tankless

The Grand Opening of Rinnai’s RAM Lakes Facility in Griffin, Ga., featured the first non-condensing tankless—the first of many salable units— manufactured here in the states.

At approximately 6:15 am on a crisp Tuesday morning, Rinnai America Corporation made history in the United States, and all of North America. At its new 300,000-sq.-ft RAM (Rinnai America Manufacturing) Lakes facility in Griffin, Ga., the first—of many non-condensing tankless water heaters—rolled off the line. On April 21, 2022, the Griffin facility completed the production of its first tankless water heater, a unit of the highly anticipated RE Series, the first and only non-condensing unit with a built-in pump and SmartCirc intelligent recirculation technology.

“This is a significant milestone for our company and corporation. We are here to celebrate not only becoming the first major tankless manufacturer in the North American market to invest in domestic manufacturing,” said Frank Windsor, President, Rinnai America Corporation. “But we are also launching a brand-new product here today, which will become a really compelling product we bring to market.”

“This morning, the first RE Series tankless water heater came off the end of the line,” said Shelley Kiley, Vice President of Operations. “The day has arrived that we are going to produce our first salable RE Series tankless hot water heater and we are so excited. Over the last two years, it’s been a challenge for the entire team. They worked tirelessly through a lot of challenges, obviously covid, global supply chain issues, escalation of pricing of materials for the construction of this and I would say that the whole team is really proud that they came within 4% of budget and only six weeks of delay on the entire project from start to finish,” said Kiley.

In 2017, the global organization recognized the significant potential for this market and made the decision to invest in Rinnai America to become a growth vehicle for the corporation. According to Windsor, this has been a substantial investment over the last three or four years—a new corporate headquarters in Peachtree City, which was an $18 million dollar investment, a $10 million investment in our new world class innovation center attached to our headquarters in Peachtree City, along with this manufacturing and distribution center, which was a $70 million investment.

Over the last four years, the company has invested $100 million to show its commitment to the North American market. “In 2020, amidst all of the chaos associated with the pandemic, our company chose to move forward and invest, break ground on the facility we are standing in today. I’m very proud of the hard work and dedication our team has put forth in this initiative, which is critical for our organization’s future growth and success,” said Windsor.

With a goal of 400 units manufactured per line, at the time of the Grand Opening celebration, one line was up and running with a projected three lines running by summer. In addition, the RAM Lakes facility has already employed more than a hundred of the new local top talent with a projected few hundred additional jobs to be added by the end of the year.

Exporting tankless. What a concept. How cool is that? “It is cool. We will be shipping them to Mexico and shipping them throughout Latin America. We have a fast-growing Latin American business. It’s fun to be able to make product here in the U.S. and ship to other parts of the world,” said Windsor.

Moreover, with all of the supply chain issues and complexities, having manufacturing here in the states alleviated some of the hassle. “This will have a huge impact on our supply chain. No. 1, we will be making the product right here in closer to our customer, and No. 2, we don’t have to rely on containers and supplies coming out of China. We are purchasing many of the parts right here in the U.S. or we’re purchasing it from our company in Japan. That really simplifies the process; it gets the product much closer to us. It’s also building the competency for our team to be able to innovate going forward.”

** Rinnai is a $3.2 billion company that is seen as one of the leading gas appliance manufacturers in the world. Rinnai is a market leader in Japan, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, with businesses also in Italy and the UK. For more than 100 years, Rinnai has developed high-quality products to heat water and homes. However, within the last few years, the company has looked towards new expansion opportunities, including investing in new markets to sustain innovation as well as operationalizing manufacturing and production to meet need. The North American market was quickly identified as one of the greatest growth vehicles for the company. Rinnai entered North America in 1974 in Southern California, moved to LaGrange, Ga., and recently its headquarters in Peachtree City, Ga.

Rinnai America Corp. announced the acquisition of Industrias MASS, the leader in the commercial water heater market in Mexico. This acquisition marks the first by Rinnai America Corporation and follows the launch of its Strategic Business Initiative announced earlier this year, meant to accelerate the company’s presence via acquisitions and partnerships.

As plumbers, we tend to think of our industry as being somehow separate from mainstream technology. But the truth is that water transit technology is getting better all the time. 

Yes – the changes are a little slower than in the electronics world. But they are occurring. And they’re bringing big benefits. 

Plumbing technology is: 

• Making homes more efficient
• Reducing the number of leaks
• Improving the purity of water
• Making problems easier to fix and diagnoses
• Making installations less time-consuming
• Reducing water usage
• Making tanks redundant
• Allowing for touchless faucets and toilets

In this post, we take a look at some of the most talked-about plumbing technology to hit the market in recent years and the effect it is having on people’s lives. 

Let’s get started. 

Smart Irrigation

Google searches for the term “smart irrigation” are exploding at the moment. And it’s not hard to understand why. People don’t want to have to manage their gardens or crops’ hydration levels manually. Instead, they want to put the system on autopilot so that they can avoid drudgery. 

The way smart irrigation works is pretty simple. You start by running a bunch of sprinklers or water dispensers next to the plants you want to water and then hook the system up to the mains. You then connect the sprinkler control to an app that uses sensor data to figure out when it should be watering. It’s clever enough to know that it doesn’t need to water when it rains, but does during a drought. 

Smart irrigation also allows customers to see precisely how much water they’re using for environmental reasons – currently a major concern. 

Leak Detectors

Imagine if you were able to attach detectors to galvanized steel pipes that would automatically tell you if there was a leak. Homes and businesses would save billions every year. 

Well, as many of you will know, this technology already exists. All you need to do is install a simple-looking detector on a pipe and then it will tell you whether there’s a leak or not. 

Many smart home brands, such as Samsung and Nest, already have leak detectors in their product lineup. Given the potential environmental benefits, we are probably going to see these installed as standard in the near future. 

Touchless Technology

Traditional mechanical plumbing systems required people to physically turn handles and push knobs. But given the coronavirus, and germs in general, that old arrangement is not ideal, especially in public bathrooms. 

Touchless technology, however, provides a way around this predicament. It works using a motion sensor. People place their hands in front of it and it changes the light signal, tripping a circuit which then mechanically activates the device. For toilets, users simply place their hands close to a sensor, and the thing flushes. 

For plumbers, these new setups complicate matters somewhat. You need to understand both plumbing and electronics to service this equipment. But, as of right now, the writing’s on the wall. This is where the industry is heading. 

Greywater Recycling Systems

Greywater recycling systems are another eco-friendly innovation people want to learn more about. Homes and businesses want to be able to recycle water from dirty dishes and use it for other purposes, such as irrigation. 

Brands offering greywater systems are coming online all the time. But there’s an information problem: currently, the vast bulk of regular consumers don’t even know these systems exist. 

That will likely change in the coming years. Consumers want to save water. And greywater recycling systems aren’t particularly complicated. They let people save on their overall water bill while also potentially providing their plants with additional nourishment. 

Smart Showers

Traditional showers involved a lot of careful calibration to get the temperature just right. Users often had to adjust dials by minuscule amounts, otherwise, it would be too hot or too cold. Repeating their experience in other places, such as hotels, was impossible. 

Smart showers hope to put an end to this. Instead of presenting the user with a dial, these feature a touchscreen control panel that allows direct temperature selection. So if somebody knows that they enjoy showers at 42 C, then they can simply choose this temperature and start washing. 

Smart showers are still a luxury item, but that won’t last. Just like prices for other electronics, the cost of these systems is coming down all the time. And the market is growing too. So many people want to purchase them.

Tankless Water Heaters

Tankless water heaters are currently a bit of an obsession among the home-owning community. Everybody seems to be interested in them right now. 

Tankless water heaters are popular because they offer space-saving. Without a tank, you can potentially fit more living space into a given footprint.  

Consumers also love tankless water heaters because they provide a continual stream of hot water. So long as the element is active, a warm shower never needs to come to an end. 

The primary driving force behind this trend appears to be convenience. People don’t want to spend money on maintaining clunky tanks. They want something simple and durable. 

They also want energy-efficient solutions. Homeowners feel uncomfortable about keeping water hot all the time. They’d prefer to simply heat it when they need it. 

Linked to tankless water heaters is the technology of hot water circulation. The idea here is to eliminate the problem of cold water sitting in pipes. Usually, you would first have to run a shower or faucet to eliminate the cold water before the hot water came through. 

But with hot water circulation, you simply apply low heat to the small amount of water in the pipes and use a pump to circulate it around. Then, when the time comes to use it, hot water comes out immediately. 

So, in summary, the world of plumbing is not standing still. Technology is advancing all the time, and it’s making people’s lives better. What’s interesting is how much of this technology saves water and makes systems more reliable. Homes and businesses could very well face much lower prices in the future. 

The Rinnai® BMS Gateway creates a unique solution for hot water management 

Having a way to control and monitor hot water usage creates efficiencies for business leaders and facility managers but is often critical to keeping businesses’ doors open. That’s why Rinnai has launched the Building Management System (BMS) Gateway, a new product that will provide commercial and vertical markets a software system used to remotely control and monitor Rinnai Commercial Tankless Water Heaters. 

“Our brand promise is Creating a Healthier Way of Living® and we are focused on providing simple, affordable solutions for businesses,” said Frank Windsor, President of Rinnai North America. “The Rinnai BMS Gateway is the next step to empowering customers to actively manage hot water and help it run seamlessly through any building.” 

Whether using the optional Touch Screen User Interface that acts as an enhanced controller or working directly through the BMS Gateway, businesses can remotely turn tankless water heaters on or off, adjust water temperature, monitor flow rates, operation hours and more. The BMS Gateway and Touch Screen User Interface also allows up to 15 view-only parameters such as water flow rates, combustion cycles, operation hours and error code history. 

Businesses can pair up to six Rinnai Commercial Condensing Water Heaters per BMS Gateway, with up to four gateways per network, for a maximum of 24 tankless units connected thereby enabling greater reach. Additionally, the BMS Gateway works with Rinnai CU199 and CU160 condensing tankless models and uses BACnet, Modbus or LonWorks communication protocols. 

“Many commercial settings, such as school campuses, healthcare facilities, multifamily and government buildings, are often required to have BMS capabilities,” said Dale Schmitz, Rinnai Marketing Segment Manager. “We are now able to provide customers with an intuitive gateway to remotely control and monitor Rinnai Commercial Tankless Water Heaters through a customer-supplied BMS system.” 

Businesses can upgrade their tankless water heaters to include the BMS Gateway or install a whole new system and save thousands in acquisition, maintenance and energy costs. Rinnai tankless units offer precise load tracking, so the amount of energy consumed is directly correlated to the amount of water heated at any given time versus having to heat and re-heat stored water with boilers and tanks. 

 The Rinnai Tankless Rack System comes in Wall-hanging or Freestanding configurations, includes factory assembled manifolds for gas and water that are tested and warrantied, provides built-in redundancy and can be combined with up to 24 units to provide 4.8 million Btu. 

Rinnai is here to solve the needs of businesses while also providing easy, affordable turnkey solutions. With the latest and greatest addition of the BMS Gateway, Rinnai is here to keep hot water running for businesses to stay in business.  

To learn more about Rinnai, visit www.rinnai.us.