During the last storm in jan, we lost our exterior Rinnai tankless water heater.

First it failed to dump water when we lost power, then we ran out of propane when it was below freezing.

The heat exchanger froze. We picked a new one up had it installed, but had issues with low water pressure.

The crews came out and said it was this or that, but the problem never changed much. I did some sleuthing and cleaned all the faucet mesh traps.

With the well going offline during the power outage, and then it coming back online it knocked a bunch of scale loose. That clogged the filters in all the appliances.

We heard a funny noise when running the faucet last night. This morning no hot water. I went and checked, I don't think the pipes are frozen.

I insulated the shit out of them prior to sealing the case up. They felt warmer to the touch than ambient air temp.

My best guess is that the loose scale has plugged up the inline filter of the water heater. I am not getting any of the codes on the control pannel for frozen pipes, low pressure or anything like that.

Sadly popping the filter out is a pain in the ass. I may end up tackling it though. We have our old unit here, and I might be able to do a dry run or two on that one.

I called the install company back, they were holding me a slot for this afternoon. They said they had to give it to someone else based on the conversation I had with their tech. I replied I did not receive a phone call from the tech yet. The earliest they could get here is sat on 1.5x or late Monday.

A tiny bit more history. When we had this installed, we called them back a week later. we had very little hot water pressure. at the time I thought it was due to scale build-up and I cleaned out all the faucet mesh screens after they said there was nothing wrong with it. Cleaning those screens in vinegar did help a little, but it was not back up to what it should be pressure-wise.

So, Youtube it is. I found out how to get the filter out which isn't as hard as I was thinking. Our install is the pain in the ass part. We have two boxes, not one, and one of the boxes makes getting your hands up in there to remove it a pain in the ass.

I pulled the old filter out of our old unit, and the new filter.

New filter was caked with what looked like yellow scale. Which is odd be cause our scale here is not yellow.

It was completely surrounded. I rubbed at with my thumb until I got inside.

It wasn't until I put it in vinager after balling it all up that I realized what it is.

Fucking fiberglass insulation. Likely from the old insulation we had protecting the old units pipes.

They had likely set the plug on the old insulation and it picked up a shit ton that stuck. They didn't clean it off well.

I didn't think to take photos until after I cleaned most of it off. It was fully coated when I pulled it out.





Sometimes I really hate people. What a complete and utterly shitty job done. How fucking hard is it to clean a part that, 1 is brand fucking new that you got dirty, 2, admit that you fucked up and the water pressure problem we called you about is a result of you fucking up, 3, not lie about calling me when we have no water.

We now have full-pressure hot water. 20-minute fucking fix, thanks for the professional install you fucktards.

quote:

We now have full-pressure hot water. 20-minute fucking fix, thanks for the professional install you fucktards

^^^^^^^^^
Yeah I hear you. Lucky you have the skills to diagnose and solve the problem. Growing up my Dad fixed and installed everything. He did not trust "professionals".

Here are some photos of the inside of the new filter. I am going to try and save it. But the fiberglass insulation does not want to brush out. I may have to try tweezers.

If you have an air compressor and a blow nozzle, that might clear the yellow crap out.
.

Sorry to read about your troubles with the incompetent techs/company.

It's hard to get someone who knows and cares what they do today (every profession).