We have a Polaris high efficiency gas hot water tank that provides both our domestic hot water and also hot water for heating our house. This is a very cost effective way to heat both the water and the house. As long as it is working.
Ours hasn’t been working since Sunday. We don’t actually own the tank because the previous owner of the house was renting it so now we rent it. I’m starting to think this is a good thing because this is the second time this year (yeah, since January) that we have been without hot water. Now that it’s almost June, it’s not such a big deal but back in January it was a huge problem since this heats our house. I can deal with a day or so of ice cold showers. ;)
On Monday we had a Direct Energy (that’s who we rent the tank from) technician come to take a look at the unit. I already had a decent idea as to what was going wrong because the Polaris book has a couple really good troubleshooting flow charts. The unit also has an error LED that flashes X number of times to indicate the problem. The technician followed the same process I did and ended up ordering the part that appeared to be required.
Now, this is where Direct Energy is sort of strange in how they operate. They don’t carry parts. This makes sense because they can’t possible carry everything but it means you have to wait for a part to be delivered to you. A courier showed up just after supper with the new part so I called Direct Energy back and got them to send the tech back Monday evening. He came and installed the part only to have the tank still not work. After trying a number of things, he called it a night and ordered another part.
Now I’m looking at the third part to be replaced on the unit in about 6 months. The unit itself was only installed almost exactly 2 years ago.
The new part arrived yesterday evening but they couldn’t get anyone out here until Wednesday afternoon so now I’m stuck waiting to see if this part is the one that was busted. Fantastic. I like the Polaris tank and when it works, it’s quite an inexpensive way to heat both domestic hot water and provide home heating. The part I don’t like is I’m hearing from the Direct Energy technician that a bunch of other people in Kemptville are replacing units like this because they are breaking down a lot.
We’ll see how long it runs for once it is fixed. Maybe it will soon be time to replace the Polaris gas hot water heater with something else. *shudder* I’m not looking forward to the cost of switching to a “real” furnace.
Shoulda just built your own: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/sixty_six_bottl.php
…go drink some beer!
Cheerio!
A
[...] You may recall that I had problems with my Polaris High Efficiency gas hot water tank last month. I rent this unit from Direct Energy and this has proven to be a very cost effective way of heating my home, as long as the unit is running. Having the gas hot water tank break down twice this year already and require three different parts replaced (so far) is not what I consider a good thing. Anyways, I complained about the reliability of the unit last month when I was talking to the Direct Energy people. Last night I got a call from a Direct Energy representative and they are going to credit my bill for two months worth of rental. Now this won’t necessarily solve the problems we’ve been having but it is definitely nice of them to offer to credit our bill for a couple bucks. Author: Jeff | Filed under: General, Kemptville | Tags: direct energy, gas hot water, polaris. [...]
Jeff,
Your decision to rent is one often contemplated by home owners or end users for the reasons you have mentioned.
There are two plains of thought on the matter of renting or purchasing: 1)Pay over time – cost of renting, $35.00/mo. x 12mo. = $420.00/a., average life of tank 10a. @ $420.00/a. = $4200.00 2)Pay up front – avg. contractor price of Polaris PR130-50-2PV /- $3900.00; avg. contractor price of Polaris PR100-34-2NV /- $3300.00. **Do not forget the contractor still has to make a profit (labour, mark-up and parts). So it actually is better for the home owner to rent, due to large volume Direct Energy is able to purchase at a much different cost PR130-50-2PV /- $ 3200.00, PR100-34-2NV /- $2600.00.
The economical/best choice if you plan on sticking with a h.w.t. system designed for potable/heating would be the bradford white Combi2 C-DW2-TW75-T10BN avg. contractor price /- $2000.00 (of course everything depends on system requirement MBH/Hr).
Personally to heat a home and provide potable water at 90 eff., I would suggest a radiant in-floor system, condensing/modulating wall hung boiler with an indirect-fired hot water tank. Not as expensive as they are led to be, and less expensive in the long haul.
**Avoid scorched air.
Long may your big jib draw,
Salt Water Cowboy
PS A no heat call during winter months takes priority, most maufacturers will have the parts available to the contractor with in 24 hours (anywhere in North America).
http://www.gsw-wh.com
http://www.bradfordwhite.com
http://www.weil-mclain.com
in response to saltwater cowboy, he makes some good points, but to suggest that the cost for a wall hung boiler setup is not prohibitive, is a little misleading. Wall hung boiler (contractor price) $3250, indirect water heater ( contactor price ) $1250, radiant infloor heating installed $1.50 – 4.00/ sqft depending upon situation and methods used, and to trim out the boiler with pumps and other gear required $1500 -2500 contractor price. With labor this would cost $12000 – 20000 depending on the contractor and size of installation. These wall hung boilers are very finnicky as well, they have very tight tolerances and need to be serviced regularily by a plumber or gasfitter to keep them from leaving you in the cold. My experience is that any high efficiency appliance is prone to failure because of the electronics, sensors, and fine tolerances involved, a speck of dust on a sesnsor may shut down the whole system.
In defense of the polaris HE HWT, it has a better warranty at 10 years, than any boiler I have installed generally averaging 5 years comprehensive 25 year heat exchanger. I have never used the polaris but stumbled apon this post while researching it as an option.
plumber o
[...] Finally, the biggest problem with this system is no one knows anything about it. It can be a huge pain in the butt when you need to get it serviced. Last winter I had some issues with my Polaris tank and thankfully I rent the tank. The difficult part is explaining to the service tech on the phone that yes, I have no hot water but I also have no heat. One point of failure is not good. Thankfully I still have my electric coils so as long as I have power, I can heat the house. [...]
[...] I got up yesterday and was getting some stuff cleaned up for breakfast when I realized that we had no hot water. Again. For the third time in about 18 months. It’s been just under a year since we had about $1200 worth of parts replaced on our Polaris high efficiency gas hot water tank. Unfortunately it looks like we had a similar problem again. [...]
Hi,
I will be needing rental gas hot water tank, please let me know how is rental charges
on 40 gallon tank. How soon you can finish the job? I live in Scarborough area. It should be power vented. Thanks.
Amrik Takel
Amrik, I’m not a gas hot water tank installer/retailer – just a regular consumer/renter. You’ll have to contact your local gas supplier and see who they use for rental tanks. I’m guessing it will be Direct Energy in the Scarborough area.
Re. Polaris breakdowns. I have had a polaris with a coil to an air handler & heating domestic water for the last 12 years. In that time, I have had only one breakdown which was the ignitor. Since I had a friend with an earlier model Polaris that had ignitor problems, I had one on hand, replaced it myself, was back in business in 20 min. at a cost of about $70.
you know where they sell these iqnitors for polaris tanks ..thanks Carl