Typically, in CR’s ratings we compare the performance of one individual product to that of another.

However, we did not do that with water heaters because during the course of our testing we determined that models from different brands that operate on the same fuel source, natural gas or electricity, performed similarly. So we averaged the results of the tankless models and compared that average to the performance of a storage tank water heater that runs on the same fuel.

We also considered that not every household needs the same size water heater so we wanted to avoid recommending models that might be too small or too large for your particular water needs.

Our intent is to help homeowners decide which water heating technology (tanked, tankless or heat pump) is best for their situation. Please note that gas and electric ratings should not be used to decide whether to switch from one fuel source to another. Doing so is a costly and complex installation and we did not factor those extra costs into the scores.

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