Inline hot water heater.

[Rykalel]

We need an additional HLT to keep up with our growing production schedule, but I'd like to look into an inline on-demand heater to save on floorspace.

Are any of you currently using them? Do you have any recommendations on sizing or manufacturer? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Starcat]

Technology

Almost invariably, this type of " Tek " will fail when you need it most.
The Engineering behind it is not logical or stable.

[gungadin]

There are several threads addressing this topic and quite a few folks who have discussed successful use of one or more on demand water heaters for hot liquor and cleaning needs. A search should turn them up.

[Bierkoenig]

Almost invariably, this type of " Tek " will fail when you need it most.
The Engineering behind it is not logical or stable.

A strange sentiment.

We use two Rinnais to fill our HLT, provide hot water for cleaning, and we sparge directly from them. Never had a hiccup. Pound for pound, it's basically the most efficient way to heat water. Not sure why anyone would think they are not well engineered. Outside of the US they're probably the most widely used type of water heater and have been for many years. I've been using one in my home for the better part of a decade and I would never go back. They're typically designed for a twenty year service life. Even if you only got a quarter of that in the brewery, you'd be well ahead. If you have two or more heaters running in parallel you have redundancy if one fails: suffer through one day of reduced hot water capacity while you pop in another unit.

[m@kdog]

Make and model

Could you tell me what model you have, how they are set up, what is the max temp @ max GPM, and what was the approximate cost for the set up you have? A picture would be great!

I think this info would help a lot of other people too!

Many thanks!

-M

[Bierkoenig]

We have two Rinnai R94s running in parallel (one could connect them in series, but a parallel setup is recommended for easier isolation for maintenance, etc.) Max temp is 185 F. Max flow depends on your water temperature going in. Rinnai has charts that show the GPM based on your temperature delta. Obviously, two heaters doubles your hot water capacity. I have it plumbed so that I can recirculate my HLT to raise the water temp if I want (the vessel is just an insulated holding tank--not heated itself). This set up gives us plenty of hot water to sparge our 10 bbl mash tun direct from the pipe. Fills our HLT for a brew in about 25 minutes. That model is about $900 online.

[einhorn]

Great info Bierkoenig. Funny, these are in just about every European household, the high cost of electricity & water has made boilers for the most part obsolete. Good to see that they have maybe found a placement in the brewing world.