Water Heater Types

The hot water heater is one of the most important appliances in your house. Without it, you could not take a hot shower, hot bath, wash clothes in hot water or run the dishwasher effectively.

There are many different kinds of water heaters. Here in the United States, if your home is supplied with natural gas, it would be common to get a gas-powered water heater. Otherwise, you would use an electric water heater.

Our expert installers at MichiganWaterHeater are experienced in replacing and installing all different kinds of water heaters.

What type of water heater do I need?

If you need to replace your water heater, it’s important to know the type that you currently have.

First thing to know is whether you have a water heater with a power vent or an atmospheric water heater, draft hooded.

Power Vent Gas Water Heater

Water heaters with power vent have a device installed on top – an electric motor powered blower fan – that assists the removal of exhaust gases from the water heater through an exhaust pipe.

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Atmospheric Gas Water Heater

Atmospheric water heaters, draft hooded, with metal / steel pipe to a masonry chimney or B-vent chimney (also known as standard, conventional, normal, gravitational) have an exhaust pipe attached directly to the combustion area of the water heater.

The exhaust gases leave the water heater through such exhaust pipe without the assistance of a powered blower fan. The method works because exhaust gases are warmer and therefore lighter than surrounding room temperature air and there is natural gravitational forces that push it upwards.

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This type of water heater works well only in certain configuration of the water heater space – when there is access to a relatively vertical exhaust pipe, or exhaust pipe with steep enough gradient to naturally extract exhaust gases outwards by just gravitational forces.