Let’s elaborate Noritz vs Rinnai water heater comparison.
Every home needs a water heater, it’s simply a necessity of our daily lives that we have access to hot water quickly and easily. With the tankless line of water heaters, this household item has been enhanced to be even better.
However, the huge number of brands and types could get confusing for those who are only now looking into buying a high-quality tankless water heater. That’s why we’ll cover two great companies in today’s article, Noritz and Rinnai.
Noritz vs Rinnai
While it’s expected that highly popular brands will be inherently more fruitful to purchase than lower-rated ones, there are still going to be differences between the two.
Those differences will get summarized in the following comparison for the sake of giving you a better idea of which water heater to purchase.
Noritz has been on the water heater market for over 60 years now, they are also responsible for the introduction of the modern tankless water heaters, so you can bet that the quality they have to offer is backed up by years of experience.
Their focus is on utilizing new technology to further enhance the performance of their tankless water heaters.
Who makes the Noritz water heaters?
Well, it’s Noritz America if you are a North American consumer. The company is a subsidiary of the Japanese Noritz Company but it provides the same level of quality its parent company promises.
That way, you can rest easy knowing your tankless water heater will be just as good as any Noritz-made product.
Rinnai is an even older company with over 100 years of experience under its belt. Their focus lies on saving you money and reducing the overall energy use as much as possible. This results in Rinnai heaters being cheap to run, eco-friendly, and reliable.
- Endless Hot Water: Enjoy unlimited hot water flow throughout the house; compact, durable,...
- Energy and Space Efficient: Space-saving design conserves energy as it heats only when...
- Optimal Water Pressure: Up to 7 GPM hot water flow rate for a powerful, constant stream
Rinnai also has their subsidiaries in America which are most likely going to be the ones providing you with tankless water heaters directly.
Considering their commitment to expanding and enhancing the user experience there’s no doubt these tankless water heaters maintain the same level of excellence as their Japan-made ones or those of their competitors.
- Endless hot water
- Can be vented with Schedule 40 PVC Pipe and Fitting
- High Efficiency
Of course, it’s good to check out specific items themselves to really feel the difference.
Noritz vs Rinnai tankless water heater comparison
The overall comparison comes first. It will give us a better grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the items they have on offer.
- Power
For Noritz, power is definitely something they have no problem showcasing. Even when the best of Rinnai’s models are paired up against Noritz they fall behind in sheer power.
Even in terms of natural gas tankless water heaters, which are the prime focus for Rinnai, Noritz easily takes the cake in terms of performance.
While this isn’t the only factor when purchasing a water heater, it can be a rather important one if your household is in a constant and quick need for hot water.
- Reliability
In terms of reliability, both of these brands are similar. Obviously, the long history they have helped them iron out some of the more common issues that cropped up in previous models.
However, buying a Noritz tankless water heater does come with some issues. Namely, they are known to get plugged up after 8 years of use or so. This means additional repairs to worry about but it does come in later in the overall lifespan of the tankless water heater.
With Rinnai, you don’t have to worry about any bigger problems cropping up during their lifetime. They are exceptionally reliable with only minor hiccups present, although said hiccups are pretty common problems that show up on basically any tankless water heater so the Rinnai brand is as reliable as it gets.
In the case of both brands, you’ll get 12 years of warranty that will make sure your investment pays out. The water heaters themselves usually last even longer than that, it’s not rare to see them reach the age of 15 with proper care given to them.
Related: Rinnai Tankless Water Heater Problems
- Energy efficiency
Energy efficiency is another important category. [1]
After all, it doesn’t matter how much energy our item uses if it cannot properly turn it into heating power. Without that energy being properly used, we are expending more energy than we are saving by the lower consumption methods.
This category is something Rinnai definitely beats its competitor in. It can achieve over 90% efficiency of used energy while Noritz isn’t capable of reaching those numbers.
While these categories give us an overall better insight on the tankless water heaters both of these brands offer, let’s see how they fare against their other competitor, Navien.
Noritz vs Rinnai vs Navien
When it comes to tankless water heaters, the most common competitor to these two brands is Navien. It’s yet another highly experienced brand that has been providing great service for over half a century now.
Although we should look into what really makes them special and how they compare to our other two entrants.
- Energy efficiency
Navien water heaters have their own unique advantage on the this growing market. This advantage being excellent energy efficiency. Even the best Rinnai heaters fall short by a bit when trying to challenge them in this department. [2]
Needless to say, the energy efficiency of Navien surpasses Noritz with no issues too. In some cases, the energy efficiency goes up by a whole 15%, which is quite a big change.
- Reliability
The subject of reliability still remains important for any of these three brands. After all, the less money we spend on repairs the more fruitful the investment is.
When it comes to reliability, Rinnai is probably the most impressive tankless water heater. The majority of issues Rinnai tankless water heaters do encounter during their lifespan are rather minor and can be resolved quickly.
If anything, these problems are more of an annoyance than a big drain on our funds.
Noritz has already been covered too, with its plugging issues coming at the mid-point of the tankless water heater’s life. However, Noritz water heaters have very few other problems specific to them.
While Noritz starts experiencing its more damaging issues 8 years into its lifespan, Navien encounters serious mechanical issues during the first 10 years. The statistics show that 1/5 Navien tankless water heaters will face significant problems during this period of time which affects the item’s lifespan as well. [3]
- Installation process
The installation process can be a cumbersome affair for some tankless water heaters, taking too much time out of our day when we have other obligations to worry about.
For Noritz, this is no issue as the tankless water heaters from this company employ simple installation procedures. It gets even better with their EZ series which allows for an even faster and easier installation process.
Rinnai isn’t doing too hot during the installation process, requiring some additional setup and tools for proper installation. [4]
The requirement isn’t too demanding but it still pales in comparison to Noritz.
On the other hand, Navien provides a similar amount of convenience as Noritz. Their tankless water heaters come with mounting equipment that helps you set up the heater quickly.
The additional tools required for this setup are very few and standard so you needn’t worry about sudden trips to the hardware store before the installation.
Read Also: Bradford White vs Navien
The Verdict
For those who wish to buy an overall good water heater, we recommend Rinnai. While their models do not boast as much power as some of the Noritz ones, they make it up in many other aspects.
Reliability is robust, the efficiency is good, and they are exceptionally eco-friendly. While Navien models do edge them out, Noritz ones have a harder time keeping up.
Rinnai tankless water heaters are an especially fruitful purchase for those who wish to save money in the long run as the lower bills and repair costs maintain the cost of keeping this water heater low.
On the other hand, Noritz is better for those who want a quick surge of hot water with little waiting time. They can be installed fast as well as heat up water faster. Of course, the drawbacks are higher cost of maintenance and use, causing the overall expenses to rise.
Knowing your price point and consumption is key when picking between the two but we hope this comparison has given you better insight into these brands.
