Tankless H.W. Maintenance

Scott Gregg

As already stated, you should not have much to do in this installation other than clean out the filter occasionally. Liming of these products depends on local water conditions. Some go their entire life span of normal use without needed cleaning. If you have very hard water, it is a matter of how much use the heater gets.

In your case, I think it will be a long time before you have to worry about it. The best part of a tankless for your job is it is always off. It will only be running when you are filling the baptism tub. Rennai, Takagi and Noritz all have great service departments if you need them.

Whatever your manufacturer, find a trained local contractor to deal with or a factory trained service rep just in case you need them and then get back to the business off adding people to the kingdom.

Here is link that your might find helpful if you have other questions.

http://profitableplumbing.com/_wsn/page5.html

FredR

Hi, could someone describe routine maintenance issues in regard to the tankless heaters? One question I have is about scale formation. The heater in question (if purchased) will be
seldom used,setting is a church.
Thanks, Fred

JackFre

First, get a qualified

contractor. Maintainance should not be a major issue especially if the unit is seeing low use. Feed it clean water. Some have a filter screen on the CW inlet. If it get gobbed up you will see a reduction in flow. Put a cartridge filter on the building cold water supply if you have dirty water problems. Scaling is going to be dependent upon how hard your water is, how hot you run it and how much you use. Test your water or get the analysis from the water dept prior to installing the unit. Don't know about others but the Rinnai will give an LC (Lime Control)error code read on its touch pad if it sees a liming condition. Other than that for a unit which sees infrequent use, check the vent termination for spider webs, etc.

Mike Strickland

Maintenance on tankless htr's

Sir the best thing for you to do is to contact whoever your manufacture is, depending on what brand you chose. Scaling is certainly an issue for these tankless units,how severe it will be depends on where you live. Other than that there is very little maintenance at all. I especially like Rinnai's models due to the best warranty and reliabilty as well as the customer service.

Good Luck!!

Ken D.

Tankless

Prevention is the best. Keep the water as soft and the PH as neutral as possible. The coil can be "boiled" as a maintenance item. There are differing opinions as to it's effectiveness. My experience has been mixed. I find a slight improvement on light deposits only. Weather it actually increases the coil lifespan is debateable at best. If you do want it boiled, get it done by a pro. If the coil is already fouled, it can be acid flushed. This is effective, but the acid will also eat away at the copper coil itself, causing leaks if the coil is not in good shape to begin with. I prefer to replace the coil and gasket. It is the option with the least amount of surprises. The downside is the studs can be corroded and break and the coil plate mating surfaces can be pitted, in which case it will have to be welded. Not a good scenario if the boiler is iron.

Paul Cooke

Tankless Maintenance

I have been steering people away from gas tankless heaters lately. Two heat exchanger failures on heaters that are not more than 3 years old is the reason.

If I install 9 or 10 heaters and 2 of them fail in such a short time, I can't recommend them to people.

These things should last longer, considering the initial cost.

Scott Gregg

Something is wrong

For the HX to go like that is not normal. I would submit that something may have been wrong with those installs. For instance, if you allow condensate that can form in the vent to get back to the heater, the HX will fail in a short period of time.

With 10-year warranties on HX by the big 3 tankless companies, I have not seen one fail yet that was put in properly.

I have seen:
Venting runs graded back to the heater with no drain = failure in 18 months
Venting straight up with vertical condensate tee installed backwards = failure in about 1 year

If you have very acidic water it will eat them up too but the solution is to treat the water. After all, everything in the house will be effected by it also.

singh

A scale stopper cartidge is also a good solution.

Aqua pure 430 with AP 431 cartidge. These are food
grade slick beads that coat the inside of unit,preventig scale build up.