B/W EF100T199E3N nat gas commercial gas water heater condensing in first heat exchanger.

bob eck

Contractor installed a commercial B/W EF100T199E3N nat gas water heater into a laundromat. Unit worked good for 5 days and shutoff. Found PVC exhaust 90 ell installed wrong fixed that and got the condensate water out of that part of the water heater. Unit still would not fire. Checked main heat exchanger and that was full of condensate water that could not get out of the water heater. He pumped that water out. Fired the water heater it ran good for another 5 days shut off. Contractor found water in primary heat exchanger. Pumped it out unit is running fine. Owner of laundromat ran his business on two A O Smith Cyclone BTH 199 commercial water heater for six years then one failed and he then ran the business on just one A O Smith Cyclone BTH 199 commercial water heater for a year and one half. He thought he could get away with just one B/W EF100T199E3N water heater.
B/W tech told us that he should have two 399,000 BTU gas water heaters for the amount of washers he has. B/W told him only using one water heater that is way under sized with all the cold water running through the water heater is causing the flue gas to condense in the first heat exchanger and it is not supposed to condense at that point in the water heater. Has anyone installed this type of B/W water heater and had this problem of flue gas condensing in the first heat exchanger. All I can suggest is that the contractor needs to sell and install the two EF100T399E3N water heaters or install storage tanks with pumps if that would work.
Any other suggestions to keep the water heater that the contractor installed from condensing in the wrong heat exchanger.
Also putting this under plumbing section.

Henry

It is a design problem of both A.O.Smith and B/W. The way the heat exchanger is made and the downfiring into the combustion chamber allows the condensate to accumulate. If there is a small crack in the coating, the heat exchanger leaks in a few years specially when undersized. We replace them all with HTP Phoenix. They are bottom fired and cannot accumulate condensation in the combustion chamber (it is not the primary heat exchanger!). I have never had a service call on any that we installed since 2007.

bob eck

Thank for the info Henry what is the HTP model.
Did you check out the new commercial water heater from Rinnai it is called the demand Duo 199,000 BTU input commercial tankless gas water heater built on the side of a 119 gallon storage tank.

Henry

We stopped installing instant hot water units in 2005. They don't work well here. Most places do not have low flow faucets and the water today is 33F! Here is the link for the HTP http://www.htproducts.com/phoenixwaterheater.html

Rich_49

With the amount of tankless units now getting storage added you'd think people would get it . Rinnai's tankless coupled to a large storage vessel is their attempt to do what HTP has been doing for years . Many others are also starting to adopt this adaptation . Might as well go with the original unit that has gotten the technology down and has the experience .

Don't know if Henry has used one of these yet but we certainly have and they have performed beautifully in the commercial space with high demand while also lowering gas usage for DHW by thousands in the first year . Happens to be in a commercial laundry by the way that operates 12 hours a day and washes bed linens , kitchen laundry and clothing in a 250 patient convalescent setting .

http://www.htproducts.com/phoenixpluswaterheater.html