Control-R ™

If like us you have had your heater for a while, attempted the firmware update via App1 (the old app) and got a message saying the update failed contact customer support, then did so, being told sorry please ignore the update (this being 24 December), you may then have found your heater app and heater were not talking to each other via App1. No more recirculating or schedule. Then marketing sends out an email (24 Dec) which doesn’t tell you what to do if you are supposedly in between having updated (successfully I presume?) and not. So today (29 Dec) I took the plunge and downloaded App2. It’s a mess yes, BUT, we can (for now) get the recirculation to work by putting the heater in vacation mode. Thanks for the fix advice from other App2 reviewers. So hopefully if you are stuck halfway like we were, this might help you at least save water and have your heater half working. Rinnai what were you thinking trying to roll this out in the holiday season? A fancy interface is meaningless if the core functionality is inoperable. Epic 2020 (aka FAIL)

How you can put out an update right before the holidays without any testing and no way to back it out is beyond belief. To me it looks like every Control-R device is useless. Obviously there is is no quality control process in place. It looks like somebodies raise, promotion etc. was on the line to get this installed before the year end and guess what, you failed. I've had the Control-R installed for 3 weeks and last week it's been useless. Rinnai Management needs to do a through review of this fiasco and put in place procedures that will prevent this for happening again. I hate to think that you guys are now of faced with a problem that has no solution. I'm beginning to believe it since there is no solution or information provided by Rinnai. At least let us know when to expect this to be resolved. At most give us a detail review of how this was allowed to occur and what steps will be put into place to prevent this in the future. Let me save you the time to issue a reply. I'll provide it below: Hello, thank you for your feedback. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you. Our development team is working non-stop on resolving all issues as soon as possible, including the recirculation and temperature control issues you have experienced. Please check back to the app store for updates.

This app has always been a challenge to use and understand but this recent update is absolute garbage. The temperature setting is no longer in our control and the manual recirculation option vanished from the app. For the past 3 weeks, we have had to use hundreds of gallons more water than usual just to have luke warm water. I wish there was another option but we are stuck with Rinnai. If you are considering a on-demand hot water system, look elsewhere.

I’ve waited for over 2 weeks before posting this negative review in hopes that Rinnai would fix the issue within a reasonable amount of time. Didn’t happen. Customer service has been very courteous and polite but do not follow-up with what they say they will do. I echo what the latest review (Update failure...) has said. Same exact issue which is very frustrating when there doesn’t appear to be a fix in the near future. Where are you Rinnai? You make a nice water heater but the wi-fi module has been nothing but a pain to me and now the software update snafu has put me over the edge. I don’t like leaving negative reviews but this is not the type of service I expect from Rinnai.

Was barely functioning before the recent "update" that really broke it and now it really has no function and cannot get it to reconnect. Don't waste your time. Now looking at other tankless water heater options to switch to once this unit needs to be replaced. Will not consider another Rinnai unit and would not recommend based on the terrible experience.

I regret ever putting this tankless water heater in my home. It provides hot water, but so did my regular tank water heater. The noise it makes is so distracting and it is mounted on the outside of my house! Sitting in our living room it sounds like a boiling caldron just outside the window. There are no professionals in our area who want to work on them. The recirculating app is not working right now and I have to run the water for 15 minutes to get hot water to my kitchen sink. Customer service has been buy all day. They have not answered my email nor are they answering their phone. I’m really, really unhappy with this product. Not that anyone seems to care 😡

DOES NOT WORK ON ANDROID!!! I also received the email before Christmas saying the old app will no longer work after 2020 and required to upgrade to this one. I did that and tried a dozen or so times to upgrade. This app would say that I'm not connected. I looked on my router and it definitely had a wifi connection. Once connected the firmware upgraded but could not get further than step 2. In the end, I tried an apple iOS version and that worked. Obviously, they did not test on Android

This is the worst app I have ever used. The integration between the middling hardware and awful software will force people to dig into the guts of their water heater to try and repair connectivity. I have built wireless networks using multiple dd-wrt routers with less trouble than this software has caused me. 4 hours and multiple deletions and re-installs of the app with no luck connecting. The Rinnai tank is a work of art. The company needs to understand the software engineering is as much of a priority as the mechanical engineering. When the “marketing person” tells you what a great tool this can app can be, smack them and tell them to chime in when the app has 5 stars.

It took a long while to configure this app. And it was downhill after that! I could not register manually or even with the optical scan of the code bar in my manual or even on the side of the unit itself. The "useage" is static. Temperature up/down does nothing. I can toggle the recirculation button but have no idea if it is actually doing anything. Poor. Poor marks for such an essential component of a household. Fast forward to yesterday, Dec 21, I got an email indicating need for a firmware..

I'm wondering if this app and module was created just to let you plumber nag you to let them take more of your money. Very limited functionality. You can turn on or schedule the recirculating pump (if you have one) and adjust the set point of the heated water. That's it. The other option is to link your plumbers email and they can monitor things for you. Excuse me, how about giving ME the one who paid for this access to more useful info like from the data on the unit such as flow rate, inlet water temp, HEX temp, exhaust temp etc. All of these are available locally but NOT on the Control-R, why??