Customer Reviews

Eccotemp FVI-12-LP High Capacity Propane Tankless Water Heater

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased this water heater for my 1 BR efficiency apt. which has a shower, bath vanity and kitchen sink. It replaced a 50 gal. electric water heater which was costing me a FORTUNE in electric bills! After removing the elec. WH and replacing it with the FVI 12, my utility bill has decreased by over 91% including the propane gas used to heat the water! The only problem I had was the fact that my shower has a cut-off valve which I use while I'm soaping up. When I turned the valve back on to rinse off, after a few seconds I'd get a blast of cold water since the FVI 12 only supplies hot water when flow is detected. After some thought and ingenuity, I decided to install a "point of use" 110v water heater at the output side of the FVI 12 (G.E. Model # GE02P06SAG 2.5 gal 6 yr 1440 watt 120 volt plug in point of use water heater); I hooked up the output of the FVI 12 to the input (cold) side of the 110v heater and the output (hot) to my hot water line that I disconnected from the FVI 12...Problem Solved! This increased my electric bill a bit...94 cents a month! I can live with that in addition to the fact that I have a steady stream of hot water at all times!
If you have a cabin, efficiency apt. or a relatively small 1 or 2 BR house, BUY THIS WATER HEATER!! It will save you THOUSANDS of dollars over the years.

This is a great product for the money and hundreds less than most other tankless water heaters! I got it in two days and installed it on the weekend. This thing kicks serious butt! The unit comes on and seconds later you have hot water at the tap/shower! For once I can take a shower for as long as I want and never run out of hot water!

Installation Notes:

All parts needed for install came to about $50 USD, Gas shutoff valve, tee's for water supply tie in etc...

It can be mounted to a wall with the exterior wall either behind the unit or at a right angle...

Important note:

THIS UNIT WILL NOT RUN ON VERY LOW WATER PRESSURE! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BETWEEN 35-50 PSI WATER PRESSURE BEFORE ORDERING THE UNIT OR YOU WILL BE WASTING YOUR MONEY!!!

I installed the FVI-12 to replace a 40 gallon, propane fired, power-vented, tank unit. The heater I replaced was very similar to this one: American Water Heaters PVG62-40T42-NV Residential Gas PowerFlex Direct Vent Water Heater, 40 Gallon. So far we are very pleased with the Eccotemp FVI-12.

Usage Patterns

A tank storage or batch heater like the powerflex is very good at supplying a lot of hot water all at once, while a small tankless like the FVI-12 excels at providing a smaller amount of hot water more or less indefinitely. Most of the decision is in matching the tool to the job. In our case, we are family of 4 who take showers sequentially and other usage occurs later in the day. This matches the tankless pattern well. If we had multiple simultaneous uses we'd probably be less pleased.

Installation

I installed the Eccotemp in the same location as our old water heater. The gas line was the same and required no modification at all. The water lines were a different size and, because the FVI-12 is smaller and hangs on the wall, they needed to be longer and end in a different place. All of that was relatively easy and inexpensive, about $40 in fittings etc.

Venting turned out to be the most challenging part of the installation. The old heater used a 4" PVC vent pipe which allows for zero clearance to combustible materials. The FVI-12 uses 2-1/4" stainless vent pipe which needs much greater clearances. A discussion with Eccotemp tech support led me to enclose the exhaust vent in a 3" single walled vent pipe in order to decrease the clearance to a PVC drain pipe. So far this works beautifully, and the outside shell doesn't even get warm to the touch when the water heater is operating.

Due to the location and the thickness of the wall I needed a longer vent pipe (The FVI-12 includes about 13" of vent and an elbow). (One of the short-comings of the manual is that it doesn't mention the maximum vent run, which is 17 feet according to Eccotemp tech support). Unfortunately the proper 2-1/4" stainless thin-walled tubing is hard to come by and, at the time I needed it, back-ordered. A friend who owns a local muffler shop came to the rescue with an inexpensive exhaust pipe cut and formed to the exact specifications needed. I would recommend this approach strongly, except that stainless wasn't available so I have doubts about durability. I'll be monitoring the condition of the pipe very closely.

Documentation and Function

I found the manual to be better than average but it definitely had room for improvement. As mentioned above, it doesn't include the information about the maximum vent length and it leaves several other matters ambiguous. The manual is available as a download from the Eccotemp website which makes it an easy matter to form your own opinion of it before purchase and does give a pretty good idea of what is involved in the install. There are several typos.

The device has only two controls and an LED display. The display shows current water temperature and any error messages. The knob on the left controls gas flow, the knob on the right is labeled "water temperature" but *appears* to control water flow rate. Adjusting the temperature setting is a matter of turning on the hot water and then adjusting these two knobs until the temperature stabilizes where you want it. The manual suggests starting with the gas all the way down and the water all the way up. The FVI-12 does not appear to have a thermostat but I could be mistaken in this, perhaps its operation is subtle.

Technical Support

Eccotemp technical support needs its own category because it really is in a league by itself. I was pleased and amazed when they called me back on a Saturday morning over a holiday weekend. They were polite, customer service focused, and technically knowledgeable. Good technical support goes a long way toward making up the short-comings of the manual.

Conclusion

So far, after the installation and about two weeks of usage, I'm very pleased with the Eccotemp FVI-12. It works better for us than our old water heater at about 30% of the cost. It worked right out of the box the first time, and included everything which would have been needed for a typical installation. The manual was tolerable and the technical support is first rate. I give it four stars instead of five due to the short-comings of the manual and the somewhat awkward controls. Fixing the manual and providing true thermostatic control (or a better interface) would make this device a complete winner. My last remaining concern is durability, and given its appearance, I have high hopes, but at 30% of the cost of the alternative I'd still consider it an excellent value if it lasts only half as long.

Pros:

Excellent Tech Support
Tremendous value for the money

Cons:

Manual needs a little work
Not suitable for multiple simultaneous use or (as noted elsewhere) low water pressure

As long as nothing goes wrong with this unit, you'll love it. If it fails for some reason, you'll just get the runaround from customer service, and all that love will disappear. This water heater had some great features compared to the Bosch it replaced, and it worked well for a few months. Then it sprung a pinhole water leak in the heat exchanger tubing. The leak was right on the bend in the tubing, a natural weak spot, and appears to just be where the water pressure wore away at it until it broke. My husband removed the unit so we could at least restore cold water flow until we could get a replacement. I e-mailed the customer service address in the manual to ask how you go about a warantee exchange. They replied by e-mail that I would need to call them, because they had questions. My husband called customer service. Their brilliant analysis was that the unit had to have frozen from cold air coming down the vent on a 31 degree night. Really? Inside the warm house? Come on! If that is the case, what is going to happen to the unit on the other end of the house when we get to the actual cold weather, below zero? I guess we get to look forward to some major water damage. They couldn't stand by their warantee, because it just had to be our fault that their product failed, but, hey, they will kindly sell us a replacement at a discount. What kind of warantee is that!?! Buy at your own risk- maybe it will work great and you'll have no problems. But if you have a problem, the warantee isn't going to apply, and you'll be stuck with buying a replacement.

Update: We never were able to get this company to back their warantee, and got tired of arguing with them. We ended up having the pinhole repaired, and that lasted about a month. Then, a new pinhole leak started in another place in the tubing. Water sprayed all over the electronic connections, ruining them as well. We've had it with this piece of junk, and won't be repairing it again just to wait for the next leak. Do not waste your money on this product!

Let me start by saying that the product performed as expected, but with our low flow faucets , we could not get the unit to turn on all the time. Otherwise the unit seems well built. I needed more exhaust duct which the factory was very helpful with.

Took me a while to finally getting around to installing the heater... but very glad I did.

Installation - very easy. Like many of the other reviews, the unit should come with more exaust pipe, or be a standard size that is easy to find.
Upon completion, I set the system pump pressure to 40/60, however I had low-flow heads throughout the house, and the unit did not have enough flow to turn on. It took several hours to come to the conclusion that I had to change all the faucets to a higher flow rate.

Quality - Seems good so far (3 days so far), however a set screw on the upper fan came out during the first day of operation and I needed to find a replacement set screw. I did email the company and did not hear back. Fortunately we have a local hardware store that caries metric set screws - problem solved.

Flow & Heat - The unit has no problem heating the water, even with 1/2 inch pipe. If I were to purchase again, I would have bought the next unit up, but I did not want the commitment until I tried this one.
As a plus, here in Fairbanks, we have very cold well water (34-38 F) the unit has no problem heating the water to 130-140.

All in all - good unit... will buy another one next time I purchase a heater - if for nothing else then the price. There is no reason for a like heater to cost over $1000.

This is a decent unit for the money and is well worth the effort of installing it. We are renovating our 2 Bdr/1Bth vacation cabin and needed the space that the old 50 gal water heater took up. After lots of research I thought this unit would fit the bill. We run off well water and you definitely need to heed the warnings about having adequate water pressure! After installation the unit would not heat unless I turned on both the shower and the kitchen faucet. We are right on the edge of what will switch it though and I made some adjustments at the pump and this improved things but still not perfect. I am looking for a shower head that won't put so much back pressure on the line and I'm sure this will do the trick. I think they could design it where it needs less pressure to throw the switch or redisgn the actuator altogether and that would make it more practical for more people. The units installation instructions could be a lot better; it's not that hard to install but the instructions are confusing and could be a lot better. I'm an avid DIY'r and despite the poor instructions, I did it in about 6 hours including running a new propane line under the cabin and installing the vent through the wall. It looks like a decent quality unit but the LED temperature reading did not work on my unit (not really required as I can just set it to what feels right and forget it). I will be calling the Manufacturer to replace it, so we will see how that goes. Overall though, the system produces piping hot water very fast and it can handle what most people would use at one time (not sure about 2 baths/showers at the same time though). It's relatively small compared to that old water heater, looks good and seems to do the job. I gave it 4 stars because of the LED issue, if you don't have a pressure issue and the minor defect, I would give it 5 stars.

I bought this after a lot of research to replace a 40 gallon gas water heater that went out after 7 years. It had a 6 year warranty. It was as easy to hook up as the old heater. The only problem I had was that I was on well water and have a water pump. The water would turn hot, but when my pump went to prime, it would cut out and the pressure went down and the water would turn cold. I called the company and they said I would have to buy a diaphragm pump at around $160 to add on to keep the pressure level. I looked to find a used one or get a cheaper price for weeks.

I happened to go to the store where I had bought my wayne water pump. The salesman told me that maybe I could just put a higher pressure switch on my pump. What they normally sell in the store is a 30-50 pressure switch which is what city water runs at. There was a 40-60 pressure switch they didn't carry that he thought would give me enough pressure to run the heater consistantly. I bought one from amazon with a low pressure cutoff in case there was a problem with a leak or broken pipe. The salesman told me to open a faucet and drain my lines then check the pressure of my tank. The lines need drained so that you are checking air and not water pressure in the tank. Then to put the pressure to 2 below the pressure switch lower number. Since the switch was at 40, I put the tank at 38. The switch was very easy to change out.

That did the trick. I had to readjust the temp and gas switch on the heater after this. I now have consistant hot water all the time. I am thrilled that I am not heating water all the time, only when I need it. I am sure I will save a lot of money over the years with this new system. I hope this helps anyone who also has a water pump, so you don't have to buy any
extra equiptment.

I purchased the tankers hot water heater for my kennel, because the traditional hot water heater could not keep up with my needs. This tankers hot water heater has been great, I have hot water for as long as I need it. Just turn on the faucet and the unit starts to produce hot water in seconds, and will continue producing it until I turn it off. Easy to follow directions for hook up, might need some knowledge of plumbing. Great product.

Eccotemp FVI-12-LP High Capacity Propane Tankless Water Heater
by Eccotemp Systems

This is my first review.. But, I used to work in a lab that evaluated appliances, not too much different from this.... I know something about good design, and engineering..

I am only giving it five stars because I can't give it six.. This is my second tankless water heater.. This unit was to replace a Bosch heater because I wanted a power exhaust vent..

For most people, the power vent is a good feature because it closes off the vent with a damper when not in use.. Keeps indoor air from escaping, or outdoor air from entering..

I live in a log cabin in Alaska, with a well water.. I only use one hot water function at a time.. So, I do not know if it provides enough hot water for more than one function at a time.. But, for me, it provides plenty of hot water from a very cold well in Alaska.. My well water is often below forty degrees F. I suppose the most use if for a shower, and it's plenty of hot water.. I do not have the adjustments maxed out.. My shower is mostly hot water with little cold water mixed.. But, plenty hot.. I imagine my shower head is only a 3gpm shower head..

I've had it for about six months, and it has function perfectly.. The design, and function is much better than my other tankless water..

Easy to install, and no problems.. I also do not know about factory service, as I have had no problems..

I thot the price, and function was exceptional, and would be eager to recommend it.

Wm Arett...