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Royall is almost right. We also have Takagi jr. We have 4 of them. The cost of 4 bought on internet was same as 3 bought locally at the time and that included shipping. Been running the first since 2006 which was bought to replace a "bargain" unit. My only maintenance is to periodically clean the inflow filter. I installed the first, my plumber the other three when we built the house in 2007. We have 3 at the house due to length of the runs, one for the master suite, one for the other bedrooms with baths, one for kitchen/laundry. If I ever have to replace, Takagi will be my first choice.
David
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quote:
Originally posted by MarkP
If you read on the internet the concern is often raised about using too small a propane tank. The propane is stored as a liquid but must evaporate before it leaves the tank. In doing so it cools the rest of the tank. Heat must be conducted into the remaining liquid from the ambient environment. As the liquid in the tank shrinks to a mere puddle in the bottom the surface area of the blob of liquid decreases until the heat transfer can't keep up. For very high demands even a relatively full 20 lb tank doesn't provide enough surface area or so I have read.
Hmm, I hadn't thought about that. My heater ran off a 5 gallon tank and for the most part it had no problems, but occasionally the heat would abruptly drop off in the middle of a shower. It would come back on quickly, and if I ran out to check it the flame was always still on, but perhaps there was a drop in the amount of gas available. It almost always happened at night.
Also, I would expect that this would be more likely to happen with a full tank than an empty one, where there is more liquid needed to conduct heat and less space to store evaporated gas.
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The more liquid there is the better the heat transfer is so it is when the tank gets low that you run into problems.
What you probably experienced was that the water leaving the heater got hot enough that it shut the burner off (reached its set-point). As soon as the burner goes off the water leaving the heater cools down and the burner lights again. Takes a few seconds and so you get a slug of cold water. This is a fairly common complaint for tank-less water heaters. If the flame is adjustable, set it for low flame with the result that you will be using almost pure hot water in the shower. When you have it set hot you tend to mix cold in and that means less water through heater and that smaller amount gets too hot. Also check that your shower head is not crudded up and passing less flow. Clean it or get a higher flow shower head.
I plan on using the 5-gallon tanks so we'll see.
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We have been running two Rinnai heaters since 2008 with no problems so far. About $900 from Ferguson in Hilo.
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quote:
Originally posted by rbonplaza
We have been running two Rinnai heaters since 2008 with no problems so far. About $900 from Ferguson in Hilo.
Thanks. I talked to our plumber and he said both Takagi and Rinnai are good units, but he preferred Rinnai since they have a local service center. Which model Rinnai do you have? The Rinnai V65IP is just over $700 on Amazon. The Takagi Jr2 is just under $600 at one online vendor. Of course, I need to get a vent kit for either.
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
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I bought the cheapest water heater on Amazon Eccotemp L5... for 100 bucks shipped... Works great for us. Tho, I have had it for over a year. I guess I would be back to taking cold showers for a while if something happened to the unit. I thought about buying another for a backup, but I know people that have used them for over 3 years with no problems so...
I noticed that amazon is now charging 20 bucks more for this unit... I know that there are people @ makua market selling these and if I had a problem I would probably just ask them or call the 1800 number. There doesn't seem much to go wrong with these units. So it's not hard to troubleshoot them.
We are a family of 2 and with occasional guest from time to time so far so good!
I expect a few more years out of this.
The cool part is that we normally leave the setting on the coolest since Hawaiian Beaches water is heated up by solar in the street a few degrees already. That makes our 5 gallon tank last 3-4 months in the winter and up to 6 months in the summer. So, as far as I'm concerned this thing is super on efficiency.
another plus is it's very easy to hook up. I picked up a washer hose from home depot and a garden hose to garden hose adapter ... We leave ours on 24/7 we only turn off the gas when we're not using it. Can place it just about anywhere. Never had a problem with leaks. Later I plan to hard plum in CPVC a line from water out to a real shower valve and better shower head. That's on one of the to-do lists!
