One of my favorite blogs to subscribe to is Mint.com.  It teaches you how to think about money.  It teaches you how to keep track of it and save it. Today it had an excellent article on hot water tanks.  The average life of a hot water tank is about ten years.  There are many reasons to think about going tankless.  They are more energy efficient, they take up less room, you don't ever have to worry about coming home from vacation to a flooded basement due to your tank failing.  But here is their article on the pros and cons…

http://www.mint.com/blog/housing/time-to-go-tankless-the-pros-and-cons-of-tankless-water-heaters-062012/

In retrospect, I wish we had gone tankless the last time we had to replace our tank.  But then, about 8 years ago, tankless heaters were still quite expensive.  Now, they have come way down and are more reasonable.  Here is Seattle City Light's page on Tankless heaters…

http://www.seattle.gov/light/conserve/resident/appliances/cv5_appH.htm#start

When Kelley would descend on the house with 2-3 carsful of Ultimate Frisbee players who were "crashing" at our house, they would have to time the showers to be fair.  With a tankless heater, that would not be an issue.  You could run the washer, dishwasher and take a shower at the same time.  Plus it takes up less space.  That is alot of space devoted to an ugly tank in the basement!

If you do still have the old style tank be sure it is sitting on a tray and is earthquake strapped.  Along with the age of the tank, these are things a home inspector will note during the inspection.

Any thoughts or opinions on going tankless or not?