AskCodeMan

Just came from a house where there were two tankless water heaters installed under the bathroom sinks. Both installations had permits. I know this does not comply with the clearance issues. Are there any other code issues besides installation instructions and clearance issues that are violated. And each unit had a 60 amp circuit box installed under the sink. I know overcurrent devices cannot be installed in bathrooms, but this was acting as a switch. And once again, outside of clearance and workspace issues, what says it cannot be there. Thanks for your help

Bill,

Are the 60 amp 'breakers' actually overcurrent protection or are they "molded case switches"? Molded case switches look just like breakers except that they have a label on them stating "Provides no overcurrent protection." or wording to that effect.

If they are breakers, then, no, they are not allowed to be in bathrooms.

If they are molded case switches (i.e., just "disconnects") then they have wording space issues as you stated - both for the disconnects and for the tankless water heaters. The tankless water heaters could be under the sinks, but not in a cabinet - if there is no cabinet then the 30" wide working space extends out to either side that working space is needed and the 3' in front of is also usually easily met. Putting them in cabinets creates the working space problems.

If it is a breaker and provides overcurrent protection, even if it is only being used as a "switch", then it is not permitted to be in the bathroom, they would need to replace it with either a molded case switch, a pullout disconnect, or some other type of disconnect which is not fused and not a breaker. Do you have a photo of the inside of the panel cover and/or the breaker? Either should show that it is a molded case switch - if it is.

Other than that, you are back to the the installation instructions, which applies to both the plumbing aspects (must be installed in accordance with installation instructions) and electrical (110.3(B) must be installed in accordance with it listing and labeling).

Here is the best picture I have

I tried adjusting the brightness and contrast but could not read anything on the labels.

To make matters worse, they installed it facing sideways instead of facing toward the front of the cabinet. They need their hands spanked for that. It not only makes inspection and servicing much more difficult, it made installation a lot more difficult for them too.

Sometimes one wonders if people just don't know that doing it so hard is so much more wrong than had they done it the easier way and 9in this case) faced it toward the cabinet doors - one could possibly overlook a little 'unsafeness' if it was safe to access overall, whereas they just complicated the lack of safety and the risk multiple-fold.