RL-Models

Update as of 11/1/21.....OK... hot water stops(off and on) midstream without an obvious reason, so called for the repair guy.....1st time to do anything in almost 10 years.Update as of 7/5/17.....Still great, and have had zero issues.Update as of 11/12/14.....We have had our Rinnai installed now for about 44 months and it works extremely well. There can be a delay in hot water, or a cold water sandwich; if you change temperature quickly or turn off and then on after having it on for 15 seconds or more. It probably takes 30 seconds for ours to really heat up, and maybe 40-45 seconds to get really hot water in the dead of winter...this is slower than a tank heater and the only detriment I can note or am aware of at this point. Puts out plenty of HOT water for us as we can have 2 showers and laundry going in the dead of winter...it is no problem. We adjusted our tank to put out 140 degree water and we love it...again, especially in the winter. My wife used to fill our tub, and the old water heater would actually run out of hot water(it is a large tub).....this is never a problem again! I think beyond 3 uses at one time(shower, laundry, dishwash, etc) running you would have a capacity problem...or extrememly cold basement. There are two of us here most of the time with the occasional guests....2 1/2 bath, and Rinnai is in the basement and very close to our main shower/bathroom, so this helps the time as our upstairs shower can take a minute to get hot water when its cold. Also, getting water temp correct with a single turn knob may be an issue....the water temp only goes so low before it will cut off....but we found the minimum spot which is hot, but we turned up our Rinnai so we could get hotter water and ideally, more use or capacity at the same time. By the way it is not uncommon for our basement to be 50 or so degrees in the winter and this easily overcomes that. I cant say how much cash it has saved us really, but our propane bill has definitely not gone up...and I estimate our electric bill had actually dropped 10 bucks/mo., and that was with our electric going up 9% last year, and another 5% this year. We replaced the original house water heater that had gone bad after 6 years do to salt water getting through our reverse osmosis/charcoal filter/saline filtration system(we have very salty well water on the coast)and it backed into the original water heater due to a valve being left open....and then it literally ate our water heater from the inside out with just one soaking of brackish water(took about 6 months to destroy it, of course we didn't know it was happening until the rust color started to show up) but once the water started turning rusty it was obviously too late(and this was only a 6 yr old water heater. Also, since we have a whole house well reverse osmosis and double charcoal filters purified water running, we shouldnt have to flush our Rinnai like you are supposed to do with these every year(our water has about 60ppm tds), but you are supposed to flush/clean every year to remove buildup and sediments(we pay enough up front to not have this issue unless our filter goes bad or salt water gets through usually by human mistake). We paid less for this than our local plumber could buy them wholesale through his supplier(by about 150 bucks total). He said there is an even more efficient tankless Rinnai available if your interested? This got here in 2 days and just make sure to order the venting pipes and gas taps if you need them! We had our whole system installed for 1350 total.....so it cost us about 500 bucks more than a good replacement standard tank water heater....I am sure we have gotten this back or will be very close by the end of this year. I believe we have saved 15 bucks per month on average? Make sure your gas pipes have enough flow.....Ive heard this can be an issue also? We really love ours. If anything happened we would probably just upgrade to the more efficient unit. Our unit is about 3 years installed now, maybe longer and I see others have issues, but we really have to recommend at this point. I will edit should anything come up as I think this needs to last at least 12 years for the return to really pay off. Propane and electricity is getting more expensive and this helps through efficiency to combat costs. Installed 03/2012

It has only been six weeks since I installed it myself. The owners manual is thorough and includes all of the necessary information for install if you are a handy person. If you aren't comfortable with doing your own water and gas plumbing, cutting a hole through to the outside of your house, etc. I would suggest hiring a pro but check what they would charge you to install a product that you supply versus one that they supply. My local propane installer couldn't touch this price even at his cost. As far as performance goes, I've had no problems with it running on well water. Our water hardness is well within spec (provided in the manual) so I didn't install a water softener but I put a water filter ahead of the unit to keep sediment out of the heat exchanger. Its a low cost item for peace of mind. I won't know if I really needed this large of a unit. (Family of four, two and a half bath house.) But just to test its capacity, I ran hot water in two showers and three sinks simultaneously and there was uninterrupted hot water at all five locations. My local propane company was going to suggest the 7.5? gallon version because it would save me two hundred dollars. His estimate, all parts and labor included came to 2500 dollars with the smaller Rinnai. As far as longevity goes, my brother installed one of the smallest Rinnai units 5.(3?) gallons about five years ago and he has had no problems with his. His first tankless water heater was a cheap tankless unit from a box store. He had lots of problems with it for two years before he ripped it out and bought his Rinnai. He said he should have paid more for the Rinnai in the first place. He uses a water softener though because his well water is very hard and loaded with minerals. He didn't buy the Rinnai softener, I don't know if I would use that after reading some of the reviews. My main reason for swapping out my electric water heater to this was to save money on my electric bill. Our electric rates are 14.6 cents per kilowatt hour. In my first full month of billing since the Rinnai, my electric bill dropped from 211 dollars to 126 dollars. And my propane cost for that time was 31 dollars. My propane is $2.50 per gallon. Since we swapped our electric range and clothes dryer over to propane, our electric bill dropped to 70 dollars last month. Like my wife said, we should have done this a long time ago. The best thing about this system is that we never run out of hot water. With one teenager and one preteen that take long hot showers, we can run the washing machine, dishwasher and sink while they are showering and everyone is happy. None happier than me though. Hopefully, there will be no need for warranty service. I have not been impressed with some of the reviews for Rinnai's customer service. My propane guy says that Rinnai's are bullet proof so time will tell.