Well N A, The Tankless Water Heater is the Bomb!

I threw a splash of bleach in my big rez to fend off algae and what not.

Ok I have more than adequate inlet water pressure. The pump is only about 4 feet below the heater now, and will shoot water out like a fountain if I disconnect it from the inlet hose. I get more water pressure from the pump than I get from my city water.

The oulet from the heater barely trickles though. I turn the pump on, the heater does not fire, and I get essentially no water coming out the hot side. Does it restrict water flow when the unit is not on?

I can't believe something is physically wrong (like a water flow blockage inside the unit, or disconnected ignition, or no gas supply) because the unit seems to work intermittently.

Dude, you have SOMETHING blocking water flow through the unit. The water should be coming out almost as fast as it goes in. I believe you have found your problem. Try flushing the water backwards through the unit. something is blocking it. Your not getting enough flow, and it is flow that triggers the unit to come on..nothing else.

So if you cut the gas supply to your unit and turn it on it freely flows out of the outlet? I left the hoses I was using still strung down to the basement and used a different length of hose since I only needed 2 short lengths, so the obstruction must be inside my unit. I will reverse the hose and see if it blows it out.

Well nothing came out of the hoses, but after hooking it back up it seems to work. So something is probably inside my heater blocking water flow.

Even after it came back on the flow is very low. Not enough for me to take a shower in. It is super hot, but still dribbling out instead of gushing.

I put the oulet into a 5 gallon bucket (which is 18.7 L) and it took 10 minutes on the highest water flow and it's not even totally full. I believe it should only take about 3 minutes @ 6L/min like it is rated.

I disassembled the hose hook ups to see what the problem is and the inlet screen was covered in a slimy hair ball that was blocking flow. The fittings, hoses, and pump I used were all clean though - so where did this nasty hair ball come from in the first place? Why did my pump not filter it? And how do I prevent this from happening again?

Back up and running for the moment. I swear i'm going to rip it off the wall and throw it out the window if it's not working when I get home tonight.

For my water hook ups I went heater -> 1/2" double female galvanized -> 1/2" male to 5/8" barb (brass) -> 5/8" high heat rubber hose. I used teflon tape between the heater and the double female, and the double female and the barbed piece. When I disconnected it the galvanized piece looks like it is rusting on the inside and all the teflon tape appears to have vanished. Not sure what to make of either of those observations. Maybe the that hairball I found was teflon. I only put the teflon on the male threads at least a couple threads up, so i'm not sure how it would have gotten into the water stream. Also not sure why galvanized would be rusting. I used less teflon tape this time and put it even further up the threads this time. I would rather deal with a small leak than whatever this was.

Dude, don't have your cat in the room when you hoook things up LOL. I don't know where the hair ball came from but I think you found the problem. Its not gas related, its water flow related. I would also look at the water control valve and see if that is sticking or anything. That controls how quickly water flows through the unit.

they guy what heater are you running i have a eccotemp and there is a flow/pressure regulator spring inside the cover, i had problems getting it to run right , sound like what your going threw and the company rep. said that it was the sump pump. there not made to have any back pressure and will slow way down to not burn the motor up , he suggested a transfer pump. the problem with that is the olny one i could get locally needs to be oiled daily to work right and that aint happenin, so i said fuck it and chocked it up as loss.

PS so if anyone want to buy a monitor or heater or a pump for it shoot me a pm

to minimize back pressure, crank the water valve all the way open. Don't know why all the difficullties, Mine works like a charm.

Been on a hiatus and thought Id chime in. Happy fourth!

LF , I got a ac/chiller picture detailing exhaust for your pondering setup. Ill send later.

Duke/GuyInc, Dont throw in the towel yet. Mine works now. See below.

Seems these units can be a bit temperamental for a few peeps including myself. What i learned is that these things are RV type contraptions that need to be treated accordingly. For example these things arent designed to hook up to a high flow pump and Duke confirmed this from his unit's manufacturer. They are designed for showers,etc in a camping/RV environment with camping type water pressure.

My HF pump imploded either due to poor QC or restriction or not enough restriction or all of the above. Maybe it was trying to push a golf ball through a hose I don't know? My better quality Lowes pump unit didnt work either and I had symptoms everyone else is having like limited flow and no flame or only flames for a few secs. Its as if you need some luck? Well anyway I happened to have a RV type in line pump handy that cycles at a steady 45psi. It works with my Aquah. I tested this unit back to back with my lowes unit and the Shurflo works! The other lowes sumper went to the lowes return desk where it can live in a fish pond somewhere pumping 24/7.

The SFlo is the missing/lost link for me anyway. Sure you might get lucky with a set up that has just the right water pressure and head/fall and it works perfect but it seems now there are water pump/pressure issues. Theses little 5L and 6L water heaters arent expecting a shitload of pressure to operate! And if you give her a shitload more over spec then it has to worry about regulating the Fukushima you're throwin at her. I got a Shurflo in line which is rated for like 3.5 GPM 45 PSI and it dont need any KY and likes it hot up to 125F! This is now my working set up and so far so good. ill post pics later.
just my take for what its worth..
Dont make any purchases on my info until I follow up in another month...

Heres the pump that works for me:

LF,
Here is my vented wall unit AC. Photo takin from bottom looking up. Ideally, if you can keep the foam duct back side inner dimensions the same all the way to outside the air flows freely. If you cant do that then make a foam box around rear of that and cut a 6" or whatever hole and run insulated duck up and out and probably use an inline fan to assist squirrel cage fan. This is my flower room AC. My chiller wall unit AC will be used for cloning/nuteing and will exhaust via a 6" insulated duct into this foam one and out. When I get that done soon ill post up. This is so easy to do. 2" foam and red can of expanding spray foam to glue it all. A little messy form the styrofoam pieces but easy to clean. The thicker the foam the higher the "R" value. I can barely feel any heat when i touch the foam after AC been running all day! So if you can vent out of the basement somehow then you can run the ac/chiller down there no worries!




Budley, Hows that shock stuff working out in the cloner? Do you still approve of it?

Well she seems to be working fine in the closet except for the outrageous temps. The water was a tad over 150*F. I could see the humidity pouring off of it. It's only been running about 8 hours. At these temps I can't control the humidity in the room and i'm afraid the pump will fail. I drained it and pulled it back down into the basement thinking I unnecessarily moved it in the first place due to the blockage, but now it's no longer working. And it's too late to fuck with. I'm getting real sick of this thing.

I don't understand where the slimy hair ball came from. I have no pets. The hoses were clean, the connections were clean, the garbage can was brand new and got rinsed out.

and thus begins the great hair ball mystery.

Wow 150 degrees!! Holy shit! Thats too hot. How big is your res again?
"the great hairball mystery" . ROFLMA LOL

I,m thinking hes got a Gnome living in there somewhere?

Hmmm could be a gnome. Have you seen treasure trolls in your flower room? That could definitely be it. 150 does sounds a bit extreme. Maybe put the Rez back down in the basement or wherever now that your learned not to put dead cats in your Rez.

The hair could have fallen from the ceiling into the res, or got attached to the pump or a hose during one of the trillion times I was moving shit around.

It's a 35 gallon garbage can. It was the largest garbage can I could find that didn't leak.

The basement will be the best spot for heat dissipation, but now the pump isn't activating the heater. Everything was cleaned off and I took extra care to make sure it was hair free as well as free of other debris, so if something is clogging it now i'm just gonna need enough pressure to overcome it. I could set up the res on the 2nd floor on the other side of the room. It's a bungalow house - stairway to 2nd floor, then make a u-turn and there is a 6-7 ft wide pathway to an open doorway - then the grow room is inside that room. The entire upstairs gets insanely hot during the summer though so i'm not sure how well that will work either. I need a larger res, or to daisy chain several garbage cans together to increase the total volume from 35 to like 100 gal.

How do I know how much my floor can support? 2 55-gallon barrels will be a lot of weight. 110 gallons X 8.34 lb/gal = 917.4 pounds of water on my second floor. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen