Rinnai Sunmaster Range

System 6 years old, best thing I ever installed. Free HW 6 mths of the year! Zero problems! – My 25 Tube Gas boosted system with SS 250L tank was installed in 2015, I have had zero problems with it during the last 6years but after reading the other reviews cannot believe that we have the same or similar system installed. As an Engineer I find some review comment farcical given the installers response to many of the problems as posted. My… Read more ·  2

system only normally servicing 2 person household & during Summer (6mths minimum) gas is turned off relying 100% on solar tubes ,although when guests arrive have never had a supply problem. During the Winter Gas usage has been slashed, my biggest outlay is the always the standing daily charge from my Gas supplier, very frustrating that it costs way more to be connected to Gas supply than for the Gas used, thinking about converting home to LPG to remove standing charge! Cannot comment on water temperature fluctuation performance during winter or extended cloudy weather as system is Gas boosted so during Winter it never runs out! 01/2024 Update. My system has not missed a beat since installation back in 2015. I have read other reviews that pan Rinnai but I still have nothing but praise for their Solar HW system. Apart from 6 monthly valve test/flushes I have NOT had to touch the system, it performs faultlessly.

Warranty periods and labour costs – We purchased a brand new complete Rinnai solar hot water system in Jan 2012. Three weeks ago one of the solar collectors was leaking badly, so I contacted the original company that installed the system. They came out and disconnected/bypassed the collector. The tradesman also noted the main tank was corroded and would need to be replaced as… Read more ·  1

well. As this was only 6 years ago since we purchased it and main tank covered for 10 years and collectors 7 years "BUT" the labour costs of removing and replacing these items was not covered. I explained to the installing company that I was not happy about paying for something that was covered by warranty, and I also phoned and emailed Rinnai with the same opinion. I also contacted the Department of Consumer Affairs and everyone in the same position should read (all online) the information about Australian Consumer Law and particularly the "Consumer Guarantee". After explaining to Rinnai through emails that I had not received the full value of the product I had originally purchased, I should not have to pay for the labour costs to replace the warranted parts of the system. These labour costs alone were around $1400. After some deliberation by Rinnai, they agreed to cover all the labour costs and replace the items under warranty. So persistence and understanding of your rights as a consumer are very important, and not backing away is the key. In my particular case outlined, I have to thank Rinnai for their understanding of my opinion on the "Consumer Guarantee" and we have had a good outcome. I have found my interaction with them to be fairly good and the outcomes all that we wanted. Thanks again Rinnai, good customer relations go a long way to repeat business.

Good system if installed properly – Hot water system works flawlessly once installation issue rectified. Temperature sensor wasn't installed properly and the pump ran all night. Once this was fixed it works great. Use very little gas boosting in summer. Always have hot water available. After 9 years a record frost resulted in one of the panels leaking. I would have thought it's… Read more

frost protected, so a plumber will have to come and check it. Hence only 4 stars. But overall, happy with the system.

Solar panel failed due to frost. Do not buy!!! – Rinnai installed the incorrect solar panel for our postcode as we live in a frost zone and the flat plate solar panel failed. After many weeks they finally agreed to install the correct evacuated tube solar panel. But the contractor they assigned to the job as been uncontactable even by rinnai themselves. They refuse to assign a new contractor and… Read more

given false hope that they will be in contact. It has been over 4 months and we are still without solar hot water. I'm scared to look at the gas bill.

Customer service is non existent. Stay away at all cost!

Roof panel exploded – My roof panel exploded, nearly flooding my house. Rinnai offered to replace the unit as it was under the 7 years warranty however they were going to charge me labour costs. Why would anyone want to replace a system that is likely to explode?

Faulty Recirc Pump – Had this high-end solar HWS installed in our new house in 2019, and have enjoyed its performance, benefitting from the low gas consumption. However, early into the 4th year, and it started emitting a horrid noise intermittently. I didn't get it checked out when I guess I should have, and then 8 months later it catastrophically died - blew the… Read more

circuit-breaker in the house, starting leaking water from the side of the control box, and the hot water taps ran cold. Turned out that the recirculating pump had shat itself, and shorted out the electrics. Plumber said pump death was not uncommon, tho he'd never seen one leak or short-out the house like that. Quoted me $800+ to fix it. So I hit up Rinnai, only to discover that whilst the continuous flow water heater has a 5 year warranty, and the storage tank has a 10 year warranty, the recirc pump has just a 1 year warranty.!! However, Rinnai eventually agreed to repair the unit, replacing the pump & the electronic box at no charge. So, well done Rinnai for honoring their responsibility......but surely this pump should have a 20+ year life....and a 10 year warranty..??

Horrible product – We moved into our house in May 2020 and already had Rinnai come and attend as the controller said "Pump failure" in August. they attended and switched the unit off and on again at the wall resetting the warning, the unit was working fine but noted whoever installed it had done a bad job (literally twisting the wires together) not even a month… Read more

later at the start of September the unit was saying pump failure again and Rinnai sent the same person back again and he switched off the power and on again to clear the fault and the pump commenced working again. The storage unit of this hot water system NEVER has any hot water in there, when you use the pressure release valve only cold water ever comes out of it (i was advised this is normal) its now November and the pump fault has re-appeared so i switched it off and on again myself but there is clearly a bigger issue that Rinnai is refusing to acknowledge just resetting the system rather than fixing it. VERY disappointing service received so far. I dont have a receipt for the unit itself because it was included in the build. the reference numbers for the service call outs were 117538 and 123246. After I undertook mediation via product review the company came out and advised that the hot water service needed a software update and the first technician that came twice might not have known to do this. Apparently it was to do with the sensors on the solar panel overheating and not resetting after that happens. It’s now all resolved and been trouble free since but regardless very disappointed with the whole process and resentful that I had to have 3 people attend to resolve what turned out to be a 5 minute job.

5 years in. The pump has now failed on the solar so makes a horrible noise. The pulp online says it’s ~$700 and can’t be replaced yourself (of course) so I can only imagine how much the plumber will charge for this.

Need a long term outloook – Our Sunmaster solar system wjth Rinnai 20 booster did not work when we bought the house. It was 12 years old. The pump was no longer working and the cost to replace the pump was not viable on an old tank. The cost to replace the total system of near $5k when we intended to sell the house within 5 yrs did not stack up. We opted for Rinnai B26… Read more

Continuous Flow unit and threw the solar out. Assessment unless you have a big family and hold the house for 10 years not worth the outlay for solar. It doesn't work your heater and thats the biggest cost with gas.

Major fail - don’t buy – High pitched squealing noise from frost valves last 90 secs & goes off every few minutes, and runs all night (3 nights so far). You can not sleep with this product. If you happen to doze off it wakes you right back up again. Worst product I have ever had. Rinnai service centre told us Thursday they would call Friday and didn’t. They didn’t care… Read more

we couldn’t sleep. They are now shut weekends so we can’t follow up until Monday. Hot water is very slow to run - that was just tolerable with water wastage issues. Now with this valve noise issue it is a major fail. Don’t buy!

Terrible noise when using hot water – We’ve had the solar unit in for 8 months and the sacrificial anode has been replaced 3 times in the tank to try and combat the build up of pressure in the tank. To date this has not fixed the issue. We were told that we weren’t using enough hot water, so what happens when you go away for the weekend? The copper water pipes have changed colour due… Read more

to the excessive heat and plastic around the solar return pipe has melted. It seems that not enough research and development has gone into this product and we a paying the price for it.

Unreliable product with a guarantee to fail multiple times – Having reliable Rinnai products in the past I thought I would fork out the money for the best efficient hot water system Rinnai offered. I purchased the Sunmaster with the evacuated tubes and instant gas booster. Boy was this a mistake.. The Bad - The system had issues from the day it was installed. Day 1- The first issue was the temperature… Read more

sensor on the evacuated tube manifold was faulty. The sensor was indicating a high temperature all the time causing the circulating pump to run 24 hours a day. Day 35 - circulating pump started making a whining noise so Rinnai replaced the pump. Day 89 - noticed the gas booster was running all the time. This would normally happen if there has been no sun for a few days however we have had sunny days for the past week. Discovered the pump to not be turning on during the day. The controller board was not turning on the circulating pump when the temperature sensor on the manifold reached a set temperature. Rinnai replaced controller board. 8 Months after install - another faulty temperature sensor on the evacuated tube causing the pump to run 24 hours a day. Approx 1 year 3 months after install - Gas booster running all the time again and no hot water in the tank. Another faulty controller. This time Rinnai replaced it with a completely different controller. 1 year 9 months - over pressure / temperature valve constantly flowing out scaling hot water..... The circulating pump was not turning off the the tank reached 70 degrees. Rinnai found the sensor in the tank to be faulty which they replaced.

It's now been 2 years and 6 months and I'm dreading the day when it fails again. I have connected the instant gas booster to a remote switch so I can remotely turn on the booster if there is no hot water in the tank. This is the only way anyone can tell if the solar system is operational or not. Most people will have no idea their solar system is not operating as the gas or electric booster will completely mask these issues. Rinnai has a lot of quality issues with this system. The use of poor quality, not fit for purpose parts has ultimately lead to the multiple failures I have encountered. To date every component of the solar system has been replaced apart from the evacuated tubes. A thermal camera will quickly identify any issues there.

The good- To be fair Rinnai has replaced all these items under warranty. My concern is once the warranty runs out will Rinnai come to the party?

If you are reading this chances are you either have issues with your system and are looking for a solution or, you are in the market for a new efficient port quality solar hot water system or, you are Rinnai. I hope this review can assist you with repairing your system or, providing information to assist you into making a informed decision or, providing you with valuable product feedback.

The issues I have encountered could be an isolated case however, reading other reviews I doubt this is the case. The review provided is factual and based on actual issues encountered and solutions to those issues.

Rubbish – We built a house and moved in November 2016 with this unit being installed brand new shortly after. Since then the Rinnai Sunmaster (Model: REU-VR1620WS-AK) has been in gradual decline. We first noticed the water starting to take longer and longer to heat up, then the water temperature started to decrease. Next we had an issue with an overflow… Read more

valve which resulted in the constant flow of water. This was eventually fixed as it is a known fault but it took a couple of calls for them to acknowledge this and more wasted water which resulted in a ridiculously high water bill. We then had to call Rinnai out again to get out another repair man to look at the issue with the water not heating up and the decline in temperature. By this stage the water was lukewarm and we had resorted to using a kettle for hot water. Turns out it was a problem with two filters that were dirty and needed to be replaced. The repairman said the unit is like a car and needs to be serviced regularly. So $225.00 later and now being advised that we need to have it serviced regularly with 2 people in the house and less than 4 years old...what a joke. We have had other HWS for years (one was over 10 years old) and never had to have it serviced. Stay clear of this model and Rinnai in general if this is their standard.

Still not working five years later – Five years on the unit still does not work and Rinnai seem to have their heads in the sand. The problem appears to be in the sensors, and the PCB. Don’t waste your money!! Show details

Hot Sensor Lead – The Hot Sensor Lead (20m) 31002715 has deteriorated after 5 years from the heat of the collector panels. The 20m lead that is supplied by Rinnai is not heat rated. This is Speaker cable and not suitable for Hot Temp Probes. Silicone coated wire should be for the first meter then speaker cable (fig 8) will be fine. There is no information in… Read more

installation manual regarding the specs that the hot temp probe requires. I would like this so i can purchase a non generic brand.

don't even consider buying this waste of money – initial unit,off peak electric boosted floor mounted 315 L tank with 25 evacuated tube solar collector installed before Christmas 2016, Household of 4 adults,Port Pirie SA ,where the sun signs almost everyday,most days with careful shower timing can get 4 showers but add a visitor to stay or for lunch and usually run out of hot water and need to… Read more

turn daylight electric boost on never performed very well and had continuing list of problems,pumps,sensors,etc and eventually tank and some tubes replaced March 2019, since then have complained about non performance as a solar unit,local installer refused to attend to check until at least a 25 degree day,no matter sun shone for 12 hours a day,circulation pump runs almost all day so unit thinks it has hot water available Has been over 6 months now and not one day despite how sunny a day where solar gain has been sufficient to not need electric boost. Best day's performance in last 6 months sees the water delivery to the house start at almost 60 degrees in the morning and drop to 50 degrees or less in late afternoon,no hope of running without nightly boost get a class action going or approach to ACCC and sign me up

Nothing but trouble – I purchased this system in September 2017. Since then I have had one tube failure and multiple problems with the pump and control system. The pump is supposed to circulate water from the storage tank through the roof evacuated tube collector when the water in the collector is warmer than the storage tank. Unfortunately the pump often runs all… Read more

night cooling the hot water in the storage tank. The controller has been replaced a number of times but the problem keeps recurring. Rinnai have been of no significant help other than in the early days of the warranty. I have solved the problem in a way by putting a power timer in the supply to the pump so that it cannot run at night. When the system does work it is very effective and hot water is sufficient for two users unless there are 3 or more days of cloudy weather.

Rinnai Equinox Hot Water SS330H2EXT – This is merely six years old and the tank is bulging and the external plastic has completely broken away. After 2 and a half weeks I cannot even get someone to look at it. Four calls to Rinnai "service" did not get thru. This company is extremely low on customer focus so we would not recommend anything with a Rinnai brand at all based on what happens when you call for help. Show details

Unreliable not fit for purpose – My unit has now failed for the 9th time in 3 1/2 years. The problem seems to be in the design or manufacture of the pump control system. As a result at night the pumps moves the hot water from the tank and cools it down on the roof. Rinnai are totally unhelpful. The ad hoc solution has been to put a timer in the power supply to the pump so it cannot run at night. To make matters worse the problem is intermittent. Show details

Don't Buy... Will not buy again. Pump Failure, Frost Valves Constantly leaking – 18 Month old system was installed on new home and is on 3rd warranty call out. Frost valves leak & have been replaced twice, last set have not lasted 8 months. Pump failed tripping the circuit breaker shutting down all hot water supply in a drizzly cold Victorian evening in July and required our 6 month old daughter to be driven to friends house… Read more

for several days for bathing until Rinnai sent out a technician to replace.

Requested support from Rinnai on full replacement system however pushed back onto technician suggesting they will provide a solution. Next step ACCC to request full replacement.

Reported pump 3 times in last year - it still whines all night!! – I’ve reported that the pump on our Sunmaster 26 has been running all night 3 times since we moved into our new house 18 months ago. Rinnai tell me there’s nothing wrong when there clearly is. The pump whines all night. And you can hear it from our bedroom upstairs. It’s infuriating! Our guest room is downstairs on the adjoining wall and guests… Read more

complain about the noise too. I do not recommend this system at all!!!!!!

I also fail to understand why the pump runs in the middle of the night. The electricity bill probably negates the benefit of having the panel in the first place.

Rinnai please take this seriously for once and do something about it!!

Worst product and very unfriendly customer service – It seems the company RINNAI has the policy of pushing their products hook and crook through the builders rather than delivering quality product that withstand changing weather conditions. More worse is their attitude on customer service. My solar hot water flat panel has burst this morning and despite several calls to 1300555545 the person is… Read more

not registering the fault and does not provide reference number, simply saying that some would call me back. I am stuck now without hot water. It was a similar problem last year, ten days after booking fault their personnel attended and said they have replaced one of the burst valves. If it is a quality product how does it become faulty in less than a year. If the company is doing thousands of installations in Melbourne suburbs as heard from their personnel why can't the company expand the service level at least during these worst weather events. Do not recommend RINNAI products to anyone.

Not designed for the intended purpose - Split Solar Hot Water Pannel – Well our second Solar Hot water panel has now started leaking just out of the 7 years warrant by 5 months, the first one started leaking in 2015 and was replaced under warranty. Now just after 3 years the replacement panel is now leaking water from the inside again onto the roof. The system is a Sunmaster by Rinnai with two solar hot water panels… Read more

on the roof with the Rinnai continuous flow gas boost, the system is not designed for the intended purpose.

A very poor product that should last more than 3 years without fail, I have been quoted $930 for a replacement panel without any labour. This should be still covered under warranty.

Bad Product and Worst Service Support – I have a Rinnai Solar Hot Water Panel unit installed for less than 2 years by my builder on my newly built home. Recently I found out that the Flat Plat on the roof has a small leak that causes my water bill to soar. Since the unit is supposedly still under warranty, I called up the service center to book a service and had one of the worst… Read more

customer service call response I've ever had:

1. Waiting period of around 45 minutes

2. The customer service personnel can't really advise on whether the unit is still under warranty or not even when I offer to give them the serial number of the unit. They can only take your booking then leave it out their certified technicians to determine whether the unit is still under warranty or not. To me this is a HUGE risk because, if they say it's not then you immediately out of pocket at the minimum of $195 plus any other parts & labour cost. Why can't Rinnai confirm over the phone that the unit is under warranty based on serial? This is so uncommon as any other electrical appliances vendor would check first and give warning to the customer if not under warranty before sending the service technicians.

3. When asked whether I can arrange my own plumber to check (which has much lower call-out charge out fee of $80), I was advised that I may void the warranty and was not advised any procedure for my plumber to report that it's a warranty issue.

So now I'm basically stuck with a less-then 2 years old Solar Hot Water Unit that is leaking because Rinnai does not have an open book policy in relation to their warranty claim and after-sales support cost, etc.

If you are building a new home, please help yourselves: ask your builder NOT to use Rinnai for your Solar Hot Water unit!.

Rinnai- Not what it used to be! – Sadly things have changed at Rinnai which in my experience, is no longer as receptive, fair or warranty-compliant a company as it was seven years ago, when I last had an issue. This forces me to change a positive review to a negative one. I know 2 stars are rated as "bad" but "disappointing" is a better term! Also, it looks like I'm off to VCAT… Read more

with this matter.

Recently, halfway through what I thought was a 15-year warranty for a Rinnai Sunmaster Evacuated Tube System, it developed a small manifold leak on the roof tube array. The company determined that the whole array had to be replaced to fix the tiny leak, they supplied the parts but decided I had to pay for installation. ($1240.01) This is not how full warranties are meant to work! (even according to their own website.) What should have been straightforward became complicated! Rinnai said it had to review the claim in a decision process that took almost two months and I had to repeatedly ask how matters were proceeding. This is the third Rinnai rooftop solar product we've had in 15 years.

The first system was a solar panel system, which suffered a catastrophic crack and failure around seven years ago... not up to scratch for cold climates. We were not alone, and I am told by local plumbers Rinnai embarked on an exercise to replace several of these solar panel systems with evacuated tube systems. This gesture was appreciated at the time and I think showed Rinnai to be a thoughtful corporate citizen. However, the offer was never presented as a warranty fix for a different product (solar panel) as such, It was offered as an upgrade, which I was led to believe in a phone conversation with Rinnai reps, was a new system and with a full 15-year warranty. In the written documents there was nothing saying there were warranty limitations. Had this been made clear I believe I would have looked for other systems.

Back in 2025 when a small leak occurred, requiring, according to Rinnai, a full unit replacement, Rinnai made an arbitrary decision to supply parts but not labour. It's reason- labour costs should be thought of as applying to the original, failed 15-year-old unit and not the completely different actual unit installed in 2017. Firstly what does this say about the design of the product when a small leak can't be repaired? Surely that is the fault of Rinnai, which then expects its customers to pay for it? Secondly, when did warranties become arbitrary? Thirdly, if Rinnai failed to communicate such limiting warranty terms, seven years ago (and seeking acknowledgement of the new terms as a condition of supply) why does the customer have to bear that financial responsibility of a failure to communicate?

While communications remained polite in the recent process, the upshot has been I was told to take it or leave it (in nice terms) - I have virtually non-existent warranties and if I wanted to I should talk to a lawyer (again paraphrasing, but also I am taking up the suggestion to canvass further options... VCAT here I come!) I will say that I still believe in evacuated tube technology in colder and frost-prone areas. The systems are supposed to work at minus 12 degrees and also seem less expensive to run than heat pumps and gas and electric systems. I am just sad Rinnai, once a shining light in customer fairness in my eyes has chosen to be just like so many other companies...

Terrible – Panel exploded first time with frost. Could not get through to Rinnai for 4 days as their phones ring out. Then Rinnai tell me it is my fault for calling an independent plumber and paid the plumber. I am very ill and could not wait nearly a week just to get through to Rinnai and ask them to send a plumber to bypass the solar panel. 3 months later… Read more

am s waiting for a panel Rinnai. Have asked Rinnai to upgrade me to evac tubes but again they are not talking to me. Perhaps I am too polite to them. Do not buy Rinnai

Leaking solar Panels – Our Rinnai Hot water units with solar panels have major water leaks from the solar panels after being installed a few months ago in our new house. There is no hot water until the problem can be fixed. The problem started with just condensation inside the panel. The Rinnai technician investigated this about 3 weeks ago and said we should wait… Read more

until the summer to see if the condensation goes away. Today the panels started gushing water onto the roof on 2 of the new houses just build and occupied only 3 weeks ago. When I read the reviews today, it seems this problem is a know issue for many years and is known by Rinnai. It is very disappointing that a company like Rinnai has not implemented a robust fix for a problem they have been aware of for many years. For this reason I have given a very low rating as it is not acceptable to have such a major failure in a new house for a problem that has been known for many years. .

Not Long Out of Warranty and Solar Panels Fail – Bought a new house in 2009 and the Rinnai Sunmaster was the system the builder had installed. Admittedly, I've have had trouble free hot water for many years, but isn't that what hot water systems are supposed to do. Anyway, about a month ago my suburb had a really severe frost and one of my solar panels failed. I came home to find water gushing… Read more

out of the top of the panel and over the roof. Of course it happened on a Sunday! Couldn't get response on the Rinnai 'Hotline' so I had resort to calling a local plumber. He was sympathetic but couldn't come until the next day as he was booked out for the whole day. Seems there were many, many others in the same boat as me with frost affected panels.

Local plumber managed to get to me on the Monday and didn't even want to look at the panels. He seemed to think it wasn't worth even getting up a ladder so he just 'capped off' the system. I am now just relying on the gas booster. 20 mins work $165.

After a lot of thought I rang Rinnai. I really just wanted a second opinion from an expert. I mean, what is the point of having panels on the roof if they're not being used? I was told that I would have to wait nearly 2 weeks for someone to come out and it would cost $195. Well, o.k I guess. The system was looked at and it was found that a metal stopper/end cap had been forcible ejected from the top of a panel when the water expanded as it froze. Simple, I thought. But wait, you can't just put the stopper/cap back on, you have to buy a kit for that. Mmmm, how much for the kit and then fitting? $230. Plumber then explained that it might not be that simple. It has been his experience that I could go to the trouble and expense of getting the panel repaired and then the panel fail by cracking from next severe frost. Hang on, I thought the panels had some some kind of frost protection? He said that panels with frost protection only get installed in designated severe frost areas. These areas, I was told, are designated by the local Councils. Apparently I'm not in one of the designated areas, therefore no frost protection. In his opinion I would be better off not to bother trying to salvage the panels and just solely rely on the gas booster. Sometime in the future, when I can afford it, I will be paying someone to remove the panels and patch up the roof. Very annoying.

To sum up, I'm upset that such an expensive system can fail just due to frost. I definitely wouldn't have another Sunmaster.

Update: Aug 2018 It is now many, many months since I had faulty Rinnai Sunmaster tank and solar panels disconnected. I have had a plumber remove the bypassed water tank and the solar panels from the roof. I am just using the instantaneous gas hot water booster that has now been mounted on the wall. I have been reading my gas bills carefully over the past year and have honestly not noticed an increase in my gas consumption since not having the solar panels preheat the water. Seems that the solar system was not saving me any money at all. All I can assume is that the system wasn't working properly for a long time before the major fail?

I guess the moral of the story is to check (not sure how?) that the system is working correctly and not assume that all is well.

Terrible service – System has a frost protection value that has been leaking at ~12 deg. Service call placed, technician visited, said they needed to order a replacement part. Technician assistant then called afterwards to say Rinnai rejected the change and that we were liable for the visit. Called Rinnai to understand technical operating limits for the frost… Read more

valve, told they could not help me due to computer issues, got put through to their technical department and asked where I could reference the information, was told it should start operating a 4deg and then stop at 6deg. Asked for owner reference information and I was told it was internal knowledge only. Went back to customer service, computers still down, no offer to call back, I was told to email to escalate. Customer service people were rude. Simply not good enough. Date purchased is when new house was first occupied.