Tankless water heaters · Conway, SC
Tankless Water Heaters in Conway, SC: Installs, Descaling and Repairs
A tankless unit heats water as it is used, so it never runs out and takes up little space. The trade-off is that it needs the right gas line, vent or electrical service, and regular care. Here is what to know before you switch or when one fails. Tankless water heater repair Conway SC calls usually start with an error code, while tankless water heater services Conway SC also cover installs and descaling.
What tankless does differently
A tank heater keeps dozens of gallons hot all day. A tankless unit heats only when a tap opens, using a burner or heating elements strong enough to raise the temperature of water as it flows. The upside is continuous hot water and no standby heat loss. The limit is flow: every unit can heat only so many gallons per minute for a given temperature rise, so a house running two showers and a dishwasher at once needs a unit sized for that load.
If you prefer a conventional tank, the tank water heater installation page explains that route.
Gas or electric: what each needs from the house
A gas tankless unit needs a gas line large enough to supply its burner, which is often larger than the line a tank uses, and a vent made of the correct material and routed to the outside. Natural gas availability depends on the address, and Dominion Energy South Carolina is the utility for natural gas in the area. If gas is not available at your address, propane or electric are the alternatives to discuss.
An electric tankless unit draws a very large current, often needing a substantial dedicated circuit and sometimes a service panel upgrade. For many houses the electrical work is the larger cost, so we ask about the panel and the available capacity before recommending the electric route. Whole-home units also need a condensate drain if they are the high-efficiency kind.
Scale on the heat exchanger and why tankless units need flushing
Minerals in water leave scale on a heat exchanger, and scale makes a tankless unit work harder, heat slower and eventually trip error codes or fail. Regular flushing with a descaling solution removes it. How fast scale builds depends on the hardness of the water, and the City of Conway's 2025 water quality report and the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority's report do not publish a hardness figure that we could find, so we do not quote one. A home water test or a visual check of an existing fixture shows how hard your water is.
We set up the unit with isolation valves so it can be flushed without disassembly, and we explain how often yours is likely to need it based on what the first service shows rather than on a fixed schedule.
Tankless unit throwing an error code? Call (833) 571-0120 with the model and the code.
Sizing a tankless unit by flow and temperature rise
Two numbers decide whether a unit will keep up. The first is the flow you need, in gallons per minute, which is the sum of the fixtures likely to run together: a shower, a kitchen tap, a dishwasher or a washer. The second is the temperature rise, the difference between the incoming water temperature and the temperature you want. Water entering from the ground is coldest in winter, so a unit sized only for summer conditions can fall short in January. We size to the coldest likely incoming water and the busiest realistic morning, and we say plainly when the house is better served by two smaller units or by a tank.
Repair: error codes, ignition and cold-water surprises
Tankless units report problems with codes on a display. The usual ones are ignition failures, flame sensor faults, exhaust blockages, low flow and overheating. A unit that flickers between hot and cold when a tap is barely open may need a higher minimum flow. A cold stretch between uses, sometimes called the cold-water sandwich, comes from water left in the pipes between heating cycles and is a design issue that a recirculation setup or a small buffer can improve.
If the unit has lost hot water entirely, check the power, the gas valve and any error code. If you smell gas, leave the building and call Dominion Energy South Carolina at 800-815-0083 and 911 before anything else. Gas piping work can fall under a different license than a plumbing license, which is explained on the gas line fixes.
Under-sink and point-of-use units
A small electric unit mounted under a sink or near a remote bathroom delivers hot water at one location without waiting for the main heater's water to travel the pipe run. They suit a far-off bathroom, a workshop sink or a kitchen that sits a long way from the water heater. They deliver limited flow, enough for a sink and not for a shower, and they need a nearby outlet or circuit of the right size. We install and repair them, and we will tell you if a larger solution is the better answer.
Switching from a tank to tankless in a Conway home
A conversion is more than swapping the unit. The old tank comes out, the water lines are altered to fit the new unit, the vent and gas or electrical supply are updated, and a pressure relief setup suited to tankless is installed. If your tank sits in a garage that can flood, mounting a tankless unit on a wall above the flood line is one of its practical advantages. In a special flood hazard area, the City of Conway's guidance puts water heaters at least two feet above the projected flood elevation, and Construction Services at 843-488-9888 can confirm what applies. Outside the city, Horry County Code Enforcement is at 843-915-5090.
South Carolina's 2021 codes are the ones enforceable now. South Carolina requires a license for residential plumbing work over $500, and you can check a plumber at verify.llronline.com.
Where we install and service tankless units
We work in Conway and in places like plumber in Wild Wing Plantation, plumber in North Myrtle Beach and plumbing in Aynor. If your existing tank is failing, start with the water heater fixes. For ranges and what drives them, see the price ranges.
Thinking about tankless? Call and describe the house
Tell us how many bathrooms you have, whether natural gas is available and what the unit would replace. We will say what the install involves.