Can anyone tell me whether these vent free heaters from Rinnai are any safer than your typical wall mount vent-less heater from Northern Tool or some-such place. I live in a late 1800's home in the far northeast, and while I have had it well insulated, I'm pretty sure it isn't anywhere near as "tight" as newly constructed homes tend to be today, if this makes any difference. Was considering one for supplemental heat, but wanted some input as to whether these had the same drawbacks as other, cheaper vent-less propane heaters. thanks.....tony
Rinnai vent free fan convector propane heaters
- Thread starter tony guthmuller
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Fundamentally, any ventfree (more accurately, "room-vented") heater is putting all of the products of combustion into your home. In addition to the obvious dangers like CO, there's also the fact that combustion produces a significant amount of water vapor.
The only way to eliminate those drawbacks is to vent to the outside - and Rinnai does make direct-vent wall units. Obviously, they're less efficient than ventless units because with ventless all the heat stays in your home, but they're using outside air for combustion and then venting all the nasties back to the outside. The one possible advantage is that some of those Rinnai units look like they have IPI, which means the pilot isn't running all the time.
We have a ventfree fireplace in our living room (it came with the house, which came with my wife) and my wife likes to warm up in front of it for about 30 minutes after she's come in from the cold. 30 minutes is about all I'll let her run it. If I had the money, I'd rip it out and put in a direct vent fireplace in a heartbeat. But at least with a fireplace you can see the flame to verify that it is blue. If you get one be sure you have at least one CO detector in the room with the heater, and at least one more elsewhere in your house.
The only way to eliminate those drawbacks is to vent to the outside - and Rinnai does make direct-vent wall units. Obviously, they're less efficient than ventless units because with ventless all the heat stays in your home, but they're using outside air for combustion and then venting all the nasties back to the outside. The one possible advantage is that some of those Rinnai units look like they have IPI, which means the pilot isn't running all the time.
We have a ventfree fireplace in our living room (it came with the house, which came with my wife) and my wife likes to warm up in front of it for about 30 minutes after she's come in from the cold. 30 minutes is about all I'll let her run it. If I had the money, I'd rip it out and put in a direct vent fireplace in a heartbeat. But at least with a fireplace you can see the flame to verify that it is blue. If you get one be sure you have at least one CO detector in the room with the heater, and at least one more elsewhere in your house.
Thanks for your honest response. I suppose I already knew the answer to my own question but was hoping to hear that these Rinnais somehow miraculously didn't work like other room-vented heaters. tony
I do want to be clear that I am not an expert on the ins and outs of the various devices. However, as a matter of chemistry and physics, you're burning NG or propane. The by-products of combustion HAVE to go somewhere, and if they're not vented to the outside, they are staying in your house.
If Rinnai had discovered some magic trick that made its ventless devices safer than everyone else you'd expect that to be leaping off their web page. They make no such claims, so the only conclusion to draw is that their ventfree devices are similar to everyone elses.
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