Residential water heater shipments slide through May as gas hits lowest five-month total since 2012
From Jan. to May, roughly 1.79 million gas water heaters were shipped, down 5.4 percent year-over-year, marking the lowest cumulative total since 2012
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U.S. shipments of both gas and electric residential storage water heaters from January to May fell compared to last year, AHRI data released Friday shows.
What’s happening: Over the five months, roughly 1.79 million gas water heaters were shipped, down 5.4 percent year-over-year, marking the lowest cumulative total since 2012, when manufacturers shipped just over 1.69 million units.
- Meanwhile, around 2.07 million electric water heaters were shipped during the period, down 6.6 percent year-over-year — the lowest total since 2021, when shipments just cleared two million units.
- (AHRI data doesn’t include tankless water heaters.)
The big picture: A divergence among product types has emerged over the past five years.
- From 2012 to 2021, gas shipments topped two million units in the January to May window three times, including 2021, while electric water heaters got there once, in 2021.
- Since then, however, gas shipments haven’t returned to the mark, while electric water heaters have cleared it every year, including 2026.
Of note: Full-year electric water heater shipments crossed five million units for the first time in 2024, and again in 2025 — a milestone gas has yet to reach.
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