diff --git a/pkg/iter/entry_iterator.go b/pkg/iter/entry_iterator.go
index 58e0ab929e..60bf032cab 100644
--- a/pkg/iter/entry_iterator.go
+++ b/pkg/iter/entry_iterator.go
@@ -53,16 +53,17 @@ func (i *streamIterator) Close() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// HeapIterator iterates over a heap of iterators with ability to push new iterators and get some properties like time of entry at peek and len
-// Not safe for concurrent use
-type HeapIterator interface {
+// MergeEntryIterator exposes additional fields that are used by the Tailer only.
+// Not safe for concurrent use!
+type MergeEntryIterator interface {
 	EntryIterator
+
 	Peek() time.Time
 	IsEmpty() bool
 	Push(EntryIterator)
 }
 
-// mergeEntryIterator iterates over a heap of iterators and merge duplicate entries.
+// mergeEntryIterator implements the MergeEntryIterator interface functions.
 type mergeEntryIterator struct {
 	tree  *loser.Tree[sortFields, EntryIterator]
 	stats *stats.Context
@@ -74,11 +75,11 @@ type mergeEntryIterator struct {
 	errs      []error
 }
 
-// NewMergeEntryIterator returns a new iterator which uses a heap to merge together entries for multiple iterators and deduplicate entries if any.
+// NewMergeEntryIterator returns a new iterator which uses a looser tree to merge together entries for multiple iterators and deduplicate entries if any.
 // The iterator only order and merge entries across given `is` iterators, it does not merge entries within individual iterator.
 // This means using this iterator with a single iterator will result in the same result as the input iterator.
 // If you don't need to deduplicate entries, use `NewSortEntryIterator` instead.
-func NewMergeEntryIterator(ctx context.Context, is []EntryIterator, direction logproto.Direction) HeapIterator {
+func NewMergeEntryIterator(ctx context.Context, is []EntryIterator, direction logproto.Direction) MergeEntryIterator {
 	maxVal, less := treeLess(direction)
 	result := &mergeEntryIterator{stats: stats.FromContext(ctx)}
 	result.tree = loser.New(is, maxVal, sortFieldsAt, less, result.closeEntry)
diff --git a/pkg/iter/entry_iterator_test.go b/pkg/iter/entry_iterator_test.go
index e49ecf3ee5..fb1548ddc3 100644
--- a/pkg/iter/entry_iterator_test.go
+++ b/pkg/iter/entry_iterator_test.go
@@ -162,16 +162,16 @@ func TestIteratorMultipleLabels(t *testing.T) {
 func TestMergeIteratorPrefetch(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 
-	type tester func(t *testing.T, i HeapIterator)
+	type tester func(t *testing.T, i MergeEntryIterator)
 
 	tests := map[string]tester{
-		"prefetch on IsEmpty() when called as first method": func(t *testing.T, i HeapIterator) {
+		"prefetch on IsEmpty() when called as first method": func(t *testing.T, i MergeEntryIterator) {
 			assert.Equal(t, false, i.IsEmpty())
 		},
-		"prefetch on Peek() when called as first method": func(t *testing.T, i HeapIterator) {
+		"prefetch on Peek() when called as first method": func(t *testing.T, i MergeEntryIterator) {
 			assert.Equal(t, time.Unix(0, 0), i.Peek())
 		},
-		"prefetch on Next() when called as first method": func(t *testing.T, i HeapIterator) {
+		"prefetch on Next() when called as first method": func(t *testing.T, i MergeEntryIterator) {
 			assert.True(t, i.Next())
 			assert.Equal(t, logproto.Entry{Timestamp: time.Unix(0, 0), Line: "0"}, i.At())
 		},
diff --git a/pkg/querier/tail.go b/pkg/querier/tail.go
index 87dba6bae0..0d9495daf6 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/tail.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/tail.go
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ const (
 // Tailer manages complete lifecycle of a tail request
 type Tailer struct {
 	// openStreamIterator is for streams already open
-	openStreamIterator iter.HeapIterator
+	openStreamIterator iter.MergeEntryIterator
 	streamMtx          sync.Mutex // for synchronizing access to openStreamIterator
 
 	currEntry  logproto.Entry
diff --git a/pkg/storage/batch.go b/pkg/storage/batch.go
index 46f708d091..739a27f9b2 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/batch.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/batch.go
@@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ func (it *logBatchIterator) buildIterators(chks map[model.Fingerprint][][]*LazyC
 	for _, chunks := range chks {
 		if len(chunks) != 0 && len(chunks[0]) != 0 {
 			streamPipeline := it.pipeline.ForStream(labels.NewBuilder(chunks[0][0].Chunk.Metric).Del(labels.MetricName).Labels())
-			iterator, err := it.buildHeapIterator(chunks, from, through, streamPipeline, nextChunk)
+			iterator, err := it.buildMergeIterator(chunks, from, through, streamPipeline, nextChunk)
 			if err != nil {
 				return nil, err
 			}
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ func (it *logBatchIterator) buildIterators(chks map[model.Fingerprint][][]*LazyC
 	return result, nil
 }
 
-func (it *logBatchIterator) buildHeapIterator(chks [][]*LazyChunk, from, through time.Time, streamPipeline log.StreamPipeline, nextChunk *LazyChunk) (iter.EntryIterator, error) {
+func (it *logBatchIterator) buildMergeIterator(chks [][]*LazyChunk, from, through time.Time, streamPipeline log.StreamPipeline, nextChunk *LazyChunk) (iter.EntryIterator, error) {
 	result := make([]iter.EntryIterator, 0, len(chks))
 
 	for i := range chks {
diff --git a/pkg/storage/batch_test.go b/pkg/storage/batch_test.go
index 0159c20a19..34d8e35004 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/batch_test.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/batch_test.go
@@ -1649,9 +1649,9 @@ func TestBuildHeapIterator(t *testing.T) {
 				ctx:      ctx,
 				pipeline: log.NewNoopPipeline(),
 			}
-			it, err := b.buildHeapIterator(tc.input, from, from.Add(6*time.Millisecond), b.pipeline.ForStream(labels.Labels{labels.Label{Name: "foo", Value: "bar"}}), nil)
+			it, err := b.buildMergeIterator(tc.input, from, from.Add(6*time.Millisecond), b.pipeline.ForStream(labels.Labels{labels.Label{Name: "foo", Value: "bar"}}), nil)
 			if err != nil {
-				t.Errorf("buildHeapIterator error = %v", err)
+				t.Errorf("buildMergeIterator error = %v", err)
 				return
 			}
 			req := newQuery("{foo=\"bar\"}", from, from.Add(6*time.Millisecond), nil, nil)