As we mentioned before, most of electric water heaters sold now are storage type. Its working principle is simple. When the user set a temperature, the heating element heats the water in the tank. When it reaches the set temperature,thermostat signals to disconnects power supply. Insulation of the water heater helps preserve the heat. When the temperature drops, it re-heats the water. This process repeats itself.

Different from electric water heater, gas water heater is instantaneous hot water heater, i.e, the cold water in, and hot water flows right out. The burner ignited and heat the water. Of course, the whole process needs collaboration of many components to put the cold water into hot water.

After brief introduction on their working principles, now we check pros and cons from the below perspective

• Convenience of use: generally electric storage type water heaters need to be preheated and it’s capacity is limited. After hot water in the tank used up, the next person has to wait till the refilled water is heated. Gas water heater does not have this problem at all.
• Comfort: the advantage of electric tank type water heaters can be installed in the bathroom,so the hot water comes right out when the faucet is on. For gas water heaters, they are mostly in the kitchen or balcony, a distance away from the shower head. So the cold water comes out for some minutes before the hot water flows out, though zero cold water water heater doesn't have this problem which on the other hand, has higher cost. Another downside of electric water heaters are that water temperature would go down after a while of use as the heating element has not heat up the water yet. In other words, it can not hold temperature constant while gas water heater is good at it.
• Cost comparison. Electric water heaters have lower upfront cost but they have higher running cost as they keep heating the water all the time, while gas water heaters have lower running cost. Besides, scald is another problem electric water heaters have which needs regular maintenance. So the operational cost basically amortized or exceeds the cost difference of purchase.

In conclusion, gas instant water heaters have obvious advantage over electric water heaters.