 Nice product |
| Review Date: March 13, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Jeffrey E. Fisher, Sierra Mountains |
We have this unit in our vacation home and it works flawlessly. If you are contemplating a tankless unit here are some things to consider. Buy the highest capacity BTU unit you can. 199000 BTU's sound great, but if you live in a cold area, or even an area where the water is cool in the winter, 199000 BTU may be just enough to run an appliance and a shower. The reason is not the water heater, but the temperature of the inlet water. If you heat your water to 120 degrees, it takes twice the capacity if your inlet water is 40 rather than 80 degrees. You may also be aware that tankless units don't work too well with recirculating pumps unless you buy a very high end unit that is specifically designed for that application--this is why we don't have one in our everyday home. Also, the energy savings may be a bit misleading as all water heaters have a minimum efficiency of 75%. That being said, if you want a long shower, this unit is great!!!!
At home we have a high performance unit with a tank--think of a tankless with a built in tank. Ours is a Polaris (I give it five stars), but Vertex and Phoenix are other brands. We use this unit for our hot water and radiant floor heat.
The reason we went tankless at the other home is $3 per gallon propane and space. We were able to remove the old water heater, hang this unit on the wall and put a stacking washer/dryer in the space left by the old water heater. Now my wife is happy and I'm happy not having to spend $10 per month just keeping 40 gallons of water hot. $10 doesn't sound like much, but this unit will last 10+ years--that is a savings of more than $1200 over its lifetime!! |
Great heater with 1 problem, 1 design flaw
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| Review Date: April 30, 2010 |
| Reviewer: peter sherman, |
R75lsi: Great heater with two problems (one a significant design flaw).
Problem: Depending upon the distance from your heater to your faucet and the size of the line, you must run water above a minimum volume threshhold through your lines before you get warm/hot water. While running cold water until you get hot is normal for even tank heaters, we must run over twice (one gallon) of water before we experience any warmth when compared to our previous tank heater (less than half-gallon through same plumbing). What this means is if you want to just wash your face, or if you want to do the dishes but not run the water constantly as you do them, the tankless does not work well for such small-volume jobs. Whether it is washing our hands/face, using the bidet or doing dishes with modest water use, we essentially (and regrettfully) do it all with cold water as the unit does not accomodate our needs. That said, if you are going to simply run high volume for a while (i.e., shower)... it works amazingly well.
Design Flaw: This unit needs power AND is susceptible to freezing temperatures when in a power outage. Should you have a power outage AND below freezing temperatures AND your unit is exposed to these temperatures (e.g., in garage, in external water closet etc.), then you have the following options to avoid serious risk of rupturing the internal elements of the machine.
Exhaustive list of Solutions (so far as I know): a). constantly run your 'hot' water line until power returns (assumes you are home or you wastefully plan ahead); b). drain your tank and turn off intake valve (works easily but assumes you are home and that you can do this modest adjustment); c). install for about 600$ a solenoid unit that drains tank during power outage (note: many Rinnai installers don't know how to do this and Rinnai doesn't have links to these solenoids... you are more or less on your own finding someone to help out and it requires you to plan well ahead); d). rupture and destroy the unit (not on warrantee; out of luck); e). relocate (or plan ahead) unit so that it is not exposed to freezing temperatures (in internal water closet).
As you can see, if your power goes out AND your unit is in a vulnerable location in regards to cold external temps AND you are not home to manage it, you run the very real risk of losing the unit all together and I am pretty sure that ain't covered by your warrantee (despite it being a design flaw). Therefore, by all means consider getting this unit... but think about where you place it... and the chances of a convergence of freezing temperatures/power outages/being away from home. |
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