PBX Info :: Your Free PBX, PABX and Telephone Information Resource - View Single Post

***Ancient1*** · 03-26-2008, 01:08 PM

When we built on to the house several years back , wife wanted a garden tub installed. So, it was done. After all was finished, the reality of my poor planning came into view. The garden tub was useless since 45 gal of hot water would hardly wet the bottom of the tub. So, the only option was an inline heater. MG, they were expensive! Off to E-bay I went and bought a three stage unit for just pennies-on-the-dollar. The cost added up after a while. Each of the three circuits were put on 60 amp breakers as the instructions stated. This involved quite a bit of ( I think I remember pulling 7 strands of #6, may have been #4, slept since then) wire to handle the load.

Since I already had a 45 gallon tank and I was unsure if the in-line heater would work as claimed, I also left the tank-style heater on-line too. I like to complicate things so I have the valves set so I can run cold to the tank-style and then out for use, cold to the in-line and then out to use, cold to the in-line then to the tank style then out to use, and of course, cold to the tank style then to the inline then out to use. So , the garden tub could be filled now and the wife was happy.

The in-line worked rather well. Remember, this is a unit I bought off of E-bay. Unused, but pre-owned. One day I came home and found a small leak in the middle chamber. Nothing ruined yet so I shut water off to the system and called EEMAX. I told them what it was doing and I needed to order a new middle chamber, and they told me they don't leak there, they will send me a new upgraded one, they want that one back to see this! In just a couple of days I had the new upgraded version that fit in exactly where the old one was, no cost to me. Not Bad! Worked and didn't leak.

So, over time we basically forgot it was even there until one day we came home, ran some water for some reason and there was a LOT of air in the lines. There had been a break in the line below our house and when they shut the water off to fix it, they let a lot of air into the system. The slamming and pounding was rather severe. I thought we may break something since we are fed off a main at 125 psi. But, the plumbing held together but the in-line heater quit. The in-line is NEVER supposed to see air, only water. Called EEMAX to order a couple of new elements. EEMAX sent new elements NO CHARGE. After the elements were installed it still didn't work. Working with EEMAX we discovered two of the circuit boards and 1 triac was also blown. Once again, EEMAX sent me everything I needed to get the unit back up like new. NO CHARGE.

One of the main reasons I left the old heater in-place was since we sometimes have the "loss-of-power", I really hate to be taking a shower and suddenly have NO hot water to rinse with. We keep the tank-style set at ~110 and the tankless set to ~130. Start off you use a lot of hot and very little cold. After a few minutes you have to start turning the temp down in the shower. As I use the cooler "hot" water, it is replaced by hotter water.

If you have any concerns about which brand to use, I am here to recomend EEMAX. They have been great. Yes, after I got everything back and working the local water department had quite a talking-to from me.