Tradies install them every day in new builds, both residential and commercial.
But how do heat pumps, AC units and other HVAC equipment go from scattered components into tradies’ hands?
Well, the team at The Tradie ventured down to Rinnai’s main factory and warehouse in Braeside, Melbourne to see what goes behind making some of the best Hot Water & HVAC units on the market.
A to Z
Rinnai has two large (size) manufacturing facilities & warehouses at the Braeside site, both dedicated to assembling, testing and packing Rinnai units, as well as their other well-known brands like Brivis & APAC.
Rinnai Product Planning & Distribution Group Manager, Patrick Corcoran explained just how much goes into building each product Rinnai has.
This includes its electric hot water tanks and new locally manufactured Enviroflo AR Series heat pump water heaters, which start as a collection of sheet metal, wires and buttons.
Each electric tank and AR Series unit is sheet metal folded, corrosion tested, pulsation tested, pressure tested, welded by hand and machine, laser guided to get seam welds correct, enamelled and oven-baked at 640 degrees, foamed and finished.
Once those steps – among a tonne of others – are completed, each tank and heat pump is wrapped into a box and packed ready for delivery to trade stores across Australia.
“We spend a lot of time on quality,” Patrick said modestly.
“We [even] take random samples off the production line and cut them open to make sure the welds are being correctly made.”
Locally sourced
A major factor that separates Rinnai from competitors is its emphasis on producing locally.
Almost everything – down to the Blygold coating for the coils – is done just down the road in Oakleigh – is supplied locally.
“The circuit boards for the large APAC HVAC units come from our guy in Seaford … he’s been making these for us since the 90s, with significant upgrades to hardware and software over time” Patrick added.
“All that stuff’s built here – we cut our own wires, it’s all vertically integrated … all parts are of a high-quality standard.”
Anything that isn’t sourced locally comes from high-quality Rinnai Japan approved manufacturers and suppliers from across the globe including Japan, China and Germany.
Given the nature of demand for heat pumps, Patrick said materials are kept to a minimum amount to ensure manufacturing is done efficiently with no waste.
“It’s all run at very low volume in terms of stock – we want to keep it all as low as possible, but enough to get the throughput right, it is very much a just in time mentality” he said.
While much of the factory work is automated such sheet metal processing, shot blasting, enamelling, welding, the tank carousel etc, every step of the assembly process requires specialist workers to check or attach the various components.
Patrick said each of the two factories has about 140 employees, with about 470 staff all up nationally.
Backed by science
Not only is Rinnai’s assembly process top-of-the-line, it’s also one of five places in Australia to have a NATA-accredited temperature-controlled testing facility.
Patrick said this lab – which is the second largest in the country – comprises two rooms which can test heat pump and HVAC units and their temperature and humidity control down to a tee.
“The whole point of these test rooms is that we can operate up to more than 60 degrees, and down to as low as -20,” he said.
“The really important thing is that we can hold each room to 0.2 of one degree – that’s how you get NATA certification.”
Backed locally
The new Enviroflo AR Series heat pumps are the latest products showcasing Rinnai’s dedication to local manufacturing that’s also backed by local tradies.
Patrick said many of the improvements to the pumps were made thanks to Aussie tradies.
“We’ve made them a bit broader so they can be a bit shorter,” he said.
“Tanks can be a bit unwieldy when you move them around the sides of houses and the likes, so we specifically made them a bit shorter while still having enough capacity in terms of litres.
“The 340L is the biggest residential product (of
its kind) in Australia, and it’s Australia made.
“It’s our third generation of this – every new one built is better, quieter and more efficient.”
The fan assemblies were intentionally made to be as quiet as possible to avoid annoying customers’ neighbours.
“Ours is a side discharge machine – the only problem we had with that was if the fan was too noisy, that noise would go right into your neighbours,” Patrick explained.
“We spent a lot of time working on that. The fan is a lot larger than the previous version with a compressor working with a sound absorbing blanket around it.
“In terms of low noise, we got that down-pat.”
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Investing in a high-quality heat pump is vital in the current cost of living crisis, which is why Rinnai has worked tirelessly to present the AR Series heat pumps as cost effective, and tradie-approved products.
With Government rebates available to support the capital and installation costs for a host of different property types, the Rinnai AR Series is a great option for almost any application.
“We talked to plumbers a lot in terms of what they liked or didn’t about our units,” Patrick said.
“We took all that feedback on board … we made the electrical box smaller, we’ve put the condensate drain around the back, we’ve been able to modify the design to suit installation.”