VOYAGER WATER HEATERS

Name withheld upon request · February 2003

Now can you say Munchkin

Mark Hunt · February 2003

HIGH EFFICIENCY WATER HEATERS

I was curious if any one out there has used the voyager water heater made by heat transfer products and what kind of performance did they get out of it? Pro's and con's. What other high effiniency quality gas water heaters are out there /

Bill Clinton_2 · February 2003

Installed more than thirty

They were a disaster. Anything over 90,000 btu is noisy and loses igniters far too often, the vinyl jacket splits in a coupla years, and when problems come up the manufacturer is prone to tell your customer its an installation problem: Read your fault.

The idea is sound, the execution poor.

Bill

eddie grierson_3 · February 2003

Junk

Funny you mention that, I was on a call tonight which was a voyager no heat/water call. Bad ignitor, this one is about 4 years old and had at least 5 ignitors. Also had inducers go up on a couple. L.P. models have a sock over burner assembly that stops up and causes unit to go out pressure switch. We are trying to replace them with boilers every chance we get. We probably installed 10 and all 10 have had some kind of problem. KEEP AWAY!

Mark Hunt · February 2003

wuts yer point?

Mark H

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Mike Kusiak · February 2003

Made by the same company!

Wayco Wayne_2 · February 2003

I have one

installed running a Radiant floor. Have lost 2 ignitors over 6 years, but last year I had a no heat call on it and I took out the ignitor and got a big surprise. Pressurized water came out of the opening (with great vigour) and almost hit me in the eye. The earlier models apparently had a problem with the heat exchanger cracking at the top where the tubes come off the main chamber. The companys claims that they have resolved the issue do not comfort me for some reason. Ive given up on water heater for heating. The Polaris and the Combicore have both had problems too.

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hot_rod · February 2003

I have a couple

4 year old Voyagers with the extra coil for the radiant. After adding the update "sock" the ignitor problems disappered. Much easier than Polaris to work on, and a more versatile digital control that allows differental adjustments. Much needed on the Polaris, in my opinion.

hot rod

B. Tice · February 2003

I don't want to offend anyone, but......

I don't quite understand this situation. Let's look at several names: Paloma Pack, Polaris, Trianco Heatmaker,Glow Core, Voyager. Generally speaking, pretty much all were problems and dissatifing to the homeowner and installing companies. And yet, everyone is crowing about this Munchkin thing. I say 5 years from now, these things will be sitting at the end of driveways like an old refrigerator. Just my opinion. Like i said, I don't want to offend anybody.

Wayco Wayne · February 2003

No offense

taken but, why do you think this? Is it because of who the manufacturer is , or have you seen something that unsettles you? (Or does it remind you too much of a Glocore?)Enquiring minds want to know. WW

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hot_rod · February 2003

I understand completly, B

Having been down most of those roads

Every single producture on this earth will fracture, corrode, or erode after time.

Does that mean we stop trying to prefect the combination? Then again at some point the manufactures build in a life cycle. Look around at the cars and trucks these days. Certainly not many 20 year or maybe even 10 year cars being built.

Same in the construction industry, except marble and concrete govt. buildings

Hard to find a perfect balance between progress, especially in the name of energy conservation, and tried and true products.

hot rod

Mark Hunt · February 2003

Really?

Let's see...............I have installed a whole bunch of the Munchkins with NO problems.

Mark H

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Unknown · February 2003

I've seen problems with the Polaris in the past, and they do burn through igniters (luckily that's an easily servicable part), however they do seem to have addressed most of their issues. They have a self regulating gas valve now, and finicky gas valve settings were the cause of most of the problems I came across with Polaris units. I've only seen one premature failure (covered under warranty yay!) out of dozens and dozens of these units installed.

That said, I feel most comfortable spec'ing a Polaris if I know there is someone in the area who is familiar with them. However even if not, their tech support has been quite responsive in the past, and with their new ignitors and valves I think we'll see a lot fewer problems in the future.

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes · February 2003

I'm willing

to try almost anything, but my customers aren't. That's why I was so wary of the Munchkins when they first came out; too many frustrated Voyager installers.

After a while, you start using components that refuse to fail, i.e. Danfoss, Viessmann, MZ, (yes, the Europeans have been doing it longer than we have and they seem to have fine tuned performance in their products) Burnham, Peerless, etc.

The "no-heat" calls always come when you're knee deep in work and you can't tell them to wait until tomorrow. I like to spend time with new and current jobs, not on call backs.

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EricR_2 · February 2003

I haven't had

any problems with either the munchkin and or voyager except a ignitor on a 2 year old install. HTP acknowledges the voyager problem and I believe their products are as reliable as most other sophisticated high effiecency units. But time will tell.
Eric

Darin Cook_2 · February 2003

Interesting Comments

If the voyager or polaris do not sit well with most, what is a reliable high efficiency gas water heater? I would like to see .63 ef or higher. This heater would be doing space heating (small radiant zone) and domestic hot water production.

James_2 · February 2003

I recognize that manufacturers and thier

suppliers have problems. Yes, some manufacturers do not provide support as they should. However, once again I was out to bail out a contractor again this afternoon. Seems they never listen to my suggestions and often install systems with no regard to the installation environment, application or manufacturers recommendations. I have used the Voyager successfully. I just find to many contractors are smarter than the rest of the real world and screw up more than they like to admit. I do make mistakes and realize everyday is a new day to learn. Most of the manufacturers have good people working hard to put the best products out in the market.

The Europeans may be good at hydronics, however I will stick with my American manufacturers as much as possible.
The Europeans have not impressed me much lately...

eddie grierson_3 · February 2003

Forgot to mention

We used the voyoger to replace all the Lennox CompleteHeat that they recalled in LP applications. So first we tell the customer that the unit we installed is a piece of junk and we replace it with another unit that gives them even more problems. I will say that the jobs we have installed and have problems with are on LP gas and well water.(HARD) Have not had as many problems on natural gas.

VOYAGER WATER HEATERS

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