Where tankless genuinely shines
Continuous hot water — a tankless unit heats on demand, so it never 'runs out' the way a depleted tank does. No standby losses from keeping 150–200 litres hot around the clock. Twice the service life of a typical tank. And wall-mounted, it frees the floor space a tank occupies — meaningful in Lower Mainland condos and compact mechanical rooms.
Where a tank still makes sense
Lower upfront cost and a simpler swap when the old tank fails and you need hot water tonight. Better tolerance of multiple simultaneous draws in households that shower, wash and run laundry at once — unless the tankless unit is sized for it. And no gas-line upgrade: tankless units draw much more gas while firing, and older homes sometimes need a larger gas line or venting changes, which belongs in the quote, not discovered mid-install.
The maintenance nobody mentions
Tankless units need annual descaling in harder water and periodic filter cleaning — skip it and flow drops, error codes appear, and the heat exchanger scales. Tanks need the anode rod checked every few years; replacing that inexpensive rod is the single biggest extender of tank life, and almost nobody does it. Whichever you choose, we build the maintenance schedule into the handover.
How we spec it
We size by measured fixture demand and temperature rise, verify gas capacity and venting routes, and quote both options with operating cost estimates when the choice is genuinely close. Water heater supply and installation — tank and tankless — is a core NEO Service Tech service across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.