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Unmasking the Failure in Tankless Water Heaters: An Optimal Deep Dive
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posted by brian schultz
At Optimal, we're driven by solving real-world challenges, and sometimes, those challenges arrive in staggering quantities. We recently connected with a client in Oklahoma—a true pioneer in tankless water heater adoption, having installed these units in 1,500 properties across his portfolio. Unfortunately, his forward-thinking approach met a significant roadblock: repeated, widespread failure of the tankless units, even after switching manufacturers.
Our paths converged at the National Association of Home Builders International Builders Show, where Optimal was honored to be featured in the Start-Up Zone, recognized for our cutting-edge technology. The client's predicament presented an unparalleled opportunity: to test our product in an environment where established solutions had unequivocally failed.
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Post-show, we flew to Oklahoma City. What awaited us was truly eye-opening. The property manager led us into a garage stacked floor-to-ceiling with broken tankless water heaters. It was an astonishing sight—easily over $100,000 worth of failed equipment. The sheer scale of the problem was jaw-dropping.
The property owner's strategy made perfect sense initially. Offering all-inclusive utility rents, the space-saving and energy-efficient benefits of tankless units were compelling. However, the continuous failures had turned a smart investment into a substantial financial drain, not just in replacement costs for over 3,000 units, but also in significant labor and electrical upgrade expenses.
Witnessing that garage full of units, I admit, I had a moment of doubt. Had we committed to a test that was doomed from the start? I quickly snapped an image, trying to discreetly capture the incredible volume of damaged product without appearing overly shocked or insensitive to their challenging situation.
The core issue in water heating, regardless of the product, often comes down to scale. When water is heated, dissolved calcium and minerals solidify. These solids bond to each other and, critically, to the heating elements. This accumulation, or "scale," drastically reduces heat transfer efficiency over time, leading to clogs in heat exchangers or element failure. While scale is inevitable, it is absolutely manageable through pre-appliance filters or whole-home water softeners, which also benefit other appliances and household surfaces.
We collaborated with the property manager, installing several of our Optimal units, some with scale filters and one without, to gain comparative data. With a hopeful outlook, we trusted our design and technology would demonstrate superior performance.
Crucially, we sought permission to bring a few of the failed competitor units back to our warehouse for a full diagnostic. The property manager graciously agreed, and three units were shipped back to our facility. Equipped with safety gear, grinders, and reciprocating saws, our team began the dissection.
These units had failed in under six months. While we anticipated finding scale, our investigation revealed something more profound: a significant design flaw alongside the expected mineral buildup.
The initial heating chambers of the failed units were heavily caked with scale, while the second and third chambers showed progressively less accumulation. This led us to a critical deduction: our competitors' units engage one chamber to full capacity before activating subsequent chambers. This localized, intense heating accelerates uneven scale development, drastically reducing the lifespan of that primary chamber.
In contrast, Optimal tankless water heaters are engineered to evenly distribute power across all chambers. This balanced load reduces the localized heat intensity on any single element, which in turn significantly mitigates scale production.
Another key finding was the restrictive spacing between the heating elements and the chamber walls in the competitor units. In one case, the scale was so dense it was impossible to remove the elements, highlighting a critical design oversight that exacerbated the problem.
A significant advantage of Optimal is our Optimal+ cloud connectivity, which provides real-time monitoring of all our installed units, including those in this test.
Four months into our Oklahoma trial, we have observed no visible issues with our Optimal units. While we still recommend routine six-month checks, scale filter replacement, and flushing, the Optimal+ cloud offers our support team live visibility into performance, enabling precise, data-driven maintenance guidance rather than arbitrary schedules. We are extremely encouraged by the performance of our units in what truly felt like a "doomed" testing environment.
We continue to monitor this test closely, gleaning invaluable insights. Furthermore, this experience has already informed the development of new features for our next-generation product, providing even more robust protection against scale and ensuring long-term reliability.
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