Tankless Water Heater Installation in Camelback East & Biltmore, Phoenix
Direct-Vent & Outdoor Units | Vent Spot Measured First | Google 5.0 Rated
If you want to trade the tank in your condo closet for a tankless unit, that closet has no drain anywhere in it, or nobody has mentioned that a high-efficiency heater makes water as well as heat, you're on the right page. A condensing tankless unit drips steadily for as long as it runs, and in a stacked or attached home the hardest question on the job is where that liquid is allowed to go.
So on a condo or townhome job here, the drain gets settled before the model does, because the answer decides whether a condensing unit belongs on your quote at all. Go and look in the closet now, and look at what is on the other side of its walls.
AZ ROC #150707
Licensed, Bonded & Insured
Navien Preferred
Direct-Vent Installs
Every Tankless Brand Serviced
Family-Owned Since 2000
10% Off Water Heater Installs
Our Working Week
Appointments fill a 7-to-7 day, Monday to Saturday.How You Pay
We take Zelle, cash, and checks, and no cards.Price Cuts
Save 15% as a veteran or at 55-plus, or 10% as a senior, a first responder or a member of the military.Callback Speed
Leave a word, and the phone rings back usually within 10 to 15 minutes.Outside the Radius
Travel beyond 50 miles adds $75 to the bill.Our Plumbing Class
Arizona ROC license #150707 carries the CR-37 plumbing classification.AZ ROC #150707
Licensed, Bonded & Insured
Navien Preferred
Direct-Vent Installs
Every Tankless Brand Serviced
Family-Owned Since 2000
10% Off Water Heater Installs
Our Working Week
Appointments fill a 7-to-7 day, Monday to Saturday.How You Pay
We take Zelle, cash, and checks, and no cards.Price Cuts
Save 15% as a veteran or at 55-plus, or 10% as a senior, a first responder or a member of the military.Callback Speed
Leave a word, and the phone rings back usually within 10 to 15 minutes.Outside the Radius
Travel beyond 50 miles adds $75 to the bill.Our Plumbing Class
Arizona ROC license #150707 carries the CR-37 plumbing classification.Going Tankless in a Camelback East Condo, Townhome or House
In a condo, a tankless unit usually hangs where the tank stood, in a closet that shares a wall with the outside; the job is the unit plus whatever it takes to reach that wall. The old tank is drained and taken out before the new unit goes up.
One thing callers here are surprised by: on a townhome row, the bank of gas meters serving every unit is often on the end wall somebody had their eye on, and meters and regulators take their own clearance on both sides. That can put most of an end wall out of play before the balcony or the windows are even measured, so the wall next to it is worth walking on the same visit.
Navien is the brand we reach for first on new installs, and other common makes get repaired and serviced too. Houses on the village's single-family streets have more walls to choose from; condos and townhomes often have one or two. On a house, the same clearance table applies, but a second or third wall is usually there if the first one fails.
In homes built before 1978, we only take on work that leaves painted surfaces undisturbed. If a vent, gas, or condensate route would need a painted wall opened, that part goes to a lead-safe certified contractor you hire directly; we do not perform or arrange it.
Drains, Walls and Windows on a Condo Job
“There is nothing in the heater closet that looks like a drain.”
That is the first thing to establish, and it usually takes five minutes over the phone.
What matters is whether anything approved sits lower than the unit and within reach: a laundry standpipe, a fixture drain on the other side of the wall, or an exterior point below the cabinet. Where nothing does, a condensate pump can lift the liquid to something that qualifies, and where a pump is unwanted, a non-condensing unit is the honest alternative.
“Could the condensate just run out through the wall onto the walkway?”
Only where the discharge point is approved and lower than the unit, and on a shared walkway that is usually the end of the idea.
The code wants an approved plumbing fixture or disposal area, and liquid arriving on a surface people walk on is neither, quite apart from what the association will make of it. On a ground-floor home, a planting bed sometimes serves. Above the ground floor it rarely does.
“Our neighbor's bedroom window is a few feet from where the old flue came out.”
That still matters, and it gets settled on the same visit as the drain.
The vent terminal keeps published distances from any opening, including one belonging to the home next door, and from the building's fresh-air intakes. It is the second question here, because a wall that suits a vent is no use if the liquid has nowhere to go.
The Closet Has No Drain, and the Unit Makes Water
Why a condensing unit produces liquid at all
A condensing heater draws enough heat from its exhaust that the water vapor in it condenses back into water. That is where the efficiency comes from, and it is not an occasional event: a unit that condenses drips steadily for as long as it runs. The liquid is mildly acidic, which is why the code has opinions about where it goes and what it travels through.
What the code asks of the route
The 2024 fuel gas code states that “liquid combustion byproducts of condensing appliances shall be collected and discharged to an approved plumbing fixture or disposal area in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions,” that condensate piping “shall be of approved corrosion-resistant material,” and that it shall slope “not less than 1/8 unit vertical in 12 units horizontal (1-percent slope).” Three requirements, and indoors the third is the one that bites: the line has to fall the whole way.
Which is a problem particular to stacked housing
A heater closet in a condo or townhome often has no floor drain, no laundry standpipe within reach, and no exterior wall at a level below the unit. A house has a yard, a garage floor, or a laundry room to aim at. Here the candidates are a fixture on the other side of the closet wall, a standpipe if one is close, an exterior discharge point lower than the unit, or a condensate pump to lift the liquid to something that qualifies.
The neutralizer belongs in the same plan
Navien recommends a condensate neutralizer kit, a small canister of media the liquid passes through on the way out. It occupies the space under the unit and is a maintenance item, so it goes on the drawing with the route rather than appearing after the cabinet is already on the wall.
And it can decide the appliance itself
This is one of the few questions on a tankless job that can rule out a whole class of unit. Where no approved route exists, and a pump is unwanted, a non-condensing heater is the answer, at a different efficiency and with a different vent. That is a real trade, and it is made at the quote, because retrofitting a drain route into an occupied stack is work nobody enjoys pricing twice.
Finding the Drain, Then the Wall
Call and describe the closet
Call (602) 883-2787 with the floor you are on, what is inside the heater closet, and what rooms sit on the other side of its walls. A laundry or a bathroom behind that wall changes the answer.
Trace the route the liquid would take
On site, the possible discharge points are found and their levels checked against the unit; the fall is confirmed the whole way, and the neutralizer's place under the cabinet is allowed for. Each usable wall is then measured against the vent clearance table.
Install once the route is settled
The unit goes up where the drawing puts it. Then it is run long enough to start making condensate, so that the route everything on this page turns on can be watched doing its job before anyone leaves.
Serving Camelback East From Our Phoenix Base
American Discount Plumbing is based in Phoenix and serves all of Camelback East.
Condensate and Vent Questions in Camelback East Condos
Still have a question? Call Pavel (Paul) directly and get a straight answer, no phone tree.
Then a non-condensing unit, which makes none, is an option to consider, or a new tank in a proper pan. Our tank page for the area walks through the second of those.
An outdoor model mounts on the wall itself, so it is plainly an exterior change for the association, and its maker publishes its own clearances to openings. Where both line up, it saves running a vent through the wall.
A steady trickle while the unit runs, which is exactly why the fall matters more than the pipe size. A line that dips anywhere along its length holds liquid, and a line holding mildly acidic liquid is one that will eventually tell you about it.
Power, and somewhere to send the liquid. It is one more thing in the closet that can stop, so where a gravity route exists, that is the one to take, and where a pump is the answer, it goes on the quote beside the route it serves.
The clearances are the same on any wall. Whether anyone else signs off depends on whether your home is a condominium unit or a house in a planned community, and on what your documents say.
What a Condo Quote Settles Here
Every Service in Camelback East & Biltmore
Our other pages for the village, then the full tankless service:
No Drain in the Heater Closet in Camelback East? Call American Discount Plumbing
If your association meets monthly, call (602) 883-2787 now so your request can be added to the next agenda.
Where nothing in that closet will take the liquid, a condensing unit is the wrong appliance for it, and you hear so while the choice is still open.
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