Gas water heater

[DavidGrieves]

Hi

I'm considering installing a Rinnai Water Heater (Reu58). Has anybody got any experiance with this heater? I need to know what the flue arangements are? Do the flue gasses vent to the outside or into the cabin? Where can I find info on the legislation covering this type of heater?

Thanks

David

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[tillergirl]

I'd be interested in your experience - which is not very helpful in respect of your questions. I have an old Chauffeteux and Maury gas water heater which works on the same principle as the Rinnai except mine doesn't have a flue and so we can only use it with hatches open and an obvious draught - so we don't tend to use it although it is very efficient at heating water. From what I've seen of the Rinnai there is a flue extension that can be bought as an extra but I don't think it's a balanced flue - ie sealed so that no exhaust gases can enter the cabin but then given the size of a boat any balanced flue would not be too far from a point of ventilation so one could never be too sure about gases overspilling.

The main concern is leaving the pilot light on which we don't do so it's a light up every time which kind of defeats the point.

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[poter]

I have a Rinnai Gas heater fitted in a Moody 30, & it works very well.
Its linked in with the pumped water system & also has a fail safe gas ignition, the flue vents into the cabin then directly out via a flue outlet thru the coach roof,
you can just see it <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.fairhead.com/peter/pics2004/page_01.htm> here </A> (the top left hand pic) Above the heat deflector the inside of the coach roof is lined with a sheet of heat reflecting material. The vent outlet can be seen on the 'Mast Foot' pic.

Good efficient bit of kit and heats the water for an onboard shower brill.

Does what it says on the can!

poter.

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[poter]

tillergirl,

See my post re the Rinnai.

Ref the pilot we turn it off as well, not really a problem as they are instantaneous heaters not storage. The biggest problem is the length of the dead leg as this is a big waste of water, waiting for the hot water to come thru. We do have quite a lot of water storage, but I can see this being a problem on a small yacht.

poter

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[Joe]

These water heaters like the Paloma don't have very good flue systems .
They are generally regarded as unsafe with the standard flue kits as they seem not to have been designed propely and can spill some of the carbon monoxide into the cabin space..
They are still banned as new fitments on the inland waterways as far as i know and dont come up to boat safety standards.
You dont want any sort of gas device to be gassing into the cabin space and then expecting a roof vent to deal with its extraction.
I must say that they do work well enough with a consieration to cost but a change of the flue arrangement would be a good idea.
Dont fit them in heads compartment.
Better still fit a Aldi boiler if you have the space.
Joe

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[Talbot]

I have a rinnai, which I fitted this year to replace a paloma. I have no problems with the flue and very little problem with the length of water that needs to be pumped over a distance, thats cause I changed from a large diameter plastic pipe down to a 10mm copper pipe for the majority of the distance - result a massive saving in water wasted, with very little reduction in pressure and the water is actually hotter when it arrives, cause it passes through the pipe much faster.

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[dralex]

Was it easy to fit? How much did it cost and have you got it linked to come on with water flow? I'm interested as we'd love hot water on our boat but are reluctant to go down the freshwater heating and calorifier route.

Cheers

Alex

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[Talbot]

I was able to use the old chimney and gas line from my previous paloma, so fitting was a doddle. Things are much easier on a cat cause you dont have to worry about this heeling business. - and that could cause a problem for your use whilst sailing. (when heeled the flue diverter will not work properly, and you are unlikely to be able to have the vent open properly) If you are happy to use it when in harbour/anchor only, then things are a lot easier. I have a standard waterpump which pressurises the cold water in one hull (from one of my water tanks) this pressurised water is then also fed to the water heater. From the water heater, a Y split provides hot water to both hulls (the long lead to the other hull is via 10mm copper pipe to reduce the amount of water in the pipe) I had planned to provide another Y split to feed to a shower. The intention was for the water for the shower to be sourced purely from the hot water feed, then temperature adjusted directly on the heater which would be adjacent. This will prevent any scalding due to someone else turning on another tap elsewhere.

Fitting is easy, getting hold of the correct size roof vent may be more difficult, cause I havent seen one for some time.

If you need more data or want to see it pm me (portsmouth based)

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[dralex]

That's really uesful- thanks. COUld be a winter project because I also need a new water pump.

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[tillergirl]

Seen, thank you. My existing heater works in the same way but being pretty old, relighting the pilot light is not a one go thing. Thanks for the info.

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