Noritz America

Laurie N.

I absolutely do NOT recommend a Noritz tankless water heater. We had one installed in 2006 by a contractor when we remodeled. 5 years later, in 2011 the heat exchanger went out and leaked all over the transformer and both had to be replaced. At that time they covered the heat exchanger as it had a 12 YEAR warranty, but we had to pay for the transformer and pay a plummer to handle the repairs. Today, just 5 years after that, the heat exchanger AGAIN developed a leak and ruined the transformer.

I called and spoke with Erik Sealey and was told ""We are denying the replacement of your second h/e because the water to the unit hasn't been tested/treated and the unit hasn't been descaled since the new h/e has been installed. You are in a known hard water area and page 7 of the user guide suggests testing and treating water to maintain the warranty on the unit.""

I would post a screen shot of the manual, but on page 7 it says ""Clean the filter on the water inlet as frequently as required by the quality of your local water."" and ""If scale forms and a descaling solution must be used, THE WARRANTY WILL BE VOID."" So, apparently, you must descale the unit to keep it under warranty, but by descaling the unit you void the warranty.

We followed the periodic maintenance: 1) wipe the outside of the unit with a damp cloth, 2) wipe the remote controller with a damp cloth, and 3) check and clean the water drain valve/filter if it becomes covered with debris. These are the ONLY maintenance requirements. No where on page 7 does it suggest ""testing and treating water to maintain the warranty on the unit.""

Per Mr. Sealey's email: they only replaced the first heating element because ""The first h/e is typically replaced regardless of installation errors, or water quality. We will typically suggest to fix the issues at that time to continue the warranty, but even if we did not it is still in the User Manual and Warranty Registration Card."" No, Mr. Sealy, it is NOT in the User Manual. I cannot speak to the Warranty Registration Card since that must be mailed into the company to register the warranty.

We will be purchasing a new water heater, it will NOT be a Noritz.

kathy r.

Noritz was ""johnny on the spot"" for me. They came through with a"" warranty"" fix for my Tankless and helped me in every possible way in a kind, and speedy manner. Their customer service is really laudable and their product is QUALITY!

Michael P. L.

We have a model N-0751M-OD, (mounted outdoors). After about three years it started throwing a trouble code 90. A call to customer service yielded a very thorough diagnostic walk-through ending in a diagnosis of the fan needing cleaning.

Since it wasn't coding often and wasn't too big a problem, I ignored it for a while until it started throwing code 14. After Googling and another call to customer service: this time it was the Thermal Fuse Wire (a $9 part). Ok, time to fix it.

Noritz has excellent illustrated service step-by-step instructional PDFs available to download online, which is a good thing.

My beefs: when I removed the fan, it was barely dirty at all. If this miniscule dirt load (on a heater designed for outdoor mounting) caused enough overheating to blow the thermal fuse wire, then I would suggest that this fan is SERIOUSLY UNDER-SPEC'D for its intended job. It's really quite absurd to have to disassemble the heater to clean this fan on a three year interval to remove what should be an acceptable amount of dirt. (Also, please note there is no air filter in this system -- a part which could lengthen the service interval and be easily replaced.) Also note -- my opinion here -- that if fan cleaning is a regular maintenance issue, NORITZ SHOULD DESIGN THE HEATER FOR AN EASY, FOUR-SCREW FAN REMOVAL, not the disassemble-the-whole-damn-unit job that it is.

My same gripe applies to replacing the thermal fuse wire. Easy maintenance access was not an issue even considered by Noritz's designers. A simple access plate would have made this an easy replacement. As it is, get ready to take the entire unit apart.

Let me put it this way: It's not horrible to disassemble the unit because the instructional PDFs are quite clear and all the wiring (of which there is a WHOLE lot) is put together with different size plugs, making mis-reassembly more or less impossible. BUT -- I don't think this sort high-maintenace short-interval servicing is acceptable for a unit that cost over a grand. And I'm pretty handy and can do this stuff, but I doubt many homeowners would want to dive into these tasks. So add a couple of $300-plus service calls to the $1000-plus unit in the first five years and you've got quite an expensive and troublesome alternative to a carefree tank-style water heater (which also works, I might add, when the electricity goes off).

Add to the unscheduled troubles the fact that you have to descale the unit anually, and you're in for either a yearly chore or an annual service call from your friendly plumber. The descaling I can put up with; the early failures, not so much. It's great when it's working, but in my opinion its key systems are under-designed and not spec'd for long, trouble free service.

Eric E.

My name is Eric Englert. I am the president of The Water Heater pro Inc. One of my oldest and dearest customer had her heat exchanger leak just 2 months past warrsanty. The damage from the leak would normally require a complete replacement of the unit. I called Jason from Noritz and sent him pictures of the damage. My customer did as well. All this during her open house as she is moving. I expected to hear that the parts are no longer under warranty and it would cost several hundred dollars to repair the damage. Maybe several thousand. When I got home tonight, not only did I find a heat exchanger waiting for me, I found all the other parts that were not covered under the parts warranty and not expected. I don't expect Noritz to go this far and beyond their normal warranty service but, this is one of the reasons why I am proud to be a Noritz service technician and installer. Thanks again Jason.

Donna P.

Our Noritz NR71-OD tankless water heater started leaking and tripping the GFI circuit after about 4 years. It turned out to be the heat exchanger unit which was still under warranty. I called the toll free Noritz service line and Sean helped me. Even though he could not find our warranty registration card information that I mailed in when we purchased it, he honored the warranty after I was able to provide the serial number and other information. Sean was going to send it out same day shipping which would have taken 3 days but there is no way I was going without hot water for 3 days! He offered the option of picking it up ourselves which was perfect since we lived 20 minutes away! He processed the claim and said it would take 2 hours to go through the approval process so we couldn't pick it up before 3:30 pm and we had to pick it up no later than 3:45 pm since Will Call closes at 4:00 pm. I remarked that we were cutting it a bit close and Sean agreed. Bottom line, we walked out with a new heat exchanger at 3:55 pm. The hot water heater is currently being put back together and I will have hot water tonight! The only reason I didn't give them a 5 star rating is because if I didn't live close to the warehouse, I would be without hot water for 3 days which is unacceptable under warranty. There should be a system in place for same day shipment of warranty parts. But if I could, I would give Sean 5 stars for customer service.

P G.

I had to replace leaky water heater tank twice already because they only last about 6 years for me. A contractor suggested that tankless might be a good replacement. I paid 4 times the cost of a conventional water heater tank to get the Noritz N0931M-natural gas, a high capacity unit. On top of that I also put in a while house water softener unit because we have hard water here. Just 7.5 years later, I found a leak in the heat exchanger which had gone undetected for awhile until many other parts were water damaged and something blew up.

I called Noritz on Tuesday afternoon to claim a 10 year warranty on heat exchanger and it took about 2 hours to settle on all other damage parts that should be shipped for replacement. Noritz is in LA area and I am in San Francisco Bay area, I thought I would receive the parts by Thursday afternoon or Friday at the latest. I called Noritz again on Thursday (2pm) to get the tracking number and found out that the package had not left their facility yet but they assured me that UPS was picking it up at 3pm. I did not realized that UPS ground shipping meant 2 business days not counting the package transfer day and we would not get those parts until next Monday, a whole week without hot water.

During the call on Tuesday, I also tried to ask if I can opt to pay extra to pick up a new unit from their supplier nearby and receive credits for those parts that Noritz would sent instead. This way I could get hot water back in a day but they were not flexible with their warranty policy. I thought they would at least hurry to ship the parts out, but that was not the case. Poor product and poor customer service.

Stick with the water heater tank, at least you can get the new tank within a day. And with the price you pay for this Noritz unit, it will be a long time before you have to spend as much for the tank replacement!

* Friday afternoon, just called a Supervisor (Stephnie) to complain about the delay after all the frustration in dealing with UPS. I was trying to locate the package and see if I could get today somewhere, but UPS system is totally useless, can't get anymore information. Stephanie totally stepped up and sent a new shipment by air. Should get here by Saturday!

* Another update, Saturday 11 am, parts are here. Stephanie restore my confidence in this company. Just change from 1 star to 3 just because of her!

Bob P.

I've had a Noritz water heater and I couldn't be happier. We're never without got water and my gas bills have gone down. It takes up virtually no space and very quiet.

Jason P.

New product line is defective. I want to echo what the other reviewers have said, we have the NRCP1112-DV and it was also defective from the start (fluctuates between hot and freezing cold water), the warranty covered a replacement circuit board but NOT labor ($280). So even though it's only been a few months, THEIR manufacturing defect cost me $280, and I have no idea if the thing will even work with the new part. As mentioned in other reviews, their tech support is strictly 9-5, Monday through Friday. I literally couldn't get a repair done on a weekend when the unit stopped working completely, because the tech needed to get information from Noritz and no one was there. DEFINITELY stay away.

Bill H.

Scale Shield broke after 6 months, an engineer looked at the pictures and said it was due to direct sunlight. It gets zero direct sunlight on the north side of the house. The tankless heater sucks too. Avoid.

Sheila M.

We are removing our NRCP1112-DV Natural Gas tank. We are in the processing of adding 2 more showers and can't get the kitchen or the one shower we have to stay consistent. And even with the build-in recirculating pump, it takes forever to get hot water even up 1 flight to the kitchen. When it 1st went in, I complained to the plumber and they kept working in it. Finally, all the hot water stopped coming out.

We also had the Noritz trained plumber come out and they replaced the mother board. We have put in the other 2 showers yet, but this has to go. The last thing I want is 3 nicely remodeled bathrooms and no hot water.

Do not buy this Noritz HW heater. Now we are on the hunt for a tank.