Water Heater Installation in Great Falls, MT
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Cold winters, a long season, and what your new heater has to meet
Winter nights here average 16°F from December through February, and homes run their heat from September through June, ten months of the year. A water heater installed here works alongside that load the whole time, not just for a few cold weeks.
Power is part of the picture too. Montana saw 18% of households lose power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and Cascade County has logged 32 winter storms and 134 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps working through an outage. One with electric ignition will not light until the power is back. Whatever you install, it also has to meet the federal minimum efficiency set for its tank size, which is figured separately for each size rather than as one number across the board.
- 16°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 10 months
- September through June, the months homes here need heat
- 18%
- of Montana households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A heat pump water heater would save about $400 a year to run in Montana compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Montana home, from EIA household energy data and Montana fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is water pooling at the base of the tank, since that means it's leaking from the inside and won't stop. Rusty or metallic-tasting hot water is another sign, especially if it clears up when you run cold. If the water heater is making popping or rumbling sounds, sediment has built up on the bottom of the tank, and that shortens what's left of its life. Once a tank starts showing more than one of these signs, replacing it before it fails is worth considering. Homes here need heat from September through June, and winter nights average 16°F, so a water heater failing outright is not something you want to wait out.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on any rule that says tankless is better. A tankless unit heats water only when you call for it, so you get a steady supply of hot water instead of running out mid-shower. It also uses no energy keeping a tank of water hot when nobody's using it. What it won't do is deliver more gallons per minute than the unit is rated for, so a house with several showers running at once still needs the right size unit picked for that. A contractor can look at the house and tell you whether tankless makes sense for how the water gets used there.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that hot water shows up on demand instead of coming from a tank that holds a set amount. That means no running out of hot water partway through a load of laundry or a long shower, but it also means the unit has to be sized to handle however many fixtures might run at the same time. Gas tankless units need enough gas line and venting to match their higher input, which sometimes means upgrading what's already there. Installation also usually calls for a different mounting setup since tankless units go on a wall rather than sitting on the floor. A contractor can walk through what the house already has and what would need to change.