Rinnai RUR160iP Condensing Tankless Hot Water Heater, 9 GPM, Propane, Indoor Installation

Our old water heater was in the laundry room, limiting us to an old, small stackable unit that I had to repair about every 8 months. Laundry day took forever. It seemed a tankless unit was the answer to our prayers, but having read the reviews here, and gotten a couple of estimates, I was very worried that I was throwing away a lot of money. I am pleased to say my worries were unfounded. After some debate, I went with the bigger unit (against my plumbers advice), but we can run two showers at once with no problem, and while everything I read said that the smaller unit should cover us, I wanted to be sure. I shadowed the plumber for the entire installation, and I can comfortably say that many of the nightmares I read about were a result of installer error. I had an existing, but broken dedicated recirculating line already, and we were able to use that, rather than the other system where you connect your hot and cold lines to make the recirc line. The unit came with the wireless module and, despite horrible reviews on the App Store, I have had no trouble at all with it. I can schedule times for the recirculation to be active, or I can activate it manually with no problems. We get unlimited hot water, instantly (when scheduled), and we now have a much larger laundry room with full sized units and cabinets. I couldn’t be happier.

We are using the Rinnai RUR199iN in Chicago. The incoming winter-time water temperature can be in the low 40's. This water heater will run 4 body jets and rain-head at full-flow, all at once, without problem. Each of those are rated at 1.5 Gal/Min by Kohler, so a total of 7.5 Gal/Min of HOT water. The optional WiFi module is attached. We use the Control-R app, one wireless button, and Alexa to ask for recirculation. Zero issues with any of those three. The unit is very quite, even when running in recirculation. The utility room is below the master bath, you can hear the water heater (when it is on) only if the room is otherwise silent. Even still, the sound is faint and not at all unpleasant. I intentionally tested some of another reviewer's complaints. I unplugged the water heater to simulate a power outage. After giving it a couple hours, I restored power. The set temperature of 120 returned, and the WiFi module reconnected in under 30 seconds. Additionally we have experienced internet outages, the WiFi module stays connected to the router and reconnects to the internet like every other device on the network when internet is restored, so I can't understand how there could be an issue (we had none). Making parameter adjustments requires access to the main board inside the heater, but I can't imagine why a user would need to switch back and forth between comfort/economy recirculation, so it's a non-issue for us. I self-installed the heater, the instructions are fabulous, but this is not a do-it-yourself type of project unless you have advanced plumbing skills. We were pleasantly surprised to find the WiFi module and crossover valve included in the box! Rinnai is the most popular tankless in the US, and has been in other markets for decades. This was one of the primary reason we chose the more expensive Rinnai. Additionally , the maximum venting distance for 2" pipe is 65 feet! The Control-R app is not as fancy as many out there, but it is completely functional for us, it meets our needs. Because we have not had a single issue, I have not called their support line, so I cannot comment on that.

I bought this to support a two room, one bathroom house, about $2000.00 on Amazon. I ordered a LPG (Propane) unit, but it came configured for natural gas. The conversion orifice was shipped with it, but fell down in the box and as was thrown away with the packing material. $30.00 to get a new LPG nozzle. Not just taking the cover off to change the nozzle, but also have to follow very unclear information on how to change a dip switch to set the altitude and LPG setting. This was all great, just a pain in the rear. My intention was to set up recirculation to keep things from freezing in cold weather, which is implied that can be done. I bought the Control-R WiFi module. That has one of the WORST software I have ever seen on a commercial product. Started out it wouldn't install at all on my Note 9. After trying several times, I got is sort of installed, but it kept crashing and several features didn't work. Installed the software on my Wife's S10+, it installed ok, but still crashes sometimes. Impossible to set the temperature, keeps going back to some default, 120F. Setting up a recirculation schedule seems to be impossible, it seems to ignore what is set. This is in an off-grid installation, and even though it is "powered" by propane, it is the largest user of electricity, more than the fridge. To add insult to injury, there is a 10' 1/2" pex line from the heater to the first faucet, it takes about a minute to get hot water to the faucet. Sending a message to tech support took 3 days to receive a response which was basically "call tech support on the phone". There is virtually NO feedback on the app as to what is happening, and no description as to what the options do (not much). There is a "status" screen, which most of the time is totally wrong, will say the outlet temperature is 120, but the water comes out cold. They need to make their communication protocol and API available and I would write an app that was at least user friendly and let the user know what was happening.. These units are very heavy and would make good boat anchors.

Heats up water extremely fast.