Worst experience imaginable… Run while you have the chance. Due to age and expected life expectancy and recommendation of my condo association, I replaced my 17-year-old gas direct-vent hot water heater that never gave me a problem. Since the initial install on May 24th the heater has been inoperable 30% of the time due to one thing or another. Almost every other day the unit was off, and I must relight the pilot to get hot water. The first time the unit failed was less than a week after it was installed but, on a Sunday, and I was charged an emergency dispatch fee... actually had to provide a credit card number on the phone before they would come out! I was reimbursed weeks later but only after requesting and repeated follow ups. On the Sunday dispatch unit was off because air vent being cut too short and disconnected, so not enough air was getting to the unit, on subsequent trip the damper plate had to be installed to keep air from coming in from outside from blowing out pilot(not sure, this may be required depending on vent length). The issue kept occurring and they could not figure out what was happening, so they replaced the heater with another one...and it still occurred. They then said it could be gas, so I had the gas company come out to test and they found a small leak in the gas line near the heater, but I guess that is not something ordinarily checked. Everything else gas wise checked out. The issue was still occurring every couple of days. Finally, about a week ago steam was discovered coming up the drainpipe from a unit below me and was being directed into my heaters pan/gas controller and that could be contributing. Irony here is that each time I had to relight the pilot I had reported that the gas controller area/fire foam was soaked, and when they were onsite repairing the gas leak they saw firsthand the steam in the pan with the unit off, the tech was on his side lighting the pilot with the steam in his face and each instance said this was normal, just condensation… turns out not normal. They wanted a State Water heater representative/expert to look at the unit. The supposed representative (business card he left said RoT Marketing?) "examined" the unit and he indicated the install “looked ok”. That the issues all along (after the vent, damper, and gas were repaired) were all due to the steam coming up the drain… and here is the best part of all… the warranty on the unit was now void!! Still waiting on that official statement in a letter. Hope this helps.
1 review 