My Rinnai tankless was installed in 2012, and after watching your video I performed the procedure you showed, almost to a tee (but indoors). Worked flawlessly - you saved me $150.00! Thanks so much!

@buddiec41

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah I'm guilty I have never done mine even though I know I should out of site out of mind

@normfisher8344

Жыл бұрын

This video will help us too. My local plumber wants to charge $700, every two years. Maybe he's saving for a Porche with those prices?

It’s helpful to know “the why” it’s so important to descale your tankless water heater. Basically, the thin copper boiler tubes are directly immersed in 199,000 BTUs of flame in order to facilitate the flash boiling, this action causes the minerals in the water to separate, collect, and build-up onto the inside surfaces it the tubes, it actually looks just like cholesterol build up in ones arteries! The bad thing that happens is that as the “cholesterol” builds up so thick it forms an insulating layer between the boiler tubing and the water that is circulating through them. Then what happens is that the intense heat generated by the flames literally melts the copper tubing because the circulating water now can no longer transfer the heat to the water fast enough because of the insulating boundary produced from the buildup of minerals inside. The end result is a destroyed heat exchanger and you may as well buy yourself a brand new heater because you didn’t perform simple maintenance! :( ... I hope this helps...

@BillWalters77

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the additional info

@donjohnson9893

3 жыл бұрын

Steve Ewing or you could buy stainless steel instead of thin copper .,

@davidmorrow4195

3 жыл бұрын

@@donjohnson9893 Stainless steel will still build up the scale (cholesterol) inside the heat exchanger, making your system less efficient and eventually slowing down flow. You still have to do descale to have it work properly.

@matekochkoch

3 жыл бұрын

@@donjohnson9893 There are several advantages of copper. It is an extremely good thermal conductor and it is soft, which reduces stress from heat expansion, and also from the deposits, which have a different thermal expansion.

@danieldawson222

3 жыл бұрын

Always, Always install a filter before Any brand of tankless.

Seeing this kit on the outside of your house I can see why that winter storm in Texas caused so much chaos!

Thank you for the thorough how-to video. Your videos are always great! I wish I would've seen them before I started a still-unfinished gutted remodel 10 years ago with absolutely zero construction experience.

Thanks so much for this Matt. I have a Rinnai in a cabin my wife and I just bought. Given the hardness of the well water, I knew it would need this procedure. Worked perfectly - and I was so happy to have done it that I went home and performed on my 6 year old Takagi at home. Same great results! Thank you!

This was an exact replacement for the old one that lasted about 10 years. kzread.infoUgkx7yWIKcrbA9KMHkGSfcgxW2lsjHT6B8Sh The top of my mitigation tube by my roofline was just a 90 elbow which allowed too much debris to fall down into the fan, eventually ruining it. Without this issue, I bet it would have kept running another 10 years. When I replaced this fan, I added an extra elbow joint so the top tube now it does a 180, which should solve that problem. The radon guys around here wanted to charge me a $300 diagnostic fee, then parts/labor (probably close to $600 total). I installed this all by myself in about an hour for the cost of the fan; it would probably be even easier/faster with two people. FYI the manufacturer's warranty greatly differs depending on whether you install it yourself (1 yr warranty) or have a licensed installer do it (10 yrs).

Thanks for you take on maintenance and other videos about the real world pluses and minuses on the tankless heaters. With smart phones, I figure you just put in an annual reminder (I do that with pretty much all my house/car maintenance routines) to flush/clean the unit and just work off that. Like you said, you can't do it too often and it's an easy to knock out rainy day task. I appreciate your candor and sharing knowledge.

Thanks Matt. I experienced my first cold shower this week. I'd had no problems since my Rinnai was installed several years ago. I then noticed I was getting hot water intermittently. I quickly went to KZread to diagnose the problem and found your video. Performed the maintenance this morning and my heater is working great.

@tbone0785

Жыл бұрын

How long did you wait before you flushed it? And how long did you end up letting the pump flush it?

good information & explained very well, thank you. I'm a retired plumber and still learning! 👍👍

Just completed flushing out my Takagi Tankless water heater and it was very easy to complete after watching your video. THANK YOU as it was really needed, and your detailed instructional video was very easy to follow. Keep all the good Videos coming!!!!

Overall good, glad you covered it. I'd say, as others have, the 1/6 horse at HF is cheap and works. Also you don't want to hook up a big pump and blow out anything. 1/6th horse is enough. My unit has 2 screens, owners should check for all filters/screens that can be cleaned/checked on. Finally, this is a good time to also check that the burner air intake and vent are clear, especially for indoor mounted units. Make sure that the air vents don't have leaves, or other debris blocking the air flow. Stay safe.

Thank you for posting this Matt.. This is great information. We've had our Rinnai unit now for 4 years, and we absolutely love it. Since its inception we've been flushing with White Vinegar. The unit we have, Rinnai actually denotes not to use chemicals to flush out the system, but I know several owners are using chemicals with success..... One thing we had to adjust after our Rinnai system was installed ~~ Our dishwasher immediately started acting up. It would run 2X it's normal time, and it was not sanitizing items.... After talking with Whirlpool (maker of our dishwasher) we ended up adjusting the Rinnai's temperature from 120 degrees to 135 degrees... After that was changed,, everything went back to normal............. Thanks again for sharing this with the world.................

Thanks! I had one of these put in our new construction so I'm glad I know how to maintain it now.

Thanks, going to make sure we got this for our new install coming up! Amazon has a set of the valves needed for $59 if needed!

Nice Video. I clean mine once a year. Here in Indiana, our water is typically very hard with lime. Most plumbers here will not install a tankless unless there is a water softener to soften the water before it goes through the tankless.

Thank you for this video! You saved me $195 to have someone do it. I have AO Smith Tankless Water heater. Very easy to follow!🙂👍👍

I’ve flushed my tankless water heater before but didn’t know about the screen cleaning. I wished I would have watched this first as I took a lot longer to do it because I was figuring out how to do it as I went. Great information. Thanks.

Here is Tucson, AZ, with extremely hard city water, I flush once a year (with a person household). My Rinnai manual does recommend using 4 gallons of vinegar in the bucket. I guess it keeps its strength up during the flush with more vinegar volume.

I am an HVAC contractor wholly ignorant to tankless PM. I recently noticed our water softener had failed and was very concerned about months of use without protection. Replaced the water softener. Reviewing some of your videos and this one gave me assurance to PM the unit. I already have an acid pump (I use it now to drain the hot tub, Hah!) and have plugged in on my calendar to descale my unit annually. Thank you for keeping it simple!

Those size of pumps are more like $50 at Lowes/Home Depot/Harbor Freight. It's useful to keep old washing machine hoses for this purpose, you are supposed to replace them every 5 years whether they are leaking or not. Then they can be used for stuff like this...I have like 5 sets. They also sell "cleaning vinegar" at most grocery stores that is a bit stronger than the cooking type. You have to look for it in the cleaning isle.

@danielbjohnson

3 жыл бұрын

The vinager I find is 5% acid, and the one he seems to be using is 9%, wonder what cleaning threshold is.

@cpad007

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, was about to post that. I have a blue 1/8 HP submersible pump from HF and I think it was $30-40. I used it to pump water off my pool cover before I got a different cover that allowed water through.

@Eric998765

3 жыл бұрын

Never seen that at a grocery store but I know Lowe's sell I think 20% acid vinegar. It's more expensive but not too bad

@RickMason-yj7pv

3 жыл бұрын

@@Eric998765 10%

Thanks so much for this video Matt! Flawless instructions and your advice to flush everything at the end was great advice.

Great video! I had a Renai installed when I remodelled couple of years ago. I live alone but I’m in Florida and the water here is extremely harsh. I am over due for a flush. I love the unit. Mine is a gas unit.

Excellent step by step instructions. Got to check if my Navien Tankless is a stainless system. And note about Vinegar: don’t dump it in your grass unless you’re looking to kill it like my wife did ours.

Awesome, I got one in the spring, so Ill be prepped for then

Howdy from Central Texas! I knew this would be a trustworthy video when I saw the HEB-Brand Vinegar. Thank you so much for saving me a call to the plumber! The instructions are straightforward to follow and work like a charm!

Did my Rinnai, very simple and a good video. Of note - Rinnai manual says to use 4 gallons of undiluted food grade vinegar for 1 hour not the 1 gallon for 45 minutes that Matt said. 4 gallons is much more likely to clean everything out and adds just a few dollars to the total process.

Straight forward and very helpful tutorial. Thank you

Did this today. 1st time. House is only 1.5 years old. Went off without a hitch, followed the video start to finish. I was surprised how much junk was in the screen. Sand and calcium mostly but also some other stuff. Pressure is much better now. Gonna clean it more often. Thanks Matt!!!

you have a great variety of content on your channel and vids like this are a super addition to all the rest

Glad I saw this. Was debating on getting one. Mine would be tucked in my basement with no drain in the floor anywhere. Would need to get a little creative with the maintenance.

you make excellent informative videos Matt, thank you

Excellent video, Matt! Thanks for sharing the knowledge!

Learn a lot from this video. Thank you so much and keep up the great work,easy to understand.

Putting a descaling filter on the cold side helps alot.

The pump in bucket system is fantastic, in the UK they sell a machine called a power flush which retailers for around 2200$. Also manufacturers of combination boilers have decided to block off access to the underside units to be able to simply connect this sort of device so a simple modification would be necessary.

Thanks for the info Matt! 😃👍🏻👊🏻

Thank you Matt great video. Now I need to find another one that shows me how to service the inside of the unit itself. If I can find one of those one RL75 unit as detailed and useful as your video I’ll be good to go. Again thx for the video, great job and very simple.

Something to keep in mind is copper transfers heat 25 times better than stainless steel. So you will use more electricity/gas to heat a unit with stainless steel. Also stainless steel is known to become brittle after many cycles of being heated and cooling compared to copper. I did metal fabrication for many years.

@curtsnellgrove3538

Жыл бұрын

Something else to keep in mind is the engineers designing the product are also aware of this; so the design is compensated by increasing the surface area, reducing the thickness of the tubing, etc. Stainless steel is 24 times less thermally conductive than copper, stainless steel heat exchangers are not.

No hot water…watched vid…did process. Hot water. You earned your like, Matt.

Great video. I've had a Navien tankless for a little over two years now and had a water softener system put in at the same time. Love the benefits of having soft water and I did a flush on my heater last December just to be proactive.

@ltsgarage7780

3 жыл бұрын

Josh Aguirre you also have the stainless steel burn coils. When Navien come out they did not advise flushing them at all. After a few years went by. Then they started advising every 2 years. The scale really does not stick to stainless steel. The Navien is the only tankless I advise people to install. If they want to purchase some other brand the warranty falls back on them. All I have to warranty is the install. I’ve supplied and installed 100’s of Navien tankless. This tankless was a Hack job installation!!!

@JamesG1126

3 жыл бұрын

@@ltsgarage7780 Soft water has little healthy minerals such as calcium and magnesium and can be unsuitable to drink.

@ltsgarage7780

3 жыл бұрын

James Gleason so what are you trying to say to me. Do you think I don’t know anything about soft water? I don’t use soft water because of the salt that comes along with them. I have a bad heart. So salt is not my friend..

@sumeriansumer1622

Жыл бұрын

@@ltsgarage7780, Check out State Water Heaters, Tankless X3 Scale Prevention Technology.

This video was super helpful! Thank you 😊

Vinegar will kill your grass. Avoid where you dump it.

Thanks Matt, just had one of these installed replacing two electric hot water heaters!

@jmramirez0609

3 жыл бұрын

How are you liking your tankless? I am currently researching and considering making the same switch. My current electric tank is up in my attic. That's a beast in itself. A company has suggested one of these outside my home.

@popdaddyg

3 жыл бұрын

@@jmramirez0609 so far so good. We opted to not use an automatic recycling system-it senses the water temperature drop in the pipe and recirculates hot water. We chose to install push buttons in a couple of locations that will do that as needed.

Thank you Matt. Much appreciated!

Great job Matt!

Great video. Very informative

Excellent tutorial.

Worked for me - thanks for the howto!

Great video - thanks Matt

Jaime from lecanto Florida thank you was a great video to do my tankless water heater cleaning 👍

THX Matt !!!!!!!!! Your the BEST !!!!!!!

While Rinnia does just recommend just turning off the gas because the units will try to cycle the internal cold valve closed if a power loss occurs with the small amount of energy held in its power supply. The way to get around it if you want to cut power is to open relief valve and while unit is fired cut the power. It won't have the time to cycle valve before power is lost and as long as u run the water a few more seconds you will safely remove any heat in the exchanger the fan would normally blow out at the end of the burn cycle

@allenemiesforeignanddomest3320

Ай бұрын

I have a Rheem and for the life of me I cannot get flush to flow out of the hot water side. Maybe this is why?

GREAT VIDEO !! VERY INFORMATIVE

Oh boy. We have incredibly soft water here but I never even thought to do this. Been installed for 6 years....better look into this.

Thanks so much for your indepth instruction. I have an all electric home and will most likely not install a tankless. When it comes time to replace my unit I will most likely buy a hybrid. Could you do a video on pros and cons of separate tank and all in one units? Also if there is any kind of special maintenance needed for hybrid systems. I love your channel and anything energy saving and or making our homes longer lasting.

Congrats on 700K subscribers, Matt!

@buildshow

3 жыл бұрын

WooHoo! Thanks

@suspicionofdeceit

3 жыл бұрын

Onwards to 1 million.

@jasonsmith6292

3 жыл бұрын

@@buildshow My Rinnai manual talks about opening the unit up, spraying canned air, checking the blue flame, etc. Is that necessary each time along with the flushing? Or should I have a certified plumber do that part?

Thanks, great video!

Amazing. Thank you.

Thanks Matt and crew for all the great videos and info!

Matt, helpful video. But we all know this rarely, if ever, gets done unless scale becomes an issue (like clogging up shower mixing valves or spray heads)

Thanks Matt! Just performed this on my Rinnai (household of three adults) and it went flawless (other than the submersible pump not having the right adapter for my washing machine hoses). Had to improvise. All done! Thanks again.

Thanks for the tip about rinsing the pump. I never rinsed mine. Now I need a new one :( The Noritz instructions tell you to keep the power on while you are descaling. I guess there are slightly different procedures for different units.

Thank you !

In the UK boiler services goes a lot more in depth with cleaning inside, the burner and fan is removed and the heat exchangers cleaned.

Thanks!

Thank you

Did you do a maintenance vid on the heat pump water heaters? If not, that'd be great 👍 thx for your great vids

This was very helpful I have been debating and this convinced me to avoid a thankless heater lol

have to say i like the bosch tankless heater it has built in flush ports

You should do a video on electric tankless heaters as well. Very common outside of the US, and becoming more common in the US (not everyone has or likes natural gas).

Great video thx been looking how to service tankless...can u do one on the water filter for tankless

Great Video! Well explained and very thorough. I have an electric unit as my requirements are a lot lower in a 2 bedroom condo. Do you find that the electrical ones are pretty well the same in terms of maintenance?

Heads up, on Noritz brand there is a jumper labeled inside of the unit you have to connect to flush the unit.

@danielsapien2521

3 жыл бұрын

Depending what noritz heater you have installed

@RickMason-yj7pv

3 жыл бұрын

All units should have full instructions under 'Maintenance' heading.

The exterior install is a real eyesore. This is why you need to design a mechanical room that can contain all the home's systems in an organized, well thought through way.

@joyceestes1879

Жыл бұрын

Rinnai provides a sleek cover for the exposed pipes at the bottom with the purchase of a unit. Some people choose not to use them. In my opinion, this has a negative effect on the appearance of the installation.

@hansmanschaft2593

10 ай бұрын

Not all of us have room for an interior unit.

great video! is there a process like this for a condensing boiler also?

Thanks for this excellent tip. What are your thoughts about electric tankless? Any hangups we should be aware of? Thanks.

Very informative. I'm in the market for a Combi Unit and want to know everything first. If you're anything like me, it would be helpful to have a sticker to mark the date of each maintenance.

Don't forget to clean your intake air filter screen while you're at it.

@RickMason-yj7pv

3 жыл бұрын

Clean right after installation because soldering flux can stick in filter and cause hot/cold water sandwich.

@onthego41

3 жыл бұрын

Is there a video to show where the intake air filter is? I have AO Smith brand.

I'm thinking dual purpose for those hot water heaters. Your description reminds me of the old radiator heaters.

Also usable (food grade) citric acid. Works great on calcium and magnesium deposits, is less aggressive to metal than vinegar, cheap, non toxic, no smell, no taste except sour

@SeaTaj

3 жыл бұрын

Citric acid tends to be better for gaskets/rubber/plastics than vinegar too!

@capsman4747

3 жыл бұрын

Where do you buy citric acid? With vinegar, it turns green from dissolving scale.

@matekochkoch

3 жыл бұрын

@@capsman4747 Many descaling agents are made of citric acid, you can buy it in gastronomic shops or like everything else online. It comes as a powder like salt or sugar. (it is the stuff on sour candy)

@capsman4747

3 жыл бұрын

@@matekochkoch Thanks for the info. As for pumps, the cheapest pond pumps work great. That's what I use.

If you use tankless i recommend merus ring ;) great thing.. not sure about availability in US though

Awesome video, thanks man! Subbed...

Great video. You did not "explicitly" state that you needed to plug the water heater back in for the interlock to permit water flow. I figured out that's what you were referring to when the unit was beeping. Also reiterate to clean all water and air screen filters.

You should also open the unit and clean the burner, flame rods and igniter

would love to see one of those stainless units busted open after like 5 and 10 years of use.

Amazon pretty much has a kit with pump, hoses, and flushing fluid for about $90. Sold! Arrives in one day for Prime members too.

@BLKMGK4

3 жыл бұрын

Just did this to my heater after quite a few years of use thanks to the urging of this video. I used the Flowaid mixed with a single gallon of water in a 5 gallon bucket. Don’t use rubber hoses like I did, the cleaner tears it up. Use stainless for sure! Be prepared to clean that prescreen a few times too. When done flushing dump the bucket empty and allow fresh water in from the street but NOT into your pipes, keep the drain hose from the hot side in the bucket. This will remove the cleaner easily, I did this with 3 bucket loads. Make sure you also flush the pump and hoses for your next use as this stuff will eat those up if left sitting I’m sure! Hard to tell how much crap I got out of mine with the hoses breaking down but I’m certain I got things cleaner than before and it took less than two hours.

Buenas explicaciones

FYI I use a stainless steel water distiller which is basically a water boiler and it holds 1 1/2 gal of water and even though its stainless steel it still collects A LOT of mineral deposits and other water bourn contaminants despite being stainless steel so be aware of that and I have to clean it the same way you clean the tankless water heater by flushing it with vinegar as well. I was thinking that a pre filter in the water supply could ease up on the flushing prosses.

Install a whole house water filter, it will extend the life of the heater and improve the water in general. worth the cost.

Great video Matt. Any advice why my tempra 24 plus stopped heating water?

thanks for the great video. Can you do the same system flush with a bilge pump instead of a sump? I have a few extra electric bilge pumps on hand that I could use

You'd be amazed at just how many people assume that, A hot water system DOES NOT NEED ANY MAINTENANCE! Even those who build homes & remodellers. The old style-Hot water Tanks need flushed yearly if you want them to last! Or even twice per year would be best! Especially if one has hard water & an older tank style water heater.

@bigpjohnson

3 жыл бұрын

The US has used tank heaters since forever, little maintenance was required so nobody really thought about them. With tankless, every owner needs to relearn how to deal with them. Builders and remodelers arent going to tell people their new unit/house needs *more* maintenance either.

Matt... Just getting thru this southern freeze and it looks as though our Rinnai R47 is leaking, near top coils - haven't taken apart, but obvious leak. Do you think the unit can be salvaged / repaired, or done for and needs to be replaced. I've had for 6 years and thanks to your video, I just learned it needed maintenance... Never done it! We've had low water pressure due to MUD district and apparently 'junk' coming in lines... So obviously several potential issues.

Thanks! M

Helpful Tip. If you question your hardness rating and have a public water supply contact your local water utility they will be able to provide you the answer, or look at the annual Water Quality Report sometimes called the CCR - Consumer Confidence Report. They are required by the EPA to have that available to all customers and update it every year. If your water utility gets its water from wells then the Hardness level will be higher if they get the water from a lake or any other above ground source it will be lower or “softer” Water hardness levels are considered as following 0-75 mg/L -Soft 75-150 mg/L -Slightly Hard 150-300 mg/L - Moderately Hard 300 + mg/L -Very Hard mg/L = milligrams per Liter other wise known as PPM or parts per million . yes in the water industry we don’t use the standard imperial measurements but if converted it would be as the following 0-1 Grains per Gallon - Soft 1-3.5 Grains - Slightly Hard 3.5 - 7 Grains - Hard 7 - 10 Grains - Moderately Hard 10 + Grains - Very Hard Here in Central Arkansas we have some of the best Water in the United States. The hardness of the water provided by Central Arkansas Water is between 1.0-1.7 grains/gallon or 17-29 mg/L. This is considered a “soft” water. If you made it this far I’m impressed. I’m a licensed D-4 Water Nerd. “Keeping the water Clean and Flowing” -ME

Great content. Thank you for your work. If I may offer one suggestion, have your camera operator use a tripod.

Great video, thanks! Does anyone have any hints on cleaning the air intake filter on the external units? I have a RUR98EN and I can't find any information on the intake filter. It's different from the interior model, which is simple.

this method also works with portable dishwashers

Instead of pouring the vinegar onto the ground, use it to clean out the drains in the house. Pour about 2 cups down the drain and follow with a 1/2 cup baking soda, let it work for 15 to 30 minutes then run hot water for about 5 minutes or less. This helps remove the buildup in the pipes and can help keep odors at bay.

@Mr.Caring

3 жыл бұрын

Hi

Hey Matt great video actually i just ordered myself a set of these service valves. I have a bosh tankless about five years old and never been serviced so as soon as the pump and valves come ill be flushing. I do have a question? You had to actually plug power back into the unit to get it to flo thro? Just asking in case i run into issues flushing mine? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks James