Review: Rinnai Gas Heater

A word about the Review
Our Review is different from other reviews that you read on the Net: we're not armchair reviewers. We bought and installed the product for our own use. No one sponsored us to endorse the product. And we only gave our verdict after at least one year's usage. Obviously, we'd tell you sooner if a product didn't work or performed poorly soon after purchase.

We invite you - if you have bought, installed and used the product to tell us what your user experience, particularly after usage for at least a year. Whether positive or negative, please give us your feedback. Oh, don't forget to provide your Renotalk user ID and photos of your kitchen so we could verify you're a bonafide user of the product.

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We bought the Rinnai gas water heater REU-W1610WF-RS at the Citygas showroom for $703 after a 10% discount. Installation fee of $120 was chargeable. The unit

is sold with a remote control and had a capacity of 16 liters per min. A Citygas technical officer came to inspect the premises and approved the proposed installation of the unit.

However, we decided to cancel the purchase a week later. Lucky for us the unit had to be shipped from Japan, where it was produced. Had it been shipped we probably won't get a full refund, if at all!

Our Verdict: Not rated - purchase was cancelled for a full refund

Reason for the cancellation?
We felt the piping arrangement (too many pipes!) was not a pretty sight in the kitchen, particularly at the appliance itself. Moreover, we had to cut a 2-inch hole in the window glass or brick wall to vent the gas heater externally -- again not a pretty sight! In the end we felt an electric instant water heater was more convenient and less daunting decor-wise.

We were lucky we canceled the purchase. After the Rinnai dryer had been installed, we found the space on the wall beside the dryer insufficient to install the proposed gas heater. See our kitchen photos depicted elsewhere on the blog for yourself - there was no space to install the gas heater!