Got up this morning to take a shower and noticed no hot water. Plenty of cold but no hot. Every now and then a slight trickle. Came to the comclusion my hot water froze due to this wonderful weather Al Gore said we would never have again. Fast forward to now...I just get a text from the wife saying the hot water was back and all is well in the world. Here is my question: last night I left the cold water dripping for prevent freezing but the hot never crossed my mind. I was reading on some handyman board when I got to work and there was an argument on whether or not it was ok to leave hot water dripping when you have a tankless heater. Some were saying it was fine and some were saying it would screw up the flow meter or flow sensor if it were on too low to trip the heater to engage. Any of you out there with experience with a tankless heater know whether or not it is safe to leave a drip under the 0.6 gpm required to trip the heater to come on? Now fingers are just crossed that no pipes broke.
OT: exterior tankless water heater
- Thread starter starkvegasdawg
- Start date
Thanks for the info. My knowledge of these things is almost nothing so when I read the conflicting reports I had no idea.
My tankless heater has an electric strip to prevent freezing as well. A few winters ago, we lost power in the middle of the night. Mine was okay, but my neighbor's system was ruined when it froze. Both of our units are outside exposed to the elements.
Are these heat strips already in with the heater and just need to be hooked up? To be honest, I have never opened the metal container box the thing is installed in.
Intere Mine has frozen two nights in a row.
The installer said it would never freeze - its a Rinnai - never heard about the heat strip. If it has one, maybe mine is no longer good - will have to check.
Got them unfrozen in just five minutes but still a pain at five am. Meant to leave it slightly dripping last night - had wrapped the pipes but didn't help last night, but forgot to leave dripping. Didn't know it could damage the flow meter but it sounds like only if it keeps turning the system on and off? Would it do that dripping at a very low rate?
The installer said it would never freeze - its a Rinnai - never heard about the heat strip. If it has one, maybe mine is no longer good - will have to check.
Got them unfrozen in just five minutes but still a pain at five am. Meant to leave it slightly dripping last night - had wrapped the pipes but didn't help last night, but forgot to leave dripping. Didn't know it could damage the flow meter but it sounds like only if it keeps turning the system on and off? Would it do that dripping at a very low rate?
Not sure it would damage it. I had just read on a handyman board that one repair guy said it would but others were not too sure about that. I can't imagine it would damage it if it were on at a low enough rate to not trip it. I am almost certain I am going to try it tonight and see. I really don't want mine frozen solid again. Or, since insomia has been kicking my butt the last couple weeks I may just get up and turn on the faucet full blast for a few minutes every 2-3 hours to get everything heated up and hot.
Just based on my own personal experience, pay really close attention to some of the connections to a tank-less (aka instant) hot water heater. I live in Costa Rica so no problems with freezing pipes, but we have issues in high season because it is also combined with dry season and water pressure can become an issue. In low water pressure situations the connections can melt themselves and create bad leaks. I would be curious if the device was frozen if it could actually cause the same problems I have experienced since the freeze would prevent water flow. May seem like the frozen part would mean no and the heat would only help melt the problem, but at some point if still frozen inside the machine it could lead to dry pipes at the connections. But then again maybe I am smoking a little too much orange kush tonight