Has Eternal tankless gone belly up??

[Master Plumber Mark]

I have heard rumors that the Eternal tankless condensation water heater company has
gone out of business... has anyone else heard about this???????

I Had someone call me today needing repairs and the 800 number on the unit is not being answered any longer..... I told them to call the last plumbing supply house that handled them in town to see what they knew was going on......

I would not have a clue as to how
to even begin to get parts for a company that had bitten the dust....... and why should I waste my time attempting to bring something back from the dead when their is no future support for the brand????

I also am pretty psychic and I told this man that I see a
75 gallon Rheem Power Vent water heater coming into his
home and replacing that piece of junk sometime in the next month.....

 

[S. Pino]

I am dealing with an error code and I, too, can't get any info. on the company. Even the website is gone! Very disappointed as when I was sold my Eternal unit I was told it was the best. This is the 2nd time I have fixed it in 3 years. Def. will be pulling it out the next time it decides to quit on me.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Dana]

A web vendor going by the handle "Buy Plumbing" as well as a vendor going by "Kiwi Plumbing" are currently selling Eternal HW heaters. If you want to figure out their contact info they might be able to point you to product support (or not).

The spec sheet still seems to be online, among other documentation. (You may want to download & save anything that may help in figuring out how to debug & repair the thing, in case it disappears later.)

 

[Asher]

Unfortunately Eternal in the USA has closed down completely! The Canadian company cannot sell in the USA. There's a basic design flaw, apparently in the circular heating unit that causes it to crack after repeated cycles.

This is, as far as we know, the only Tankless water heater that doesn't cause a substantial pressure drop for that hot water line!

One could use a Laars Mighty Stack furnace instead, and that is not as efficient but has years behind it in commercial use. One can get it with an 80 gallon water tank too.

One can still get parts online from various dealers. Complete units and you are on your own!

Asher

 

[dwclapp]

I installed two GU26 Eternal water heaters in my home in 2009. They're design is unique: the only tankless gas heater, at least that I found, with a ~1 gallon boiler of hot water always ready to go. This avoids the ~30 second lag other tankless water heaters need to heat the boiler before generating hot water. That's the good news.

The bad news: Both GU26's developed boiler leaks, one in ~2 years, the other in ~4.

The good news: Eternal replaced both GU26's for free under warranty.

The bad news: The replacements were a GU145S, with completely different dimensions. So all plumbing connections had to be moved: gas supply pipe, hot & cold water lines, TP relief line, vent pipe and condensate line. Eternal said this cost was on me.

The worse news: one of the replacement GU145S water heaters developed a boiler leak in Sept 2015.

The worst news: Eternal stopped answering their phone and apparently closed shop in the US. So I called their Canadian phone #, and the lady who answered was clearly coached to read a script, saying she knew absolutely nothing and had no comment on Eternal in the US. I was born in the morning, but not yesterday morning.

Given the frequent, repeat boiler leaks, is anyone surprised Eternal US had to close shop? It's a shame, because the design was truly unique and ahead of it's time. Unfortunately, it was also ahead of Eternal's engineering and manufacturing quality.

Because Eternal US closed shop, I replaced the leaking GU145s with a Rheem RTGH-95DVLN (and for the second time, moved the gas supply pipe, hot & cold water lines, TP relief line, vent pipe and condensate line).

Now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop: The second Eternals GU145s that is not leaking , yet. When it does, I'll install a 2nd Rheem, and move all the pipes again.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

With all the trouble you have had with tankless,
you would think that some higher power is trying to tell you something...

maybe that in general ......Tankless heaters SUCK...big time...

so, I have to ask..
did you install the rheem tankless because of a tight area requirements where they both
are located ,, or could you just have installed a simple 50 or 75 tank type gallon heater???

If one of those Rheem tankless give you trouble, would you go for broke
and do another brand of tankless ??????

Are you a glutton for punishment , are you hell bent on not being defeated by
the tankless water heaters??

Inquiring minds want to know

 

[Eternal Surprise]

I'm not sure if anyone will read this reply, but I just had to share my experience the my Eternal GU195S. I installed this unit in my home February 2011 and for just over 7 years it ran like a champ... I never got an error nor did it ever leak. Well just this week, March 25th, 2018 error E27 appeared. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when I googled the problem and found out that the company doesn't exist in the USA anymore, nor does the company own up to ever selling them. I took the mixing valve off and cleaned it and then did some voltage testing and thought maybe the electronics of the valve was bad. I was tempted to buy another valve that I found on the internet, but I decided to move on. Yes, I bought another tankless water heater (another brand of course). I know Master Plumber Mark thinks I'm nuts. Does anyone have any great ideas what I can do with this nice shiny box.. incubator, easy bake oven, etc.. ? Anyway, I posted this because I have a feeling I might be holding the world record of having this tank error/trouble free for over 7 years

 

[Dana]

Is there a "Field of Broken Dreams" museum for artifacts like this?

Startup companies entering mature markets with potentially better mousetraps need deep pockets to survive enough evolutionary cycles to reach similar levels of reliability as the well-evolved standard products.

 

[djdavenport]

To you literary types out there, I refer you to Alexander Pope: "Be not the first by whom the new are tried, not yet the last to lay the old aside."

There are some YouTube videos of Eternal Sales reps at various trade shows, extolling the virtues of their revolutionary technology. And it did sound awfully good. But lack of due diligence in the design and testing, being overly eager to roll the product out, aggressively recruiting dealers, and offering insanely generous warrantees that they couldn't begin to honor, once the failures started to mount... Heck, even the This Old House guys got sucked in, and poor Richard had to show up a couple years later at a site where he had installed an Eternal and, with some egg on his face, yank it out and replace it with an HTP.

And, to Dana's point, even the time-tested "reliable" brands had their share of problems with first and even second generation products. They're complicated machines, and heavily dependent on proper installation.

So, congrats on beating the actuarial tables. And, here's wishing you many years of eternal hot water courtesy of another brand.

 

[Dana]

>Richard had to show up a couple years later at a site where he had installed an Eternal and, with some egg on his face, yank it out and replace it with an HTP.

HTP has had their fair share of dogs too, along with their pretty good stuff.

 

[DonL]

Does anyone have any great ideas what I can do with this nice shiny box.. incubator, easy bake oven, etc.. ?

Sell it on ebay

 

[Eternal Surprise]

Sell it on ebay

Do you have a price in mind?

 

[djdavenport]

Just a quick look: Two units being sold for parts on eBay. Price range 250-350.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

I am tired of the whole subject.... no one cares to use common sense anyway
you cannot believe how many are being installed by hacks around here without water softeners or even the isolation valves to de-lime them annually....
I totally give up trying to talk sense to anyone....

So you got 7 years out of it and
you probably did not break even but that is ok ...

what brand did you buy to replace this dog anyway???

If I had to buy one it would probably be a navien

good luck

 

[Ladiesman217]

I am tired of the whole subject.... no one cares to use common sense anyway
you cannot believe how many are being installed by hacks around here without water softeners or even the isolation valves to de-lime them annually....
I totally give up trying to talk sense to anyone....

So you got 7 years out of it and
you probably did not break even but that is ok ...

what brand did you buy to replace this dog anyway???

If I had to buy one it would probably be a navien

good luck

You brought up something that is not discussed very much. Is a tankless water heater a good fit in a hard water area?

I have an older ELM Aquastar 125vp tankless. Earlier this year I vinegar flushed it for the first time after about 20 years of use. However, I am in a low hardness water area (white). You are in a extremely high hardness area (dark blue).

http://homewater101.com/articles/hard-water-across-us

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

hey I really like your hardness chart.....and am gonna copy it...
Indianapolis
has 22 parts hard....throughout most of the city... .

tankless will work ok if you are in the white areas without a water softener
and as long as the temps don't fall down too low in the winter time....

in Indianapolis it is simply impossible to explain to people what they need
to have one....and their are soooo many dis-honest people out there that only see
the 4k they are gonna charge to install one for some fool drooling at the mouth to
have a tankless....

 

[Reach4]

You brought up something that is not discussed very much. Is a tankless water heater a good fit in a hard water area?

See https://terrylove.com/forums/index....heater-would-you-recommend.60528/#post-449567

https://terrylove.com/forums/index....ll-tankless-propane-boiler.56190/#post-413112

In a hard water area, I think a softener would be mandatory for a tankless WH.

 

[DonL]

hey I really like your hardness chart.....and am gonna copy it...
indianapolis has 22 parts hard....throughout most of the city... .

tankless will work ok if you are in the white areas without a water softener
and as long as the temps dont fall down too low in the winter time....

in indianapolis it is simply impossible to explain to people what they need
to have one....and their are soooo many dis-honest people out there that only see
the 4k they are gonna charge to install one for some fool drooling at the mouth to
have a tankless....

The water can be to cold there also.

A tankless requires to much maintenance for most homeowners.

Mark you can make a lot of money doing a flow test.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

What I think is funny or pathetic is the eternal tankless heater described above sounds like
it was installed in almost pristine water at 3 parts hard..... that is perfect water....

but still the damn thing failed anyway in 7 years.....

I don't know what you are talking about when you say flow tests...??
we are on city water here with probably anywhere from 70psi up to 135
psi throughout the town---pressure is never an issue.....

I think its always
very wise to oversize a tankless heater ... if you have 2 bathrooms you ought to get
one that will do up to 5 bathrooms....

you cant take a wimpy tankless back to the hardware store,
but you can always throttle down a big one if need be

 

[Mark G 45243]

I'm sorry to hear/read/discover that eternal tankless has "tanked". Years ago when I researched an on-demand system to replace a small short in the attic of our mbr addition I really liked their design ~ which seemed to be well thought through...
We ended up installing a model GU145S/50B and it has (to date) worked flawlessly.
So much so that I was hoping they made a larger unit (that would accommodate a recirculator) to replace our primary natural gas WH which has now failed.
Does anyone have a suggestion? ...a direction?