2 year old Lochinvar heater: keep it or pitch it?

[Rollercoastr]

My Lochinvar heater was also chemically damaged by the P.O. A friend of mine is an HVAC specialist, and he's insisting that I replace it with another Lochinvar. When I tell him about how good the reputation of RayPak is, he sends me pictures of stacks of Lochnivar heaters in hotel equipment rooms.

I find them to be at the top of the pricing spectrum, so I'm still trying to debate him...

 

[ajw22]

Hotel equipment rooms are a very different environment then where an outdoor pool heater lives. To me what your friend is pointing out proves nothing.

 

[Rollercoastr]

Hotel equipment rooms are a very different environment then where an outdoor pool heater lives. To me what your friend is pointing out proves nothing.

I have an indoor equipment room, but what he actually means to point out is that Lochinvar is a common choice in commercial applications, and he prefers working on them compared to other brands.

 

[gijoecam]

In my (relatively uneducated) opinion, they are all, more or less, the same. So far, the only substantial differences I've seen are that they should use a cupro-nickel heat exchanger for better life (not that it helped me!), and the Raypak doesn't use forced air induction, instead igniting a pilot to fire the main burner instead. Also, the Raypak commercial units use stainless panels and have ceramic coated cast iron headers. Aside from that, I don't see a whole lot of difference in the range I'm looking at. Price wise, it's about a $400 spread from the most to least expensive ones.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

Hotel equipment rooms are a very different environment then where an outdoor pool heater lives. To me what your friend is pointing out proves nothing.

A compliment hotel equipment room is actually much friendlier to equipment than the elements.

 

[ajw22]

A compliment hotel equipment room is actually much friendlier to equipment than the elements.

That was my point. A heater working well in a hotel equipment room does not prove it is rugged enough for outdoor residential use.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

That was my point. A heater working well in a hotel equipment room does not prove it is rugged enough for outdoor residential use.

Gotcha - I took it the other way, as I spent 2 days last week in a hotel dungeon.

The lochivar is a tank. personally I wouldn’t want to carry on out across a yard etc..

Raypak is a simple pipe & a fire heater, btw I am a raypak dealer.

 

[ajw22]

The lochivar is a tank. personally I wouldn’t want to carry on out across a yard etc..

Raypak is a simple pipe & a fire heater, btw I am a raypak dealer.

Sometines simple is better.

 

[sktn77a]

The advantage of the Lochinvar is that the plumbing, gas and electric are already there and pre-aligned for a DIY install. Anything else is going to be more involved for the OP.

 

[gijoecam]

The advantage of the Lochinvar is that the plumbing, gas and electric are already there and pre-aligned for a DIY install. Anything else is going to be more involved for the OP.

Re-plumbing needs to be done anyways. Adding a check will necessitate cutting everything apart, and I wasnt real thrilled with how it was done to begin with anyways as I couldn't isolate the heater and still run the pump. The last owner must have run out of conduit because there is about 4 ft of wire buried in the mulch, and the gas line is no big deal.