Water Heater Installation in Missoula, MT
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A Missoula water heater works nearly year round
Groundwater feeding your tank starts cold here, and winter nights averaging 17°F from December through February make the incoming water even colder. With homes needing heat from September through June, the tank is rarely working from warm supply. It has to bring water up from a lower starting point most of the year.
Montana saw 18% of households lose power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and the county has logged 164 winter storms and 69 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot will keep running through an outage. One that relies on an electric ignition will not light until power is back. Either way, the new tank has to meet the federal efficiency minimum, which is set by a formula based on the tank's rated volume rather than one flat number, so the minimum your replacement has to hit depends on the size you install.
- 17°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 age, since most tank water heaters wear out from the inside well before any single part fails. Rust-colored water, a tank that ticks or rumbles as it heats, or water pooling at the base all point to the tank itself corroding. If yours is already old and you're seeing lukewarm water or a pilot that won't stay lit, replacing it now means you pick the timing instead of a leak picking it for you.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want from it, not on whether tank heaters are outdated. A tankless unit heats water only as you use it, so you don't pay to keep a tank of water hot all day, and you won't run out of hot water partway through a shower. What it won't do is deliver more gallons per minute than the unit is rated for, so if two showers and a washing machine run at once, size matters more than the fact that it's tankless. A contractor can size a unit against your home's actual hot water use.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is where it goes and what feeds it. Tankless units mount on a wall instead of standing on the floor, which frees up space, but the gas line, the venting, and sometimes the electrical connection have to be sized for that specific unit rather than reused from the old tank. Many installations need a larger gas line than the tank heater used, because the burner has to heat water fast instead of slowly over hours. That's worth knowing going in, since it can mean more work than a straight swap.