Which Rinnai heat pumps are there?
Rinnai NZ's heat pump range lists the Pro Series 2 High Wall and Pro Series Floor Console single split heat pumps, Pro Series and Pro Series 2 Ducted heat pumps, and Pro Series and Pro Series 2 Multi Split systems.
You may see Rinnai equipment called an air conditioner as well. Rinnai's own warranty uses both words: it covers heat pumps, and asks you to have your air conditioning system maintained each year.
Keeping all 7 years
Use a Rinnai accredited installer
Rinnai NZ says installation must be done by one, and that a claim may be invalid if it doesn't come with the Rinnai NZ Accredited Installer's details.
Get the Certificate of Compliance
Rinnai NZ reminds owners the installer must issue one by law. The EWRB says it's due no later than 20 days after the electrical work is done.
Keep proof of purchase and the install date
Rinnai NZ will ask for both on any claim, so file them with the certificate.
Book the yearly service
Rinnai NZ says the system should be maintained annually from the install date by a Rinnai authorised service centre, and missing that during the warranty may void it. Cleaning the filters between services is your job.
Keep other hands off it
Alterations, service or repairs by anyone other than Rinnai NZ accredited installers, service people or service centres are excluded, as is a unit re-installed away from its original spot.
Rinnai in a frosty town
Rinnai New Zealand says it doesn't exclude its heat pumps from colder climatic zones, but it can't guarantee heating performance below zero. If your winter nights regularly drop under freezing, that sentence is worth weighing.
Check the Zoned Energy Rating Label for the model on the quote. EECA says that where overnight temperatures can reach 2 degrees or less, the heating capacity at 2 degrees should be the same as, or more than, the figure at 7.
Sea air and sulphur
Rinnai NZ makes the owner responsible for adding corrosion protection where a unit goes into a corrosive environment, giving sea air, high sulphur content and industrial pollution as examples. It also excludes damage to external surfaces or refrigeration coils from normal weathering or corrosive conditions. In practice that's your call to raise, not the installer's to remember.
Your side of the deal
You can
- Clean the air filters regularly, which Rinnai NZ lists as the owner's responsibility.
- Heat at somewhere between 18 and 22 degrees in winter, and cool at around 18 or 19 in summer, as Rinnai NZ advises.
- Keep the manual and warranty from Rinnai NZ's downloads page with your paperwork.
Leave to a licensed installer
- The annual maintenance, by a Rinnai authorised service centre.
- Any repair or alteration, by someone Rinnai NZ accredits. Moving the unit to a new spot isn't covered at all.
- Corrosion protection, if your site needs it.
What we'd do
Our take
We'd confirm the installer's Rinnai accreditation in writing on the quote, then book the first annual service with a Rinnai authorised service centre before the year's up. In a cold inland town we'd compare the 2 degree heating figure with the room's needs, rather than relying on the 7 degree one.