Tujunga is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles in the foothills at the northeast edge of the San Fernando Valley, served by one ZIP code, 91042. On this site it sits in the Los Angeles Metro region beside Sunland and La Crescenta. Many of its older homes keep heaters in porches and closets built for smaller tanks, which is where the tank-or-tankless question usually starts.
Tujunga's homes and heaters
Tujunga began in 1913 as a Little Landers colony, a plan in which settlers bought lots of a quarter acre to an acre and grew much of their own food. Its stone clubhouse, Bolton Hall, was built that year from local granite. Tujunga incorporated as a small city in the 1920s and consolidated with Los Angeles in 1932. Homes filled in over the following decades, climbing into the foothills.
Homes range from early cottages, some with stone work, to post-war houses, hillside homes and apartments along Foothill Boulevard. Heaters sit on service porches, in exterior closets and in garages, often on sloping lots. The water is hard, summers are hot and winter mornings are cool enough to show a weak heater.
Does tankless fit a Tujunga home?
Often, where a porch or closet is too tight for a modern tank. A tankless unit on an outside wall frees the space and doesn't run out, but it needs a gas line sized for its output, new venting and descaling in hard water. A slim tank remains the simplest swap, so compare both.
Often expansion behind a regulator.
Sizing for Tujunga households
The right size comes from the busiest hour, not the size of the house. Count the showers that run back to back, whether laundry or a tub overlaps and how many bathrooms are used at once, then compare that with the first-hour rating on the heater's label. Winter is the hour to size for, since colder incoming water cuts what a tank can deliver.
Rule out faults before going bigger. Sediment from hard water fills tank space and slows recovery, a broken dip tube sends cold water to the outlet and a weak burner falls behind. Each makes a correctly sized heater seem too small, and a larger tank would inherit the same problem if the cause isn't fixed.
A tankless unit is sized differently: by the flow it can heat at the coldest inlet temperature, since it heats water as it passes. Two showers and a washer at once on a January morning need more flow than a summer afternoon does. The installer checks the gas supply can feed that output before recommending a model. Where the gas line is too small, upsizing it adds to the job, and a slim tank may be the better value.
Porches and exterior closets
Many of Tujunga's older homes keep the heater on a service porch or in a closet on an outside wall. Both keep the burner out of the main living space, and both have served these houses for decades. With a little care, clear air openings, a dry floor and weathered parts replaced in time, they keep serving well.
Louvers and air openings feed the burner, so storage stays out and they're never sealed or painted shut. Summer heat and winter damp age the door, plastic drain valve, washers, connectors and relief line faster than a garage would. A porch floor that's taken years of small drips deserves a look for soft spots before a heavy new tank goes on it.
At replacement, the space sets the limits. Newer tanks are better insulated and often wider than the opening was built for, so the installer measures the door, shelf and vent height first. A slimmer tank may fit; otherwise a tankless unit on the outside wall frees the closet or porch, if gas and venting allow. A porch heater being replaced is also a good moment to check the relief line runs to a safe spot and the floor beneath is sound.
Have tank and tankless priced together.
Expansion tanks and dripping relief valves
Supply pressure on Tujunga's sloping streets can run high, and many homes have a pressure-reducing valve. It protects fixtures but closes the system, so when heated water expands it has nowhere to go and pressure rises in the tank and pipes with every heating cycle.
For homes in Tujunga, the sign is a relief valve that drips after heating. Never cap or plug it; it's the tank's safety device. An expansion tank on the cold line absorbs the extra volume against an air charge that the technician sets to your pressure, and it's supported properly because it's heavy when full. A failed regulator can let pressure climb too, so it's checked at the same time.
The air charge fades over the years and the dripping returns, so a check belongs in routine service. Around Tujunga, a steady flow rather than a drip points to high pressure, overheating or a worn valve and needs prompt attention. In and around Tujunga, whether a home needs one depends on its plumbing and local requirements, which the installer confirms.
Strapping in Tujunga
Across Tujunga, the tank is tied to the building with straps or a bracing kit rather than left free-standing. Across Tujunga, loaded with water, a tank is heavy and easy to tip, and its gas, water and vent connections are the first thing to go if it shifts. It's part of nearly every Tujunga replacement and is checked when a home is sold.
A porch or closet in an older home may have framing hidden behind later finishes, so blocking may be added, and a hillside garage with concrete walls needs masonry anchors. At a Tujunga property, an older heater that has no straps can still be braced in place, and the installer notes what was found. At a Tujunga property, requirements are set locally, so the installer confirms them for the address and notes anything unusual about the setup.
Tank or tankless: comparison points
- Room needed: tankless hangs outside; a tank needs floor space on the porch.
- Winter supply: tankless is sized by flow; a tank by its recovery.
- Installation: tankless may need a new gas line and vent route.
- Routine care: a tank needs flushing and anode checks; tankless needs descaling.
Tujunga ZIP code
ZIP codes served: 91042
Nearby areas with their own pages include La Crescenta, Sunland, Montrose, La Cañada Flintridge and Sun Valley. See every area on the Los Angeles Metro page.
Popular services in Tujunga
Tujunga water heater FAQs
The fuel and water are shut off, and the old tank is drained, disconnected and carried out. The new heater is set, strapped and connected to water, the relief line, fuel and vent, then filled, started and checked for leaks and draft. The old tank goes for recycling.
The technician closes the unit's service valves, pumps a descaling solution through the heat exchanger, flushes it clean and cleans the inlet screen, then checks the burner and vent. Units without service valves usually get them at the first visit, which makes later descaling quicker.
A full tank is heavy, top-heavy and connected to gas, water and vent lines. Strapping holds it upright if the ground moves, so those connections aren't torn loose. It comes up at nearly every Tujunga replacement and at sale. The installer confirms what applies at your address.
Ask your water provider, which publishes water quality information every year and can answer questions about your supply. A technician can also judge from what the first flush brings out of the tank or the scale in a tankless unit, and set a schedule to match.
No. Flushing clears loose sediment, but scale that has set hard on the tank floor stays in place. That's why flushing works best when it starts early and follows a schedule. On an older tank that's never been flushed, the technician may suggest planning a replacement.
Vent parts age with the heater. A connector may be corroded, loosely joined, shared with a furnace or at the wrong height for the new tank's outlet. Moving to tankless or power vent means new venting. The installer inspects the vent and explains any change before starting.
It lowers the supply pressure before it reaches the house, but it also closes the system, so heated water can't expand back toward the main. Pressure builds and the relief valve drips after heating. An expansion tank usually fixes it; the valve is never capped.
Not anymore. Tujunga incorporated as a small city in the 1920s and consolidated with the City of Los Angeles in 1932. This page covers its ZIP code, 91042. Tell us the address and where the heater sits, and we'll connect you with a local pro.
Yes. We connect callers with independent water heater pros across the 91042 ZIP code, from the older streets near Bolton Hall to the hillside neighborhoods and the apartments along Foothill Boulevard. Sunland and La Crescenta each have their own pages.