Rinnai RL75IN Tankless Hot Water Heater, 7.5 GPM, Natural Gas, Indoor Installation

Update as of 11/1/21.....OK... hot water stops(off and on) midstream without an obvious reason, so called for the repair guy.....1st time to do anything in almost 10 years. Update as of 7/5/17.....Still great, and have had zero issues. Update as of 11/12/14.....We have had our Rinnai installed now for about 44 months and it works extremely well. There can be a delay in hot water, or a cold water sandwich; if you change temperature quickly or turn off and then on after having it on for 15 seconds or more. It probably takes 30 seconds for ours to really heat up, and maybe 40-45 seconds to get really hot water in the dead of winter...this is slower than a tank heater and the only detriment I can note or am aware of at this point. Puts out plenty of HOT water for us as we can have 2 showers and laundry going in the dead of winter...it is no problem. We adjusted our tank to put out 140 degree water and we love it...again, especially in the winter. My wife used to fill our tub, and the old water heater would actually run out of hot water(it is a large tub).....this is never a problem again! I think beyond 3 uses at one time(shower, laundry, dishwash, etc) running you would have a capacity problem...or extrememly cold basement. There are two of us here most of the time with the occasional guests....2 1/2 bath, and Rinnai is in the basement and very close to our main shower/bathroom, so this helps the time as our upstairs shower can take a minute to get hot water when its cold. Also, getting water temp correct with a single turn knob may be an issue....the water temp only goes so low before it will cut off....but we found the minimum spot which is hot, but we turned up our Rinnai so we could get hotter water and ideally, more use or capacity at the same time. By the way it is not uncommon for our basement to be 50 or so degrees in the winter and this easily overcomes that. I cant say how much cash it has saved us really, but our propane bill has definitely not gone up...and I estimate our electric bill had actually dropped 10 bucks/mo., and that was with our electric going up 9% last year, and another 5% this year. We replaced the original house water heater that had gone bad after 6 years do to salt water getting through our reverse osmosis/charcoal filter/saline filtration system(we have very salty well water on the coast)and it backed into the original water heater due to a valve being left open....and then it literally ate our water heater from the inside out with just one soaking of brackish water(took about 6 months to destroy it, of course we didn't know it was happening until the rust color started to show up) but once the water started turning rusty it was obviously too late(and this was only a 6 yr old water heater. Also, since we have a whole house well reverse osmosis and double charcoal filters purified water running, we shouldnt have to flush our Rinnai like you are supposed to do with these every year(our water has about 60ppm tds), but you are supposed to flush/clean every year to remove buildup and sediments(we pay enough up front to not have this issue unless our filter goes bad or salt water gets through usually by human mistake). We paid less for this than our local plumber could buy them wholesale through his supplier(by about 150 bucks total). He said there is an even more efficient tankless Rinnai available if your interested? This got here in 2 days and just make sure to order the venting pipes and gas taps if you need them! We had our whole system installed for 1350 total.....so it cost us about 500 bucks more than a good replacement standard tank water heater....I am sure we have gotten this back or will be very close by the end of this year. I believe we have saved 15 bucks per month on average? Make sure your gas pipes have enough flow.....Ive heard this can be an issue also? We really love ours. If anything happened we would probably just upgrade to the more efficient unit. Our unit is about 3 years installed now, maybe longer and I see others have issues, but we really have to recommend at this point. I will edit should anything come up as I think this needs to last at least 12 years for the return to really pay off. Propane and electricity is getting more expensive and this helps through efficiency to combat costs. Installed 03/2012

I almost never write reviews, but felt compelled to write one for this purchase. I bought this product over a year ago, and wish I would've done it sooner! I went through two hot water tanks in 15 years and wasted so much money due to inefficiency. This heater is extremely reliable and have yet to have any problems with it. We can easily run two showers at once and have laundry and dishwasher running all at the same time. This heater can pump out a tremendous amount of hot water. The average shower requires 2.5 gallons a minute. If you do the math, 9.4 gallons is alot. It can take up to 20 or 30 secs in a large house to get hot water but that's no different than a hot water tank. I installed the unit myself no problem. Venting the unit through the concrete foundation was the most challenging part of the install. It does require some plumbing skills but all in all wasn't bad. I think placement of the unit is really important and should be as close as possible to your venting location. Ofcourse you also need to have your cold water feed, proper gas line, and a nearby outlet to power it. I mounted it on plywood which I tapconed to the concrete wall. For the water feed I recommend extending your water line with Pex, mainly because its easy to work with and its cheap. I know this unit is saving me alot of money in natural gas. My old tank was a zone off my hot water boiler which meant my boiler was running year around, even in the summer when it was warm out, just to keep hot water tank heated. Now my boiler only runs half the year and the on demand heater kicks only when hot water is needed and doesn't waste gas when you're not using it. Fantastic product! I removed the front cover to take a look under the hood, it looks well built with quality parts. This prompted me to put one in my 5th wheel camper. I can't say anything about customer service because I haven't had any reason to call them. I don't think there's much more to say except I highly recommend this product and is worth every penny!

I purchased this RL94iP unit to replace my R94LSi unit as a direct swap. My original unit started leaking after flushing it and instead of waiting a day or more for a plumber to come out and tell my my heat exchanger was leaking, I purchased this newer model on Amazon and had it delivered to my house in 2 days!! This is 2 days faster than any of the home box stores could have had it too my door. I would have been looking at about a week without hot water if I would have waited on a plumber to do everything. I also found that Rinnai keeps these prices locked because every place I could buy it direct was exactly the same price, to the penny! I installed it the same day I received it. I mounted it using the same mount points as the original unit and reconnected all the original connections, flushed it with clean water, and plugged it in. It fired right up and and I had hot water again! I was disappointed that I could only turn this unit up to 120°. We kept our original unit at 130° and could have turned it up to 140°. We liked this because our Master Bath is so far from the water heater and the water temp at the shower isn't as hot. At 120° I can run my shower without any cold water on the far end of the house. I'm going to do a little research and see if this max temp can be increased. The original unit was not maintained correctly before I purchased the home in 2016. I could see where some soldering repairs had been made on it and was told by a plumber a couple years ago that this unit would soon need to be replaced. We live on an unfiltered well with not too hard water (18PPM) but regular flushing is still required. My original unit also did not have the plumbing flush kit. I was told the original units did not come with this as a standard. I'll be hiring a plumber later to install this kit and make flushing it a lot easier. We love our endless hot water and the dependability of our Rinnai hot water heater. Now I just need to get the original unit repaired to install it in my shop.

Research the market before you buy. I rated this product 4 star only because I know that it can be better and more efficient than what it is today. With this initial assessment let me say that for its type it is the best tankless water heater I found in the USA, at least at the time I bought it. In the effort of helping others to understand if they can use a tankless water heater here are the points I researched and had to understand before buying this type water heater. 1. Number of people and bathrooms as well as laundry room and kitchen or any other warm water faucet(s) in the house to be serviced at the same time. 2. The minimum flow expected if you believe that you will have less flow than the minimum established for the tankless. Keep in mind that if you have water saver devices these can reduce dramatically the water flow. For example we have air mixing shower heads that reduce the water flow by at least 30%. According to the manual this model requires at least 0.4 Gallons of water per minute (GPM) to activate and 0.26 GPM of constant flow to keep it operating. 3. The optimal pressure for maximum efficiency is key for this type of water heater. Rinnai recommends 30 to 80 for maximum efficiency. Some tips before you buy and install the tankless water heater. * Before you buy this unit have a professional plumber to check the pressure and flow (have at least two of the faucets to be used at the same time open half way for the flow test)of your house, it will be a worth while investment since you will find out if you can install this type of heater as is or maybe do adjustments to your water installation, this may add to your cost. * If you are replacing a traditional water heater (with tank), make sure that the cost of adapting the tankless does not add too much to the total you will spend * Compare prices of your local Rinnai Dealers against buying yourself the water heater from Amazon and all the needed parts and have some one else install it for you. By doing it this way I saved 50% compared to the most competitive Rinnai dealer quote. I was lucky to get a licensed plumber to do it for a fairly low price. Some negative commentaries and what I would respond to them: * It is very noisy: If properly installed it is actually less noisy than a traditional water heater. Plus it only makes noise when is in use. * I got to open a faucet to be able to get hot water: If this happens it means you may need to check the flow of the water at your house. * It takes a long time for the hot water to come out: How far is the heater from the faucet or shower head? What is the temperature setting? There are many factors that may contribute to this. My Experience living in southern Arizona and using this Rinnai water heater: * In winter is excellent, no draw back at all and I like to be able to set the temperature exactly where I want it I then put the hot water to the max setting and don't worry if I get too much cold water in the mix. * In summer there is a small problem that is unavoidable, if you set the temperature to 98 F and the "cold" water coming in to the water heater is at 100 or 110 the water heater will not start since the water at the inlet is warmer than the setting. This has other consequences that can cause variability on the temperature of the water for several minutes. Things get normalized after all the warm water is out of the cold water line. * Hard Water: where I live we have very hard water, I got a water conditioner before the input of the water to the heater, I have not seen any need to clean or give any maintenance to the heater yet. Some Improvements that could make this water heater get 5 stars: * Need to be able to activate it at lower flow * Need to be able to use lower flow so water saving devices can be used without penalizing the heating capabilities of the heater * Improve the remote control so it is easier to install * Auto cleaning capabilities would be a plus September 17, 2020 6+ years after buying. I promised that I would keep updates for this Rinnai Tankless water heater, and in reality, there is not much to add. Giving this water heater regular maintenance (around every six months or less) has kept it running like new after 6+ years of continuous use. If you are looking to buy a tankless water heater, I definitely recommend the Rinnai brand.

This water heater is great. It took me a a full weekend to install all by myself, but I have almost no previous plumbing experience, and few tools. I was replacing an existing tank-based heater, so you can imagine that I had to do quite a bit of plumbing. This heater comes with the valve assembly, so there's no need to purchase that seperately, even though amazon suggested that the two are often purchased together. (I'm sure they are, since many people don't know it comes with the assembly!) It wasn't a big deal, as I was able to ship the valve assembly back easily enough. I'd just like to prevent other people from having that trouble. At the current Amazon price, combined with a rebate I got from my utility company, I paid less to install this system than one of my co-workers paid to have a tank-based heater replaced by a local plumber. This thing is quiet, works great, and was worth every penny! I was originally concerned that 7.5 gallons per minute might not be enough, but in our house with two bathrooms, a high-efficency dishwasher, and an older front-load washing machine, it seems to be plenty. I keep wanting to try running both showers simultanously, but I haven't done that yet. I think it would work fine. The only downside for this is that it does take about 20-30 seconds longer to get full hot water than our old tank heater did, but in the past three months we've gotten used to that. I had intended to put a small electric tank heater in as well to compensate for this, but the plumbing and placement just didn't seem to want to work out right for that, so the little tank is sitting unused. That 20-30 second delay does translate into a waste of about 5-10 gallons of water per day, which troubles me. I may still decide to install that little tank later on. I've also read about pump systems that let you cycle the water through the pipes for 20 seconds or so prior to using the hot water, which intrugues me, but those systems cost around $400, which seems like a lot of money for what they gain you. In the end, I'm very happy with my purchase.

Nice water heater and at a good price. Replaces my old tank style water heater with this one. I have been using it for several months now and it is working great! Installation was fairly easy, only took a few hours. Nice not having to remember to turn the water heater down while I'm out of town, or keeping 40 gallons of water hot when I don't need it. Also nice to have extra storage space in the cabinet now that the big tank is gone.

I see lots of great reviews for this brand but, mine had error 12 gas flow issues from the start. It would run for a while then shut down. Our plumber replaced the propane regulator, then when powered on did not light immediately, 10 seconds later it blew up. I've talked to rinnai so many times, it's like they're idiots reading from a script, hard to believe they're in the US. 4 months I've had this thing. I've emailed the company who sold it to me on Amazon, they replied saying they dont do parts or service. Our plumber suggested we replace it. It looks to need a new wiring harness, rinnai says they have one but isn't allowed to sell it to me due to liability issues. They gave me a list of 10 e-tailers to contact, none of which had the harness. I found a plumbing supply in a nearby town that would sell me the harness, but they spent 2 hours on the phone with rinnai and could not get the part, he said "I just dont know what to say," he said I would have to call them myself, when I did was told they were not suppose to work with me on this. I think this is all about liability to them. This is a disposable WH. I'm going to take it down and see if I can replace the wires myself, but they're all melted together. I've spent more time on this than it's worth. Rinnai does not stand behind their products.

We bought this Rinnai to replace an existing model that was 15 years old and kept having an alarm code for not getting enough air and therefore no hot water after about 5 minutes of use. It made showering very frustrating. We had a technician come and take the machine apart and clean it. They really didn't find anything and said it will probably need replacement. We also had a local agency come to give us an estimate to replace the Rinnai. The estimate was almost $10,000 with them wanting to rip out a section of wall in a bedroom so they could replace the intake/exhaust pipe. I started researching and after reading several reviews on Amazon realized this model was an almost identical replacement. My husband and father in law replaced this in one very long day. When taking down the old Rinnai and looking inside the intake/exhaust you could see where the air flow was being blocked by debris caused from condensation of the exhaust over time. The exhaust pipe is a good 25-30 feet long going out the roof of our house. Could the old Rinnai have been cleaned?? Maybe but at this point replacing it was the best option. The replacement took the a little less than 12 hours from beginning to end. Where the Rinnai was originally installed made it difficult to work on and they had to remove some concrete on a sonotube to hook up the cold water fitting but that was right at the end of the process. They also used a chimney sweep to clean the inside of the Rinnai intake/exhaust and there was tons of debris that came out. Not sure how we will keep this from happening again and taking the unit down to clean the intake out would be a huge ordeal. For now the new one is working great and we will worry about the rest later. Being an almost exact fit there was only a small amount of soldering that needed to be done. After cleaning the pipe, getting it installed on the wall (which was a huge pain drilling new holes into the concrete), hooking up the water pipes, turning the gas back on and checking lines for leaks, and adjusting the altitude switches inside the Rinnai, we were up and running with unlimited hot water again. It was a really long, frustrating day but it was worth it to save thousands of dollars.