‘Something unusual in the water’ is causing mass cylinder failures in Hastings, Rheem says

Mahora pensioner Teresa Nicol said her cylinder failed four years after installation and now she is on the hook for about $1600 of installation costs. Photo / Paul Taylor

A draft report by international specialists into why hot-water cylinders are failing so regularly in Hastings is expected to be in council hands in two weeks.

The premature failure of low-pressure copper hot-water cylinders (LPCUs) has hit houses throughout the city for the past two years, with residents often facing bills in the thousands to install and replace them.

Data from Hawke’s Bay plumbers and hot-water cylinder manufacturers has shown LPCUs are about 20 times more likely to fail in Hastings than in the rest of New Zealand.

Postcodes 4120 and 4122, which represent most of Hastings’ urban area, were responsible for 34 per cent of nationwide failures and warranty claims over a 12-month period last year.

Investigations by Hastings District Council have determined chlorination and high water pressure are unlikely to be the causes of the failures. Hastings does not have significantly higher dosages of chlorine in its water than the rest of New Zealand.

But as the mystery continues, so do the failures.

Hastings resident Teresa Nicol’s LPCU failed earlier this year, four years after its installation in 2019.

This put it within manufacturer Rheem’s usual five-year warranty period for replacement, but not within the one-year warranty period for LPCU installation, labour and parts, saddling Nicol with the costs.

Nicol said Rheem had offered a vitreous enamel cylinder, a more costly but more-resilient alternative, free of charge, but she would still have to pay the installation and electrical costs, which have been quoted about $1600.

As a pensioner, it was a cost she would have to put on her credit card, she said, and it was likely that others affected by the problem would be even harder hit.

“I am not in the worst position, but I am not in a good position.”

HDC, Rheem, Rinnai and Master Plumbers NZ have shared information and agreed that LPCUs should not be installed in two Hastings postcodes, opting for vitreous enamel alternatives instead. Photo / Paul Taylor

She was surprised to learn that manufacturer Rheem added a warranty exclusion in March for any of its LPCU installed in the Hastings district postcodes 4120 and 4122 after April 1, 2022.

Any LPCU installed before then is still covered by the usual warranty it had at the time of purchase.

Footnotes on Rheem’s website pages regarding its warranty policy advise that testing has shown that LPCUs fall outside the Rheem warranty water chemistry terms in those areas, due to “localised water conditions causing pinhole corrosion”.

Nicol said those affected were still left with no answers, nor any way to deal with the unexpected costs.

“I asked both of them why little people like me should be stuck between two big corporations, Rheem and the Hastings District Council.”

She said she didn’t mind how it was done, but either Rheem or the council, or both, should be responsible for covering the cost and finding a solution.

“No homeowners should be caught in this mess.”

A Hastings District Council spokesperson said it was keen to understand the issues residents had reported and had commissioned international specialists to explore further after investigations in New Zealand failed to provide answers.

“Those specialists have confirmed that they expect to provide their draft report to council by [mid-May].”

The spokesperson said Hastings’ water complied with the regulatory requirements for safe drinking water set by the Government, and the council would not provide funding towards hot-water cylinder replacements.

“If appropriate, the best course of action is for residents to discuss warranty matters with the company that provided the cylinder.”

Rheem general manager Mark McCutcheon said an independent test report on the chemical makeup of the water in the two postcode areas found the water had a high “saturation index”.

Langelier Saturation Index, or LSI, is an approximation calculated from several factors that measure the calcium carbonate scale-forming and scale-dissolving tendencies of water.

McCutcheon said the report could not give a specific answer on what was causing the copper corrosion, but Rheem took action based on the failure rates.

“It is a rational conclusion to make, given the ratio of failures we have seen ... that there is something in the water that is unusual and causing those copper cylinders to fail.”

He said Rheem had done everything it could to warn of the issue and its warranty exclusion by putting out a notice on its website, putting warning stickers on products and notifying local plumbers and merchants.

The company wanted to deliver the best outcome for customers and often employed its goodwill budget on top of warranties in cases like this, where there was doubt about the cause.

He said Rheem had met water services regulator Taumata Arowai to discuss the potential impacts of regulations on hot-water cylinders.