Tim Fitch has been plumbing since 1986, but for the better part of a decade now, he has gotten away from traditional service and repair work. That’s because he has found plenty of success largely focusing on tankless water heater installs and service.
And a big reason why he has been so good at handling whatever hot water issues his customers may encounter is one of his go-to systems — the Rinnai RUR condensing tankless unit.
“I consider my company to be an innovative type of company and am always looking for ways to provide a better product for my customers,” says Fitch, whose company, Fitch Specialties, services the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area, as well as some customers in nearby North Carolina. “The Rinnai RUR continues to be an innovative product.”
Fitch has been a fan of Rinnai’s water heater product lines since 2003, installing his first Rinnai unit in his own home. When the RUR model debuted in 2014, Fitch immediately incorporated it into his business.
“The first one I put in has a serial number of 000001,” Fitch says. “I might’ve gotten the first one that came off the line. The idea behind the way they built it really had the mold of what I was trying to do.”
ELIMINATING THE GUESSWORK
The RUR has many features that provide Fitch a lot of flexibility on how he tackles various jobs, depending on what exactly a customer needs out of a water heater setup. One of Fitch’s favorites is the built-in pump. That has allowed him and his team to do installs with a smaller footprint.
“Prior to the RUR we were installing external pumps with external controls to operate the pumps,” Fitch says.
Besides being able to do everything within a smaller footprint, Fitch says it makes his work easier not having to pair an external pump with the water heater.
“On the RUR, the pump installed works perfectly with the water heater and there is no guessing as to whether a particular external pump will work or not. It takes the guesswork out of the picture. You don’t have to carry different pumps on the truck to match the heaters.”
RECIRCULATION FOR EVERYONE
The RUR also has crossover recirculation technology, capable of providing those benefits whether the customer has a dedicated recirculation line or not. That gives Fitch more options for locating a water heater unit — even at a distance from the location where that hot water is headed — and still provides customers instant hot water.
“Prior to the RUR we were also installing 6-gallon electric water tanks as an option for a buffer tank to prevent cold water sandwich,” Fitch says.
Again, that didn’t help with the installation footprint, which is some of the attraction of a tankless unit.
“The water heater itself is already 18 inches wide and 27 inches tall, and then when you put in a 6-gallon tank and everything that goes along with it, you probably added another 6 square feet,” Fitch says. “People would want a tankless water heater to save space, but by the time we got done, it really didn’t save any space.”
But the buffer tank was also necessary.
“All tankless water heaters have about a 20-degree gap between incoming water temperature to outgoing water temperature, and if you didn’t have some type of buffer tank or recirculation system, it would cause a cold water sandwich. But the design of the RUR eliminates having to do that.”
The crossover recirculation feature involves a bypass valve installed underneath a sink that utilizes the cold waterline for the recirculation loop if the home doesn’t have a dedicated third line for those purposes.
“Before, if you didn’t already have a recirculation system, we couldn’t help you with anything. We couldn’t add to it,” Fitch says. “But with the RUR, it has the crossover feature that allows us to do a retrofit even without that third recirculation line. We go to the area that has the issue of waiting for hot water and put a small device underneath the sink. It’s a quick install and then it allows us to use that as part of the recirculation loop. That’s a big innovation. We are able to provide recirculation now to customers who don’t have a dedicated recirculation loop.”
The crossover recirculation feature also allows for the water heater to be taken out of the attic, which is a common location in Fitch Specialties’ service area. The draw of a tankless unit for some is removing the damage risk that a tank unit carries, but if in order to still get adequate hot water, a buffer tank is required, it defeats the purpose.
“To save space elsewhere, a lot of tank water heaters get put in the attic. And then of course whenever we would remove the tank, we’d put a tankless unit in the attic. But when customers wanted something with a recirculation system, we’d still have to put in the 6-gallon buffer tank. Once again you have a tank overhead and that extra risk. Now, when there has been a rupture of an attic tank and extreme damage has been done, we offer the RUR as an alternative to install either in the garage or on the exterior of the home. Then the fear of the same thing happening again is no longer there.”
With the advantages of the RUR, about 75% of Fitch Specialties’ installs are now outside the attic.
A WISE INVESTMENT
A majority of Fitch’s work is tankless water heater retrofits, and he often finds himself promoting Rinnai’s RUR to people as the solution that will solve the hot water problems they’re facing.
“I always go in with questions for customers about what problems are they trying to solve,” Fitch says. “The actual savings of a tankless unit is about 40% over a typical gas tank unit, but usually a gas bill is not that much, say $25 a month. So 40% of $25 bucks is not that much savings. It is usually not the driving force for people getting a tankless water heater. It’s about trying to solve another issue. Are they running out of hot water? Is it taking too long to get hot water to the other end of the house? A lot of the feedback I get from customers about the RUR is that it is the best investment they’ve made in their house. It’s a premium product that is easy to use and is virtually trouble free with the proper installation and maintenance.
“I work on, maintain and repair other brands of water heaters, but I install Rinnai units exclusively. Another thing that’s a big plus is Rinnai’s customer support. If there’s an issue they’re very quick to resolve it. I’ve never had a problem with Rinnai not managing their warranty issues.”
