Rinnai America Corporation

Ansley Houston

Matthew Ryan Dettmering

Taylor Lamb

Michael Scott Knoblett

Parth Patel

Rohan Scafe

A water heater system includes a water heater rack system with a plurality of vertically stacked tankless water heaters and a water heater storage tank and provides the ability to install a water heater in environments where horizontally oriented heater rack systems would not fit. The tankless water heaters comprise a bifurcated vent arrangement with separate intake and exhaust vents. Accordingly, vent pipes of diameters of two (2) inches or less may be used in comparison to coaxial vent arrangements which may have diameters of three inches or more. The smaller vent pipe diameter allows a plurality of water heaters to be stacked, one above the other, such that the water heater rack system has a maximum height of 76 inches or less. This vertical orientation may allow tankless water heaters to be installed in an environment where a horizontally configured plurality of tankless water heaters would not fit.

Vertically stacked dual heat engine rack

To facilitate a wall-mounted installation of multi-unit water heaters in a location with limited clear wall space, spacer brackets may be installed on the wall to extend a mounting surface away from a plane of the wall. A mounting bracket may be attached to the mounting surface of the spacer brackets. To reduce installation time and costs, a plurality of water heaters may be affixed to a frame prior to installation. A hot water, cold water, and fuel supply manifolds may be coupled to each hot water outlet, cold water inlet, and fuel supply inlet, respectively, of the plurality of water heaters. The mounting bracket comprises a mounting shelf configured to receive the frame, thereby securing the multi-unit water heater system to the wall. The multi-unit water heating system, the spacer brackets, and the mounting bracket may be provided as a kit.

Multi-unit water heater flexible mounting system

Mounting bracket

An offset mounting bracket that comprises a primary member and a stabilization member can be used to mount multiple heat engines to a water storage tank. An offset mounting bracket can include a primary member, having a top surface, a bottom surface, an inner surface, and an outer surface. The offset mounting bracket can also have a stabilization member, having a top surface and a bottom surface, a supporting surface that is opposed and connected to the primary member outer surface. The offset mounting bracket can also have a connecting member. The connecting member can be configured to fasten to the top of a water storage tank. There, the offset mounting bracket, can provide a surface to mount a heat engine that otherwise would not fit onto the water storage tank structure.

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Peachtree City, GA, United States of America

Ansley Houston