What happens when a tankless water heater fails?
With a tank style water heater, you have a big tank of water waiting to leak. But if there wasn’t a tank full of water, there is constant water pressure being supplied to it, so if a leak occurs somewhere in the appliance, you still end up with a water spill. Exactly the same thing occurs with a tankless water heater. The biggest difference is that a tank heater has a greater surface area for a leak to develop while a tankless is essentially a continuous run of pipes. Either can leak, but the tank has more places for a leak to occur. Otherwise, barring a leak, failure in both is the same, no hot water. I would equate them as being about equal as far a risk goes in the event of failure. However, in choosing between the two, I prefer the tankless model for many many reasons. You can read more about tankless heaters at http://www.acmediy.
