 Great home-improvement item |
| Review Date: September 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. Matheny, Austin, TX |
We've had the Rinnai R94LSi for about 1.5 years at this point and have been extremely happy with it. Now that we have had it for a while, I figured I should sit down and write a quick review about it.
Before getting this tankless water heater, we actually had 2 40-gallon hot water heaters in our house. Unfortunately, because of the way the plumbing was run, we had a major issue with running out of hot water if the kids took a shower or bath while we were cleaning up the kitchen at night. When we had the money to do this project, we actually did it to fix the issue with running out of hot water and figured that any energy savings would be a bonus.
Here are some of the main things we've really enjoyed about this unit:
1) Since I replaced 2 water heaters with one tankless heater, I was able to get some extra storage space in the garage and then built a workbench where the storage had previously been. Taken alone, the space savings almost made this tankless worth it for me!
2) We never run out of hot water anymore. Our house has 3.5 bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry - and I can run all the faucets on full blast at any time of year without overloading this unit. (As a side note, we do live in Austin, TX so I suspect that areas with a colder water supply may need a larger unit for the same sized house.)
3) The energy savings have been noticeable. This is one area I wasn't completely convinced of when I bought the tankless unit - but the savings on our monthly bill have been noticeable. What I've done is to compare my gas and water usage with the same month from the previous year and have found that the gas usage has been cut basically in half. The water usage has not changed. It will still take a while before this pays for itself, but I wasn't really expecting that it ever would.
4) We no longer have a water tank in the attic. One of our previous water heaters was sitting in the 2nd story attic and I've known several people who have had their tanks rupture and cause thousands of dollars of damage. With the tankless unit, I no longer have to worry about that issue. Not that other things can't leak, but they don't have 40 gallon tanks! ;).
5) Compared to other brands of tankless heaters, the minimum flow rate is much better - I talk about this in more depth in the next section.
The technology with tankless heaters is quite a bit different from traditional hot water heaters, so here are some other things to consider:
1) I didn't fully understand this before buying the Rinnai, but the minimum flow rate is critically important with tankless water heaters. This number represents the minimum amount of hot water that needs to be flowing before the heater will kick on. Basically, this is just something to keep in mind and it's one of those things that is just different compared to a traditional water heater. I thank my lucky stars that I went with the Rinnai instead of the cheaper models that I also looked at because it turns out that the minimum flow rate isn't as low on those units since most people are just comparing the maximum flow rate numbers! This has impacted me twice when I was taking a cold shower immediately after working out - on those occasions the hot water line was completely drained before I was done showering and I ended up with a REALLY COLD shower until I could get the hot water line filled again.
2) When deciding which tankless unit to buy, be sure to take your local cold water temperature into account. These units will be able to raise the temperature of a certain amount of water by a specific amount - so if your cold water is too cold for the unit you buy, I suspect you will be disapointed. I probably wouldn't even mention this, except that I've read a lot of bad reviews where this seemed to be at the root of the problem. Also, I talked to 3 different plumbers before buying this R94LSi and one of them recommended the R75LSi instead - I'm glad I went with the larger unit since it really wasn't much more money anyway.
As a final note: when we did start looking seriously into this purchase, I had several plumbers come by to bid the job for me; but it quickly became obvious that I could do it for a lot less money. [...]
If you do decide to go the do-it-yourself route, remember that the tankless unit needs a 3/4" gas feed instead of the 1/2" that your current water heater uses. You can't just use an adapter for this - you need to be able to get back to a larger gas section and resize the feed from there (google is a great tool for understanding what you need to do here). As far as the plumbing connections go, the SharkBite connectors were a real life-saver and I'm much more confident in the durability of the connections.
Anyway, I know this review has run kind of long, but I want to repeat that I highly recommend these tankless heaters. We love ours and I would never want to trade back now that I know what I was missing:).
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Rinnai Tankless water
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| Review Date: September 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: A. Anderson, California |
| We have installed over 1,500 tankless water heaters in the last 10 years and by far Rinnai has been the most reliable of all the major brands. More importantly, after market support is what separate's Rinnai from the pack. No I don't work for Rinnai but I do service and install them and have one in my own home. If installed and maintained properly, they will give years of trouble free service. Mine has long since paid for it's self in gas savings over our old 40 gallon tank water heater. I highly recommend this product! |
Rinnai r9.5lsi-n - A great tankless water heater!
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| Review Date: November 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: B. Thompson, Atlanta, GA |
I installed a Rinnai r9.5LSiN natural gas tankless water heater after our 30gal 25 year old Rheem finally bit the dust. I did a ton of research and after speaking with a few friends, decided to install the unit myself. I bought the unit at a popular auction site for a great price and it shipped with everything I needed including the vent kit. I did all the electrical, plumbing and natural gas work myself, including tapping into my 3/4" main natural gas line to provide the Rinnai with the required amount of natural gas flow. If you decide to do the installation yourself, this last point is very important as natural gas tankless will require a 3/4" supply line so it has sufficient gas without "starving" when under higher loads.
So far, the unit has provided enough hot water that we have never run out of water. I can honestly say that I don't think I can use more hot water than it can make! We can do dishes, run the laundry and take a shower at the same time without ever exceeding the hot water it can produce instantly. I will never go back to a tank style water heater. Period. Best appliance upgrade ever. My friend was so impressed that he ordered the same exact model and we installed it in his house (which was a much more complex install, but worth it). Our gas bill did go down slightly and we will get an energy star credit on our tax bill this year for the purchase price. Rinnai has a very satisfied customer here. |
Rinni tankless water heater
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| Review Date: July 21, 2010 |
| Reviewer: William Gilde, LINTHICUM HEIGHTS, MD, US |
| The product was ontime and packaged well arriving undamaged. this product works very well, you can regulate the water temperture keeping it at the default setting for showers and move it higher for kitchen use. It's great that fuel is not used until you are using it. |
Endless hot water for the patient
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| Review Date: July 20, 2010 |
| Reviewer: dizaryl, |
This is not a direct replacement for a tank NG water heater. Disclaimer: I install elevators for a living.
Bad: I was originally going to exhaust it directly into my chimney until I learned the concentric vent actually provides it with fresh air for combustion ( O.K. in the summer months, but I didn't want it pulling in my existing NG furnace exhaust which exhaust thru my small chimney). I also was unaware of a flexible true 3/4 to 3/4 gas line; so that complicated things. They do exist for a premium, but I chose to mount the entire thing on a unistrut framework so I could move it left,right,up,down, according to the gasline (which I black piped and unioned) and also the expensive proprietary concentric vent.
Installation: With the whetstone valves and the proprietary ublink concentric vent installation was childsplay. If you know how to sweat copper and are prepared to cut a wall penetration of a minimum 5 1/2" you are a one man/woman operation. Luckily I only had to cut a hole through a sill plate; combination wood and aluminum siding. I used a blu-mol hole saw for $25 minus arbor which if you already have holesaws is interchangable with lenox over 1 1/4". Brick or any concrete could greatly increase installation w/o proper tools and bits. If any of that scared you WALK AWAY or HIRE SOMEONE. It took me 15 minutes after planning the vent route to cut the exterior penetration, but only 5 minutes to assemble a 9 foot run with 7 seperate couplings/ straight pipes (the dual 45's are a must for unforseen obstacles). Also the unit comes equipped with a condensate collecting vent piece at the top of the unit so if your run is short you don't need another one.
GOOD and able to live with: This units footprint is tiny. If your looking to decrease the size of existing utilities so you can add more creature comforts (especially on an older home) look no further. In the space I saved I was able to add a small deep freezer, a whole house dehumidifier, and a walkthrough to home theatre components. After adding central air my utility room is a whopping 28ft square. I originally had a 50 gallon NG water heater and with a combination of a centrally mounted pex manifold delivered hot water in about 10 seconds after a long cooling and no demand. THIS UNIT ACCELS AT LONG DEMAND USAGE. If you expect hot water at a 5 second hot water run to brush your teeth, wash your hands, etc: YOU WILL BE DISSAPOINTED. If you want to take a neverending shower while another person is enjoying a similar shower YOU WILL BE EXTATIC! I've heard a recirculator or inline loop/tank solves this standoff, but I feel it defeats the purpose of an on demand heater. This unit also offers an impressive 120 degree output. No wait: with the flip of one dip switch (#6) you can increase this at intervals of 5 to 140 degrees. If thats not good enough you can order a seperate controller ($65-$95) to go all the way to burn unit 180 degrees. Just think on a battery backup for emergency hot water in a blackout because this units ignition is electric. |
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