Ranein Propane Gas Tankless Water Heater, Indoor Max 4.3 GPM, 100,000 BTU Instant Hot Water Heater

My twenty year old 40 gallon (traditional) hot water heater finally sprung a massive leak, leading me to research LPG heaters that were available. My recollection is that the heater cost around $300 in 2005. The local big box hardware chains had heaters that began around 800 and seemed to accelerate from there. Since I live by myself, this seemed to be overkill, when I had the bright idea to look at tankless heaters. The chains had some that were even more expensive. Then, I checked Amazon. I found this 3.8 gpm / 80000 BTU heater on a black Friday price of $239, with a minor delay in delivery. For the price difference, I thought I would give it a try. I also ordered a HYDRO MASTER Tankless Water Heater Service Valve Kit (62.46) to provide fittings for the water connections. I waited a couple more days for my friend (Thank you, Andrew) to assist me in mounting and plumbing the unit in. His expertise, while not absolutely necessary, allowed me a two hour installation, with no leaks. He helped me determine additional parts necessary (PEX fittings, PEX hose, exhaust pipe and couplings available locally (around $120). (One caveat: when attaching the water valves to the unit, use teflon tape and teflon paste to seal. Do not apply too much torque when installing, it can be difficult to counter hold the connection.) All plumbed up, turned on the cold and hot water valves, plugged in the electric, turned on the LPG, no leaks. turned on the hot water spigot and the unit fired right up, I could not have asked for a better outcome. I noted on the outside of the cover, the date of purchase and the 1 year warranty. We'll see how long it lasts.

The water heater works very well. It is small enough it does not take up very much space in our tiny home. We have hot hot water most of the year but once the coldest days of winter get here you have to slow the water down coming in so it can heat it sufficiently. The heater is very durable offers excellent water heating quality. We only have to slow down the incoming water for showers, sinks work fine full flow and I haven’t checked the washer but we have had it a year with no issues and we do have 11 people in our house.

2nd edit!—— it’s been almost a year and want to say through the winter I was almost certain it was going to be broken with the water frozen even inside the house, we had issues with the gas company (propane) blot being able to come fill so we went without heat off and on all winter, we ended up just filling a 100lb cylinder every 2 days 😳 it was expensive. But during the times we didn’t have heat and inside froze my fridge broke, (water and ice don’t work) all shut offs busted when we got heat and water thawed. But the shut offs to this didn’t! And it didn’t break! We’re still going strong and still working properly 🙌🏻 Editing to update, it’s now been about 3 months and I love this so much! Bills went down about 100$ and it’s just perfect! I got this about 3/4 weeks ago it’s been installed 3 weeks or so. My dad installed and I was helping. It was easy to install and hook up. The packaging comes with everything basically, you need to hook up. I’m pretty sure we had to buy the shut offs. But either way it’s cheap and works great. I have 5 kids almost 6-11 years old plus 3 adults. So far no problems with it heating and keeping temperatures. It’s quiet and definitely space saving!!! So now I can use the bathroom closet instead of having a big tank taking up all the space. This is the propane not natural gas. Sorry for the long video review but wanted to let people to know some details cause I was hesitant my own self after reading some of the reviews. Questions for will it work or not work cause I was told by Lowe’s a few years ago I need a 9-11gpm for the people I have in household. It’s actually by faucets and the rating they have and how many you have and want running at the same time. So I bought all my fancy faucets (waterfall, rain shower head) etc from Amazon as well and they do take a good bit of water output so I just checked the output and f it, let’s give this a try. My main concerns was the reviews like “I got propane but it won’t work it’s only for natural gas” or “it leaks upon installation or after a few days” I’ve had it for almost 3 weeks and it’s been good to us no leaks nothing. I’d definitely recommend this tankless heater

Since the return portal doesn't work, here is my problem. Worked well for a week. Today, water started to pour out of bottom of unit, burner does not ignite. Trying to return but can't get further than adding comments, almost like they don't want you to return the defective product... Update: Opened the cover to see if was just an o-ring or bad connection. Nope. Copper had split open and ruptured. Several other bends in the copper show cracks along the outside. Unit is installed in climate controlled utility room.

Heater works very well, until the outside temperature drops below freezing. This heater is installed in the basement (average temperature 17 C ). Last night outside temp was minus 14C and the heater froze. Water would not go through the heater. Yes I checked the in going water pressure and was fine but water would not go through the heater. I used a hot air gun to heat the water heater core and after a few minutes the water began to flow through and the heater came on. This water heater is not made for cold climates. The cold comes in through the 3" flue vent and even though the heater is in a heated basement the water within the heater core will freeze. This is utterly unacceptable. I will need to instal a temperature controlled heater to blow warm air through the heater cabinet to keep the cold air, dropping down into cabinet, at bay. Any one have better solution? UPDATE So.. I installed a 300 watt ceramic heater and the heater still froze. Thank goodness it did not damage the heater. The manufacturer suggests I drain the heater each time we get cold weather. That means I can not use the heater for most of our winter. One could install a motorized damper but one would also need to insulate the flue. This along with the 300 watt heater may well prevent water heater from freezing. If you have a forced air furnace one can run the water heater flue into the main chimney (be certain that this is allowed in your area) I have done this and no more freezing. The heater seller makes no mention of this very important problem. I have contacted the seller they did quickly respond but offered no viable solution. Their letter, to me, stated I would get a refund and did not need to return the water heater. So far I have not received a refund.

j'ai installé le chauffe eau la semaine passée au chalet et il fonctionne très bien. La pompe à eau fournie 4.5 gal./min. avec une pression de 45 psi. minimum 25 psi. Le chauffe eau est très stable et suffisent...un 80,000 BTU aurait été suffisent. Il ne consomme très peu d'énergie..environ 30 watts en opération avec la fan et rien au repos. Je vais économiser beaucoup de propane et de batterie solaire......très satisfait pour l'instant....espérons qu'il va opérer des années...!

Excellent water heater. We had a Camplux and was always dealing with fluctuating temperatures. The Ranein has been great!

very very happy with this unit as the build quality exceeds it's price and the customer service is the best I've ever dealt with .

UPDATE: The manufacterer reached out and gave me a full refund. Great customer service! Original review below. Works great in good weather. The exhaust pipe leading straight from the heater to outside causes freezing though. Inside temps was at least 20C at all times, once we hit around -15C or so though the cold air coming in through the exhaust vent froze the pipes inside the unit. It froze on us twice and we defrosted it without issue. It hit -30C last night with wind chill and it froze up, after defrosting it had a massive leak spraying water all over. We had a space heater blowing on the unit all night, only other solution I can think of is to have the cover off with heat on it every night it is cold which requires the unit be shut down, not ideal.