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Dropped $800 on a commercial water heater flue damper and it did nothing for my gas bills
I run a small plumbing crew in Phoenix and we do a lot of restaurant work. Last month I got talked into buying this motorized flue damper for a 200k BTU water heater at a Chili's we service. The salesman said it'd cut gas usage by 15 percent easy. Cost me 800 bucks installed and after a full month of tracking the meter I barely saw a 2 percent drop. The damn thing kept getting stuck anyway and I had to send a guy out twice to unjam it. I think these things are more marketing than anything for most commercial setups. Has anyone else had luck with these or am I just getting played by supply house hype?
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harper_murphy21d ago
Hold up, where exactly did you mount that damper? On a commercial unit with that high of a BTU rating, the real savings come from pairing it with a smart controller that learns your hot water usage patterns and adjusts combustion air on the fly. Just the damper itself with a basic on/off switch isn't going to do much if your water heater is constantly firing to keep the tank hot all day and night. The sticking problem might be from cheap bearings or improper clearance around the flue pipe. I'd honestly look into a fully modulating system with a draft inducer instead of a stand alone damper.
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ellis.victor21d ago
Had a buddy who slapped one of those basic dampers on his water heater last year. Said it was a pain from day one, the bearings seized up after like three months because he didn't check the clearance for the flue pipe. He ended up having to cut the whole thing out and replace it with a standard vent because the damper was stuck half open and his unit was throwing error codes. The smart controller stuff sounds nice but honestly he just wanted something that worked without needing a degree to set it up.
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