I’m been trying to find a sales center for thr Rinnai line of heaters in Northeast Ohio but have little success. Shot their web homepage an email and got no response.
Anyone know of a dealer in NE ohio or NW Pa.? Thanks
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Find a contact number for Rinnai and get ahold of the sales rep that's closest to you. They know who is selling their product. If for some reason that doesn't work, start calling plumbing wholesalers until you find one that sells them.
Had a Rinnai water heater put in on one job. The installer had to be trained by Rinnai before they were 'certified' to do the install. Not sure how they enforce that, but that's what I was told. Maybe they won't sell it to you unless you take the class.
As an employee of an US water heater company, I would ask, "Does that indicate that you really want to buy a complex, expensive appliance when there are no representatives close by and a non-responsive website?
Roar!
Well, I already got the waterheaters covered for the place but was looking for the 'thru the wall vented furnace 1004'.
I'd mistakenly used the term 'heater' instead of furnace in my previous post.
Pretty unresponsive yeah.
No email returned but did find a ph # for them. Missed that home page first time thru.
Will see if they got the savvy to return a call.
Found two dealers within 70 miles off the Rinnai web page.
Called one and went thru 4 people before someone had heard of Rinnai and said they could order one.
The other said they quit handling them because they had to order too many units before they could get a price break.
Im thinking I might as well take a drive to new hampshire to buy one and a bunch of tools since there's no sales tax.
Why is it so hard to locate one of these units ?
I even called an electric supplier off the electric supplier's web page that said they had a program about a Rinnai discount you could get thru them.
Two people didn't know a thing about it and the guy who supposedly knew was on the phone. "Can we have your ph# and he'll call you back as soon as he get's off the phone." Ya right, no call back.
No one else has called back either.
Seems a strange way to do business.
Edited 12/11/2003 12:13:11 AM ET by rez
>> No one else has called back either.
Gives you an idea how much profit they anticipate making on one unit.
You mean if I were wanting to buy 20 of them for an apartment building I might get some attention?
Give it a try. See if they fall all over themselves, and then cancel 19 of them.
The thought did go thru my mind.
Thing is they weigh in at 110 lbs and I've found prices 1250 to 1650 for the same unit without shipping charges.
Whole thing makes me wonder if they are really that good to be worth the hassle.
Or just stick a used burner in there for this winter and wait for a better time.
On one call to a heating sales outfit, I talked with a guy who also recommended calling a Rinnai representative and gave me a ph#. I called and got the water heater division.
She called around and gave me the 1-800ph# of the furnace rep. in lexington kentucky.
I called and explained the situation to the secretary since he was busy on the phone. She takes my ph# and says he'll call back when he's free. I'm thinking like, ya right.
The rep does call back. He's coming up to northeast ohio to make a presentation to a prespective dealer in a few days, 90 miles from where I'm at.
Today I drove and met him at a gas station by an intersection like some covert operation. I happen to arrive a couple minutes after he got there. Go figure. I buy the new house unit for about $150 bucks cheaper than the best price available on the net without sales tax or shipping charges.
I finally copped my Rinnai direct-vent wall furnace and the little bungalow will never be the same again.
Thank you all for your input.
Now, how's this thing work?
Ahh, teach me to rewad the whole trhead before responding!
Why so much for a direct vent? Don't you like the Bradford-Whites? They're made in MI, seem to work well (I see a lot of them) and cost a heck of a lot less.
_______________________
Tool Donations Sought
I'm matching tool donors to a church mission to Haiti - we're shipping a bus converted to a medical facility in January (we hope) and can fill it with clothes, tools and all sorts of stuff needed in that poorest of all countries. A few hand tools or power tools can provide a livelihood for an otherwise destitute family. Please email me if you have tools to donate.
Thanks to Jeff and David and Jim for their offers!
It was just the continual good PR I would hear everywhere. They seem to be among the the most trouble free units around and their faults being minimal.
I paid $1,106 and a tank of gas for the truck. If it works as well as hoped it'll be well worth the price and it has a propane conversion kit if I ever decided to move to the woods.
Ya never know with them foreigners, ya know.
As for Bradford-Whites I'd never heard of them.
Cheers
Reminds me of the time that I was trying to get a reflector for Panasonic CFL. At the time efi.org sold the bulbs, but no the reflectors.
The links to dealers/reps on Pansonics websites either did not work or refferenced companies that had never handled the products in the last 5 years (and in some case never).
The phone numbers on the web page where all bad. I finally started calling some Panasonic numbers from the phone books. Kept getting the wrong department that would say that they would transfer me to marketing for that line and ended up every place else. From the janitor at a warehouse to the CEO's office.
Then when I finally got ahold of marketing for that division they gave me the same obsolete list of for local reps that was on their web site.
I forgot how I final tracked them down. I think that one of my calls ended up shipping and some one saw a box with a Kansas City address on it.
I went to their page and ran 4-5 states through their "find a dealer by state" search - got the same answer "None in that state - but here are some near you" and they all listed the same 6 dealers, reagrdless of which state I put in, but I did find some water heater distributers near me using the zip code finder.
I hope their products work better than their web site!
_______________________
Tool Donations Sought
I'm matching tool donors to a church mission to Haiti - we're shipping a bus converted to a medical facility in January (we hope) and can fill it with clothes, tools and all sorts of stuff needed in that poorest of all countries. A few hand tools or power tools can provide a livelihood for an otherwise destitute family. Please email me if you have tools to donate.
Thanks to Jeff and David and Jim for their offers!
>>As an employee of an US water heater company
Cool - can you direct us to any good explanations (& especially cut away view illustrations) of the new "sealed" combustion chamber technology they're requiring now?
_______________________
Tool Donations Sought
I'm matching tool donors to a church mission to Haiti - we're shipping a bus converted to a medical facility in January (we hope) and can fill it with clothes, tools and all sorts of stuff needed in that poorest of all countries. A few hand tools or power tools can provide a livelihood for an otherwise destitute family. Please email me if you have tools to donate.
Thanks to Jeff and David and Jim for their offers!
If you are speaking of the sealed combustion chambers to prevent flamable vapor ignitions, then the site below will give you some of what you want. I do not know what Rheem, Bradford-White or American might have on their websites.
http://www.hotwater.com/frame.html?topage=C3Main.htm
Bill