If you’ve ever lived in a Pittsburgh house where the third person to shower runs out of hot water, a tankless system fixes that. Wahl is a Rheem Pro Partner, which means we get the top-tier Rheem tankless lineup at the best dealer pricing, and we install them every week of the year across Allegheny County.

What is a gas tankless water heater?

A tankless heater (sometimes called an on-demand or instantaneous water heater) doesn’t store hot water. When you open a hot tap, cold water flows through a heat exchanger inside the unit, a gas burner fires, and the water comes out the other side hot. When you close the tap, the burner shuts off. There’s no 50-gallon reservoir sitting in your basement burning gas to stay hot 24 hours a day.

The unit hangs on the wall and is about the size of a large carry-on suitcase. Most Pittsburgh basements gain back a closet’s worth of floor space when we swap a tank for tankless.

Why Pittsburgh homeowners go tankless

Endless hot water. This is the big one. A properly sized tankless can run two showers, a dishwasher, and a clothes washer at the same time and never quit. Big family, two-bath house, teenagers? Tankless solves the morning bottleneck.

Longer life. A Rheem RTGH or Ikonic runs 18 to 22 years in Pittsburgh with proper maintenance. A gas tank in the same basement runs 8 to 12. Over 20 years you’ll replace the tank twice and the tankless once.

Lower gas bills. Tankless eliminates standby loss, which is the gas you burn just to keep 50 gallons of water hot when you’re not using it. Real-world savings in a typical Pittsburgh home run $15 to $35 a month, more for households with high hot water use.

Smaller footprint. Wall-mounted, smaller than a small dresser. Frees up basement floor space for a workbench, a finished area, or storage.

Won’t flood your basement. A tank can rupture and dump 50 gallons on the floor. A tankless has no tank to rupture.

Federal tax credit eligible. Most high-efficiency condensing tankless models qualify for a 30% federal tax credit (up to $2,000) under current Inflation Reduction Act rules. We’ll confirm eligibility on your specific install.

The Rheem lineup we install

We’re a Rheem Pro Partner, which is the top tier of Rheem’s dealer program. We sell the Rheem tankless catalog in this priority order, because it matches what wins for most Pittsburgh homes.

Rheem Ikonic

The flagship. The Ikonic is Rheem’s smartest, longest-warranty tankless. We pair it with two add-ons that turn it into a near-bulletproof hot water system:

• Built-in recirculation pump. Hot water at the faucet within seconds, no waiting at the kitchen sink while the gallon of cold sitting in the line drains down.
• Battery backup module. Tankless units need 120-volt power to run electronics, igniter, and fan. The Ikonic battery backup keeps the unit running through a power outage, which is huge in Pittsburgh’s winter storm season.

The Ikonic with recirc and battery backup is what we recommend first for any Pittsburgh family that can fit the install in their budget. It’s the closest thing to a “no compromises” hot water solution we sell.

Rheem RTGH series

The proven workhorse. Condensing, 96% efficient, 12 to 15-year heat exchanger warranty. The RTGH covers about 70% of the tankless installs we do, because it hits the sweet spot of price, performance, and warranty.

We also typically add the battery backup module to RTGH installs, because the cost is small and the value during a Pittsburgh ice storm is high.

Other Rheem tankless models

We carry the Rheem mid-tier (Performance Plus, non-condensing 80% efficiency units) for homes where the customer wants tankless but the gas line, venting, or budget rules out the higher-efficiency models. They’re a real option, not a downgrade, and we’ll explain when they make sense in our how to pick a water heater guide.

What a tankless install actually involves

A tankless install is not a swap. It’s a small project. Here’s everything that happens on install day in a typical Pittsburgh basement:

1. Drain and remove the old tank. Usually 20 to 30 gallons of sediment-y water come out of the bottom. We catch it.
2. Mount the new unit on the wall. Modern tankless units run 60 to 100 lbs and bolt to the wall studs.
3. Run a new gas line. Tankless units fire at 150,000 to 199,000 BTU, which is 3 to 4 times the gas demand of a tank. Most Pittsburgh homes need a larger-diameter gas line from the meter to the unit. We size, run, and pressure-test the new line.
4. Run new exhaust venting. Condensing tankless units vent through PVC out a sidewall or up through the roof. Non-condensing units use stainless steel. We don’t reuse the old chimney liner unless it’s the right size and material.
5. Run a condensate drain. Condensing tankless units produce a small acidic condensate stream that has to go to a floor drain or to a neutralizer cartridge before it hits a copper drain line.
6. Wire in a dedicated 120-volt circuit. We pull a new circuit from the panel if needed.
7. Mount and connect the optional battery backup. Wall-mounted module wires directly to the unit.
8. Mount the recirculation pump and run the dedicated recirc line (Ikonic only, or any unit with a comfort kit).
9. Install a flush valve kit. This is the small isolation valve set on the inlet and outlet that lets your service plumber descale the unit annually. Every Wahl tankless install includes a flush kit. Without one, annual descaling is a much bigger job.
10. Install the Wahl recommended scale protection. Pittsburgh’s water will scale a tankless heat exchanger fast. We recommend pairing tankless with a Flow-Tech, Halo, or Nuvo scale protection system, and we’ll show it as a line item.
11. Pull the permit. Test, fire, commission, and walk you through it.

A clean Pittsburgh tankless install runs 6 to 9 hours of two-person crew time. We almost always finish in one day.

What it costs

We present exact pricing in your home after a free in-home estimate. Tankless lives in the upper tiers of our water-heating ladder, with the RTGH workhorse in the mid-premium range and the flagship Ikonic with recirc and battery backup at the top. Final number depends on:

• Which Rheem model (Ikonic, RTGH, or Performance Plus)
• Recirculation pump (yes / no)
• Battery backup (yes / no)
• Gas line upgrade (most homes need at least a partial upgrade)
• Venting path (sidewall through a finished wall is easier than up through a roof)
• Scale protection add-on (we strongly recommend)
• Tax credit (qualifying condensing models can pull back up to $2,000 federal)

We don’t try to give you a phone-quote price. Part of our process is presenting numbers in person, on paper, with the Rheem model, the add-ons, and both standard and Wahl Club member rates clearly priced. No surprises on install day. See our how to pick a water heater guide for the full relative-investment ladder.

Maintenance: the one thing tankless owners must do

Every tankless water heater needs an annual descale, especially in Pittsburgh. Skip it for three years and the heat exchanger fails. Do it every year and you’ll get the full 20-year life out of the unit.

A Wahl Club membership covers the annual descale. Most of our tankless customers add the membership when we install, because it’s the easiest way to make sure the maintenance actually happens.

If you’d rather not deal with descaling at all, we can install a scale-inhibitor (Flow-Tech, Halo ION, or a Nuvo softener) that prevents scale from forming in the first place. We strongly recommend this for any tankless install in Allegheny County. Hard water is the single biggest threat to a tankless heat exchanger.