TI-200 tankless water heater woes

DoctorMax

We occupied our newly built house three and half years ago. We have an indoor pool. The highly recommended HVAC engineer/contractor recommended a tankless water heater system that heats the pool, heats ( via a coil to an air handler) upstairs bedrooms, and provides hot water to the faucets. He located the unit in the equipment room that houses all the filtration plumbing for the pool. All the copper pipes in this room have corroded due to the chemicals in high concentration in the air in  this room. The Trinity TI-200 heater has failed three times in three and half years (two controller- circuit boards; one blower; one draft inducer)  incurring repair costs of about $2,000.  Here are my questions:

1) Is this failure rate normal or excessive?

2) Is the location of the unit in the pool's equipment room rather than in the boiler room some 30 feet away improper and contributing to the unit's failures?

3) What remedies are avalable ( relocation; replacement with a different product; dehumidification in the current location; other?)

4) Is there a standard in the industry regarding such an installation?

meplumber

The big problem is that you have a water heater.

Water heaters are not approved for this use.  They are not rated for the flow rates that you are pushing through it.  Hence premature failures.  You need a pool heater or a boiler.  Pool heaters (or boilers for the matter) are prone to failure when in the pool room due to chemicals.  It is just the nature of the beast.  You received poor guidance from your installer/engineer.  Time to seek further guidance. 



Pool heaters available today are much more resistant to corrosion.  However, most of them lack the necessary safety controls to provide space heating.  I would consider a properly sized boiler with a properly sized pool heat exchanger and corrected piping.



Check the Find a Contractor link above to see if there is someone in your area that can help you out.



Good Luck.

Charlie from wmass

Also no boiler or water heater

is rated to handle the air born chemicals of pool maintenance. Move the boiler or move the chemicals. also isolate the room from the pool. Thats in the installation manual.

Gordan

Hang on...

The TI-200 is a boiler, not a tankless water heater. Combi models in that lineup do have a plate heat exchanger for DHW, but the appliance is first and foremost a boiler made for space heating.



Agree 100% that pool water should not be heated directly by this appliance, and that the location of the appliance is in direct violation of the installation instructions and is very likely the cause for the high failure rate. Especially if the combustion air is piped from the pool area.

meplumber

My mistake Gordan.

I didn't think that the TI-200 had an H stamp.



Sorry.  That point aside.  Still an extremely poor choice for this application.