Bradford White Direct Vent 
Water Heaters 
Review and Buying Tips

Explore Bradford White direct vent water heaters (DV) for producing domestic hot water in residential and mobile homes. Designed with advanced features, DV models ensure better recovery rates, faster delivery, easier and convenient diagnostics, and more. See tips for safe installation.

Bradford White direct vent water heaters utilize one telescopic and co-axial pipe, or pipe in a pipe, and closed combustion chamber to take the air in from the outside and move the products of combustion out. Direct venting is ideal for rooms with an insufficient supply of combustion air and no electricity.

All the units from this manufacturer are designed for heating potable water either in residential applications or mobile homes. Two categories are available:

• DV FVIR Defender Safety System
• Manufactured home

All the models are factory built to use natural gas, and for those models that run on LP gas, small modifications are applied, such as the use of titanium stainless steel gas burner, including the conversion kit.

DV FVIR Defender Safety System

There are three sizes of the direct vent water heaters coming from the FVIR Defender Safety System series: 40, 48, and 50 gallons, where the 48-gallon model has the highest First Hour Rating and recovery rate due to the strongest gas burner.

These models are FVIR compliant and utilize an exclusive ICON system that maximizes the performance, ensures safe operation, making the water heaters independent of the electricity.

The features include the intelligent gas control with the diagnostic system and LED light to signalize the normal operation or a problem, providing ten different diagnostic codes for easy troubleshooting.

It also includes the advanced temperature controller for the accurate and more stable hot water temperature and separate immersed thermowell for convenient gas control valve removal.

The standard features include the Hydrojet Total Performance System, which helps in reducing the sediment build-up for better first-hour delivery, and Vitraglas lining and magnesium anode rod for protection against the aggressive water action.

The venting system uses the co-axial vent pipe, which makes the installation very flexible. The top can be rotated while the horizontal and vertical extensions can be added. The maximum length of the horizontal venting is up to 100 ft.

DV models for manufactured homes

Bradford White direct water heaters also meet HUD standards for mobile home use, and they are built with 30 and 40-gallon tank sizes. The water heaters are equipped with fully automatic controls and have a closed combustion vent kit for installation flexibility.

The standard features ensure efficient water heating, and these include the heat traps to reduce the heat loss through the piping and specially designed flue baffle, which maximizes the heat transfer inside the flue tube.

As all direct vent models, mobile home units are using the Vitraglas lining and magnesium anode rod to protect the metal tank from corrosion.

Bradford White direct water heaters are available to the homeowners only through the professional installers, sales, and service network, which ensures safe and proper installation.

The standard warranty is 6 years but can be extended to 10.

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