We purchased a house with an existing tankless heater (installed in 2009). It would occasionally fail with error code 11 (no ignition). Over the past 2 months it has been failing more often and now fails every day.
The odd part is that it never fails first thing in the morning (6:00am) and almost always fails in the later afternoon/evening. We've tested this theory continuously over the past few weeks.
I've taken two videos: One in the morning where it works: https://youtu.be/l0XuhanKNCw
And one in the evening when it does not: https://youtu.be/drKBS0QDyhk
The unit was originally installed with a 1/2" gas line. I've recently had it replaced with a 3/4" line, as per the installation instructions, to see if that made a difference (it did not). It's unlikely it's a venting or air intake issue.
Why would time of day have any impact on the the unit working? Does anything seem off here?
Thanks
Best Answer
Shot in the dark here, but is it possible it only works when you don't have other gas appliances running (furnace, dryer, stove etc.)? Some of the tankless units draw massive BTU's (199,000+) and you might not have enough of a supply to your house to run the tankless and another gas appliance. I wanted to recently upgrade to a tankless but didn't because it would have required replacing my gas meter and about 50ft of blackpipe just to get enough gas capacity for everything running at once.
Also, your intake should really be using outside air. Is the unit installed in a confined space? Or is the space it's installed very tightly insulated/sealed from outside air penetration?