Water Heater Flushing Question

[Dimsumkid]

I don't think there's anything inside that I could replace myself. This is what it looks like (from the web):

Al,
Not sure you have this, but I have something similar for my Trane gas furnance, my unit blinks a red light when the safety is triggered and causes a fault, so I have to count them to find the fault. Your unit looks easier since it's an actual numeric code that's displayed to help with your problem:

http://www.rinnai.us/documentation/downloads/Error_Codes-Tankless_Water_Heaters.pdf

May be handy to have around to help even if you need to have a tech service in the future.

 

[bld999]

Nice save, Al. Those domestic appliances come with a sharp & sour penalty if they refuse to wake up on the operating table... No hot water!

The phone techs have the problem of trying to figure out whether they are talking to their cerebral brother, in which case they are certain you are about to blow yourself up and sue them, esp with gas equipment. Some mfg will actually void warranties if anybody but a trained service person works on them.

You might be able to find a pdf installation/setup manual for that if you don't have one. does it display trouble codes? If so things are a bit easier, but I still make sure I know how to find somebody talented to bail me out if the road gets bad.

Cheers to your effort, Al The Tool Man. Taking care of your own kit is getting harder and harder, but I'm all for it.

 

[ERD50]

So now I'm just curious how this heater has worked out for you T-AL.

From what I've read, the actual savings are pretty small, but larger with your relatively expensive propane. But if someone had to pay a service guy $100 to do this once a year (and many would, you were even considering it), that would wipe out any savings, and put a lot of people in the red. After spending big bucks.

I've also been reading that a lot of people have issues regarding the triggering to get it to turn on. If you run a little warm water, it might not trigger. So they turn it hotter, it turns on, but is now too hot, so they turn it to warm and it goes cold. Have you had any of those issues?

-ERD50

 

[TromboneAl]

It has worked perfectly, except for yesterday's glitch. It has always turned on when desired. It takes longer to get hot water to the tap, but you get used to that.

If you include $100 to flush it annually, you must do the same for a standard water heater, since those should be drained once per year.

I'm confident it has saved us money.