Tankless water heater options other than Marley
2flit
| Posted in General Questions on
We are trying to replace a Paloma PH12. The Marey 16 is unavailable and we’d like a higher flow rate anyways. You mentioned ‘other units’ (Here >>>> https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/tankless-water-heater-with-no-electric-requirement)> that are available. Doi you have any links or brand names that I can search for.
This is in an off-grid application with a water pressure around 12 PSI. The Paloma worked fine.
Thanks
John
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Replies
The 12 psi is going to be a problem for many tankless water heaters. With pressure that low the risk of flash boil on the heat exchanger at low flow is pretty high. Did the Paloma ever making sizzling or banging sounds at low flow?
EccoTemp's L-series portable water heaters can handle the low pressure and don't need electrical power (other than a couple of D cells for ignition), but are comparatively low-BTU/low-flow. I think the L10 is biggest at ~75KBTU/hr - good for about one low flow shower. It would take a pair of them to have substantially more capacity than a Marey 16.
Hi, Dana,
We'll need to use a larger unit than the camper models and paralleling them is not an option for us and might cause problems with staggered starting on the flow valve? In any event we don't have room for multiple units. Have you had issues with low pressure causing problems with this specific unit? (Paloma also quoted a min pressure of 20 psi but Backwoods Solar also sold allot of units down to 10 psi and it worked)
The Paloma lasted 33 years and never made the sound you mention, the renter just froze the heat exchanger.... You needed to remove the flow restrictor (water saver feature) in the inlet cold water valve for it to work, This was a common work around at the time for "low pressure". I also sold the units back when I owned Rainshadow Solar on Orcas Island , so have seen this done on many units with no problem. Also should mention that Low Energy https://www.tanklesswaterheaters.com/paloma-legacy-support.html in Colorado still rebuilds these units if you have other, they just don't have the heat exchanger for ours
John
Dana,
I have the same model heater. Would you consider selling yours cheap so I can salvage any parts that may be good?
Thanks.
Kirstin
Kirstin- I don't own any of those water heaters (and never have). I'm assuming that question was really for 2flit(?)
We plan to keep the unit at this time but will let you know if we decide to part with it at a latter time