New Gas Heater - Jandy JXI or Raypak Digital

[aaronleahy]

Hi all,
I have searched around here and found how heavily favorable the Raypak gas heater is. I was all set on my decision, until my installer recommended the Jandy JXI. He has experience installing both, but is a Jandy preferred installer so can double the warranty on parts and labor to 2 years vs the 1 for Raypak. He did say both units are really solid heaters.

My only reservations about the JXI are
A) limited time on market so no real long-term reliability data yet.
B) It is induced draft so has a blower motor and 1 more part to fail.

My heater is in an L shaped corner of two walls and I was told that this "could" cause turbulent air which the Raypak may struggle with.

I do like the very compact dimensions of the Jandy, since my office window looks right at my pool equipment. The Jandy would be below the sight line but the Raypak would stick up considerably higher. This would only be icing on the cake though. Not enough impact to sway me from a good heater to a bad for aesthetics.

Either unit will cost me the exact same amount installed and would be 260/266 BTU for the Jandy & Raypak respectively.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[ps0303]

I sell and install both units. I do prefer the Raypak/Rheem unit but for some applications I would use the Jandy JXI. Yes the Raypak/Rheem units can have issues with down drafts and if so, then you would need to install a stack on it to prevent it from occurring. That does obviously add to the overall height of the unit. The Jandy 2 year warranty is hard to beat when comparing the two. Yes you do have more parts that could fail so that would be a minus on the Jandy side.

 

[aaronleahy]

It seems more likely that I'll have issues after the first 2 years with either heater - so at that point, I would think the one that has cheaper parts / is easier to repair would come out ahead.

From my understanding, these units untilize 2 very different ways of heating the water. Is either one more efficient, more reliable, or cheaper to get repair parts for?

 

[ps0303]

Same energy efficiency. Raypak has been on the market longer. Depends on what part breaks. Yes Jandy has more parts that can break down the road.