2021 Rinnai B26 or Rinnai Infinity 26 Comparison Review, Price & Installation

2021 Rinnai B26 or Infinity 26 Short Review Comparison. Which Is Better?

What do you think? Rinnai B26 or Rinnai Infinity 26

You can buy the one or the other. They are both excellent and therefore a perfect hot water choice. What makes both of these Rinnai hot water systems worth consideration? Skip to the review below.

For your information we offer a Installation Service. More details below. Please read ahead so for can choice the hot water system right for you.

Installation Offers from $1549 Incl GST for Rinnai b26 hot water systems installed this week. Sydney only.

Shannon's Quick Review:

Differences? Very little to Nothing. Just buy the Rinnai Builders B26. It’s excellent and has the same energy rating and gas usage as the Rinnai Infinity and is equal regarding the hot water output capacity as the Rinnai Infinity 26. They both have the same 3 year parts and labour warranty which is the only warranty that is worth anything in my option. More info on this in the long review. Just buy the Rinnai b26 if cost is more important then looks as the Rinnai Infinity 26 does look a little nicer and more stylish.

Meet Your Plumber

Hi, my name is Shannon. For helpful FREE advice just give me a call for a chat. Contacts I have been plumbing for over 20 years now and have installed around 1000 Rinnai gas hot water systems. I have also been very fortunate to work for so many lovely customers which to my knowledge have been very happy with my service. If you call me out to care for your Rinnai hot water replacement then I am the actual Plumber who will do the job and not the apprentice. Also for your reassurance I still use copper and weld my pipes and I do not use that crimping tool system that fails from time to time. You can call me old school if you wish, but old school is still the best practice. Hopefully I will get to meet you one day and help you with your hot water heater.

How to choose the best Rinnai

They are both Rinnai’s after all. The name Rinnai to me is equal to the word quality. So the question is raised, is one better then the other? This is a quick review of the two Rinnai Continuous flow gas hot water systems. The Rinnai Infinity 26 and the Rinnai B26 or Builders models. This review may make it easier for you to decide I hope. Both come in Natural Gas NG and LPG models. So what are the differences between these two Rinnai 26 Continuous Flow Hot Water Heaters?

Detailed Rinnai Review:

1: Price. About $250-300 more for the Rinnai Infinity 26. Rinnai B26 is around $850-950 and Rinnai Infinity 26 between $1100-1350. Installation costs are exactly the same.

2: The colour is different. Rinnai Infinity 26 is now nice white. The Rinnai B26 is greyish brown or Dune. Not as bad as it sounds. It does look a little different. Infinity is more up market in appearance.

3: The Rinnai Infinity 26 has a little LED display that tells you it is on and will display a error code which is not that much of a problem as Rinnais are excellent and rarely to never have any issues. The Rinnai B26 does not have a LED display. You are never going ran out of the house butt naked from the shower to see the LED read "it's On light". Once it has been installed this indicator has zero impact on the running of the system.

4: Same energy rating which is currently 6.1 Stars

5: Same capabilities as to the hot water both systems produce per minute

6: Warranties are the same in my opinion. Let me explain. See next Point.

Long Review Rinnai Warranty.

The Rinnai B26 has a 10 year warranty and the Rinnai Infinity has a 12 years warranty on the heat exchanger.

They also have a special extended warranty that only applies if you take part in their maintenance program.

Regarding the extended warranty then yes the Warranty is 10 years less on the Rinnai B26. It has a 15 year warranty. The Infinity has a 25 year warranty.

If the Rinnai passes the 2 year mark with no problems you are in the clear for a very long time in my opinion.

They are both excellent. All of the Rinnai's we have replaced are over 20 years old.

NOTE: Let me explain the warranty.

All Continuous Flow hot water heaters have a 3 year warranty for parts and labour. This is the only warranty that matters. So both the B26 and Infinity are exactly the same regarding the warranty then.

Why the big jump forward to these 15 and 25 warranties then (Warranty with the service plan). It's just a marketing strategy in my opinion.

Rinnai are excellent and are by far my number one choice. The long warranties are like putting a warranty on the bricks of your.

Rinnai B26 Installation Special

Costs of changing from a old tank hot water system to a new Rinnai B26 is from only $1799 which includes the Rinnai Infinity B26, labour and materials.

Note: An old Rinnai being changed to a new model Rinnai B26 is $1549.

This quote includes 4 metres of copper pipe to do the installation. If more copper is required then we charge each metre supplied, installed and with all other needed materials associated to run that extra metre only $49 per metre.

So if your job requires only 6 metres of copper to complete the B26 Rinnai Install then the total cost will be only 2 extra metres at $49 = $98 + the Package price of $1799 = $1897 Including GST. Pretty Good.

What comes with this quote?

1 x Rinnai Infinity B26

New model 6.1 STAR energy hot water system

Installation of the new Rinnai B26 on the wall

Removal of your old hot water heater as long as one person with a trolley can remove it safely. 315 litre storage is the max we can remove alone.

Please let us know if it may be difficult to remove before we came out so we can make a plan to get it out. There may be no extra charge to remove but please inform us anyway. We don't want our backs to give in if we can

avoid it.

Installation Exclusions

Does not include Electrical work for a power point or the old electric hot water heater power being isolated at the meter. An Electrician can be arranged if you wish. Average cost $150-250.

Controller installation is not included in this package. Time to install a controller is about 1 hour each if accessible through walls or under the floor. Some houses are to difficult or to costly to run one or multiple controllers.

Any questions, Please do not hesitate to Call me.

Product Review by Scooper Plumbing

I've personally put in over 1000 Rinnai's and I have only had a noisy fan that Rinnai replaced the very next day. It is the only continuous flow gas hot water system I would ever buy for myself.

Every Rinnai I have removed is well over 20 years old. Most of the time the cause or reason for replacing it is and I'll quote, "the kids put the hose into the flue vent and killed it", "It's looking alittle rusty", "it has died, just put the same one in again".

Comparing the Rinnai with other systems I feel that it is made to a much higher standard in every way. It is solid yet compact. Light and quiet but powerful and efficient.

Other systems have created earlier warranty issues. Most around the 7 year mark. I have only had 1 warranty Rinnai issue and that was repaired the day after installation. Just a fan noise.

Don't buy any other continuous flow gas hot water heater. Any Rinnai is good.

Tempering Valve Requirement

THIS HOT WATER SYSTEM DOES REQUIRE A TEMPERING VALVE.

Tempering valves are required on all hot water systems that connect to a bathroom. If you do not have one, under the Bylaws we are under obligation to install one. These devices are expensive so please check to see the extra fee for installation at the bottom of this page.

Get More out of your Rinnai

Read about the Rinnai Hot Water Booster System. Supercharge your Rinnai. read more.

Alternative Products

Installation Example

Example for one of our jobs and how the price worked out. We installed a Rinnai Infinity 26. We needed to remove an electric Rheem 250 litre hot water heater. The old electric Rheem was installed years ago in the middle of the house and it was a long way from the bathrooms and kitchen.

We installed the new Rinnai 26 very close to the kitchen and the bathrooms. Not only is the owner going to save on energy and water loss but will enjoy having hot water quicker when they need it.

Our Installation of a Rinnai Infinity 26 package is $1999 Incl GST.

Extras???

What about extras you may ask. The extras on this job were $294. We needed to remove the old hot water system. The new hot water line connected through the wall up on the first floor and the extra pipe required was 10 metres of copper which was over the included 4 metre allowance.

This hot water installation required an extra 6 metres at $49 a metre. Extra $294.

Rinni Infinity 26 temperature adjustment is part of our service. This system supplied on this job was set at 50 degrees. We increased the temperature from 50 to 55 degrees as per request.

Other Rinnai systems are known as non preset models and are set to 60 degrees. If you require hotter the Rinai needs to be specially ordered. This job in the end cost only $2093 for the Rinnai B26 or for the Infinity 26 $2393 Incl GST. Not bad for a newly installed Rinnai Infinity 26 hot water system as it will last 20 year plus based on our experience.

The Rinnai Infinity 26 MJ Rating is 199MJ/H (mega joules per hour) so it makes it compatible with most natural gas meters and LPG gas regulators.

Important Note for LPG Connections:

Keep in mind though if you have LPG and are now adding a Rinnai 26 there is a very good possibility that you will need to get a larger LPG regulator as the standard one most plumbers install is only rated at 230 MJ/H. You won't notice anything but your Rinnai Infinity will not be working to it's maximum performance and therefore lead you to believe that the hot water system you bought and the reviews you read are false.