Thread: Rinnai infinity gas hot water

The problem arises because the standard requires temperature of no more than 50 degrees being delivered 'to personal hygiene areas' ie: showers basins & baths. The cheapest way to do this is to simply set the heater to 50 degrees (and they are shipped form the factory now at a 55 setting), but this is at its outlet of course and means that water at your kitchen tap can be much colder.

So yes you can raise it - the max temp is adjusted via a dip switch block under the cover. You can set the maximum right up to 75 degrees, but 60 is probably enough (but will scald pretty much immediately at that temp - 55 or lower will not).

It is not legal to raise the maximum setting in residential installations in most states without installing tempering devices downline to ensure that the Australian standard is met and for the safety of you and your family that should be done. You will need a plumber to fit those for you.

Hey Bloss,
Do you know which switches need to be changed? I too have one of these Infinity 26 Plus systems. Although I have two controllers, I can only turn it up as high as 55° I'd like to put it up to 75° if possible. Sometimes you need hotter water to clean grime. Any advice would be great.
Dan.

Just be aware that whats being suggested here is illegal, these heaters are pre set for a reason and any fiddling which needs to be done by a licensed sparky or a rinnai technician may forfeit your warranty.
And a tempering valve must be installed at the bathroom or any areas used for personal hygene which is a job in itself, because you need to run a tempered line from the valve to your fixtures, and must be done by a licensed plumber.

Yes, you will need to up the temperature of the water to the kitchen.

Rinnai will talk to your plumber on the phone and get the serial number of the unit and his license number then give the approval and instruction to increase the output setting.

Once that is done you can follow the instruction supplied with the controller to increase the temperature setting on the controller above the 55.

As Wonderplumb has advised, you must get a licensed plumber to do this. It is a legal requirement to have the hot water line to the bathrooms protected by a tempering valve before you seek permission to increase the output temperature above the factory preset 50 degrees.

Get it done professionally and your warranty will be intact, you will not be in hot water(trope) and you will be happier in the kitchen.

Cheers

Originally Posted by dleman

I have a factory preset Rinnai infinity hot water system. By the time the water gets through my old gal pipes it is not hot enough to wash up in. Is there a way of adjusting switches inside to increase the temperature?

If you're not living life on the edge....you're taking up too much room

I'm aware of all the regs, however, we are way past having kids in the house to scald themselves and we can not afford large plumbing fee to hopefully getting another 10 deg from our system. Can any body tell me which switch settings need to be tweeked to make it hotter.

See if this matches your model
(or gives you enough detail for a bit of experimentation)

http://www.rinnaisales.co.nz/tradesm...e_info/678.pdf

(and the nanny state can gtfo)

thanks heaps. Will go outside in the morning and do a little experimenting

Originally Posted by wonderplumb

Just be aware that whats being suggested here is illegal

Can't argue with that.

But in my opinion any hot water service that doesn't supply at least 60 degrees to the kitchen and laundry is, from the average consumer's perspective, faulty since it doesn't do what it needs to do.

It's like having a car that doesn't travel at more than 60 km/h at any time. It's better than nothing but very few people would knowingly purchase a car with performance like that and most would consider the car faulty or at best terribly designed.

I can see the point of the tempering valve for the bathroom, but if it's an older house and you're just replacing, say, an electric HWS with gas then I really don't think it should be compulsory to limit to 50 degrees. It's like you're being punished for not just buying yourself a new electric HWS exactly the same as the old one and then DIY the installation.

Legalities duly noted. The water being delivered to my sink is 43 deg, which is obviously not hot enough. I expect my old house to be demolished within 12 months. Am not prepared to pay lots $$$ in plumbing fees to gain an extra 10 deg. at this stage. If I could find the right combo, it appears 3 4 and 5 are the temp switches.
I'll know more in the morning

Originally Posted by Smurf

I can see the point of the tempering valve for the bathroom, but if it's an older house and you're just replacing, say, an electric HWS with gas then I really don't think it should be compulsory to limit to 50 degrees.

This is where they particularly state that one must be installed.

I referred to the legal situation in my first post and I had mine installed to replace an existing electric storage HW system.

My point also was that the manufacturer and installers take the easiest and cheapest way out and in doings so reduce the functionality of the device.

In a place like Canberra where the ambient water temperature in winter can be 8 degrees or less that lower maximum setting also means that the system runs inefficiently and for uses other than for personal hygiene many people will find it below par.

I had mine installed by a plumber and had a controllers placed in the bathroom, ensuite and kitchen.

The laws are there for good reason, but are open to ridicule and abuse when their implementation and effects cause a mismatch between practical need and commonsense.

As Ive posted before, the flaw in the law is that the Standards state that you need 60deg at kitchen and laundry to kill bacteria etc. but local authorities are more than happy to let you put a pre-set 50deg heater in to serve the whole place. Shytes me!

Yes, it does seem to be a contradiction but many homes these days probably can get by with 50 degrees preset as they have dishwashers that heat water and use only warm water in the laundry.

The 50 degree preset units simplify installations in these situations because there is no need for tempering valve to be installed. I think it is a selling point for the preset 50 degree units and they are meeting a market requirement.

For people like some of us who like to wash dishes in the sink then 50 degrees is not much chop and hence we go down the path of installing tempering valve to the bathroom hot water line and upping the output temperature of the unit to 65 degrees or higher. I think the Rinnai 26 can cater to both groups very well and I can only reiterate that I love my Rinnai 26 HWS.