sean9c
Guru
I'm replacing my water heater and figured I'd spring for a good one and picked an Isotherm. The ones sold by both Fisheries Supply and Sure Marine, the 2 suppliers that I use, come with a factory installed mixing valve, seems like there is a base model sold elsewhere without the mixing valve. Pretty cool now I don't need to worry about plumbing in my own mixing valve. I get the w-h installed and it leaks where the combo cold water inlet and drain valve connects to the pipe coming out of the tank. Bizarrely, imo, they use a compression fitting to connect the valve to the tank. I fight that for a while trying to get it to seal, no luck. Return the w-h to my supplier and get another w-h, the same model Isotherm. Install that and it leaks. This time at the mixing valve where they have an adapter that goes from whatever, likely metric, thread on the valve, to, again bizarrely, BSP thread. The other 3 threaded connections on the w-h are NPT. Why they would have one BSP thread, who knows. You then need a BSP to NPT adapter. I fight that for a while trying to get it to seal with no luck. That's where I am right now. I pulled the second w-h out last night, and sent a text to my salesman. I've spent too much time looking at Isotherm water heaters. IMO things like the tank, heat exchanger, insulation all look like they are top quality. But using compression fittings to attach the valves and having to have adapters to get to something usable just seems like a bad idea.
If it wasn't for those compression fittings I'd just pull those valves off and do my own inlet, outlet and mixing valve. I think maybe Isotherm needs better quality control.
Rant over
If it wasn't for those compression fittings I'd just pull those valves off and do my own inlet, outlet and mixing valve. I think maybe Isotherm needs better quality control.
Rant over