On demand propane/gas water heater

[farmrbrown]

I can't take credit for this, but if you ever suddenly lose your hot water on a Friday/holiday afternoon like today, I strongly recommend watching this for 5 minutes versus a weekend of cold showers or a $400 emergency plumbing bill.




If you haven't guessed why I posted this today, I'll tell you later.
(The clogged water filter part did it for me BTW)

[Ozarks Tom]

We have a Rinnai that's worked fine for the probably 12 years we've had it, with the exception of about 8 years ago it quit functioning. Had a repairman out who flushed the unit with a concentrated citrus liquid using a sump pump and a bucket of water. Cost $145!

Since a sump pump costs about $40, and the citrus solution about $7, I've been flushing it myself every six months ever since. Oh, yeah, that little filter will get crud in it from time to time, especially if you've got galvanized pipe, so every time I flush it I make sure to clean it out too.

[farmrbrown]

See Ozarks Tom,?
That right there is why I said not to beat yourself up cuz ya don't know everything!
I shoulda known it had a little filter somewhere but I didn't have a clue why it quit working even though people around here think I can fix ANYTHING, lol.
It takes me about 2 hours max to diagnose and fix a standard electric water heater but I've never touched one of these gadgets before, so I was almost dreading the possibilities of what I was going to confront. The worse case being to try and install a replacement while the family waited for hot water to be restored.
But a little background on this last week.
Today was almost deja vu. About a week ago everyone had hot water in the morning for showers, washing dishes and clothes, etc. Then in the afternoon my wife noticed the propane wall heater sputtered and the pilot light went as she waited for the water in the kitchen faucet to get hot. It took less than 5 minutes to determine the tank ran dry. The last time it was filled was October........DUH!
I hooked up a 20 lb. tank to the line on top of the big tank until we got the propane filled the next day. That's when I learned the pilot light on the water heater must come on automatically.
Fast forward to today.
Hot water in the morning, none at 2pm. and the heater is on because I know the tank is full. Now what?
Did it just die? It's only a few years old.
Did running out last week cause something to fail later?
Hell if I know, but I know who's job it is to fix it! lol.
So I go outside and remove the access cover and the face plate to this tankless W/H and start looking. Seeing half a nutshell and tiny rodent turds has me checking every dang wire inside for damage but they're ok. Off and On doesn't work so I head inside to search for manuals and/or troubleshooting.

After cleaning and replacing the very clogged filter, I try to fire it back up but it quits after 5-10 seconds. Now THIS time it gives an error code. (Remember the title of this guy's video?)
Clogged filter - no error code, censored
As I head back in the house to look up error code #11 I notice one thing I forgot to turn back on..........the friggen GAS!.
After that, no more problems, lol

[Ozarks Tom]

farmrbrown, Don't beat yourself up over things that are overlooked when fighting bigger problems.

I've got the flushing and filter cleaning down to a science - well, that's a lie. I've got it down to a list of step by step things to do, right down to how to clean and rinse the fittings I've used to flush the unit.