Customer Reviews for Rheem Performance Platinum 9.5 GPM Liquid Propane High Efficiency Indoor Tankless Water Heater

I bought my brand new home 2 years ago and it came with this water heater. We have a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath and have never run out of hot water. The gas bill is only $8 a month for my wife and I and that includes the service charge. It turns on and off on demand and has never had a problem. All I have to do is flush it once a year to remove any sediment and scale of which there is none. I highly recommend these units.

Great unit! It’s very quiet but plan on a whole day to uninstall your old hot water tank and reroute your existing plumbing and you’ll have to add an electrical receptacle within 6’ of the unit

Unit had no assembly defects as noted by other reviewers. Instructions were thorough and detailed, but conflicting in terms of gas supply pipe sizing. Unit comes with 3/4" gas connection and instructions recommend a 3/4" supply, but charts indicate 1/2" supply will provide more than enough BTUs to run the unit. I elected to install with 1/2" supply pipe and adapters to 3/4" connections, unit runs fine with no issues and gas supplier will inspect and change if they feel it is warranted. Screws provided to mount the unit to the wall were too short, in my opinion, and I substituted 3 1/2" washer head construction screws. Unit runs more quietly than my previous, power-vented water tank and provides plenty of hot water for my needs. If considering purchase, do your homework in regards to sizing. Advertised claims of GPM flow assume only a 35 degree increase in temperature, which means your cold water has to be at 85 degrees to attain the advertised flow with 120 degree hot water. Read the fine print, flow decreases if cold water is at 45-55 degrees. Make sure you remove the condensate drain cap. Unit will not power on if this cap is present.

Good design, solid construction except the retainer clips that hold the copper lines at the heater unit. One of them fell off during transportation or was not installed properly. Upon turning on the water the water sprayed all over inside the water heater. I opened the front cover to investigate: The control board was all flooded. The retainer clip was wedged between the housing and the heater unit on the opposite side where it belongs. The second clip was slightly dislocated but still in place. These clips are designed to be held in place by the outside right hand side wall and seen to fall off during transportation. I recommend to remove the front cover and check the retainer clips on the right side of the heater unit for presence and proper installation before turning on the water pressure. Redesigning the clips or simply safety wiring them would remedy the issue. If it happens to you, leave the front cover open and let the unit dry out internally before connecting to the power.

Upon installing exactly according to the instructions, I opened the cold water valve and water exploded everywhere. Turns out that a clip had come loose inside the unit. Everything inside the unit--heating element, circuit board, etc.--was soaked, not to mention the pool of water in my basement. After requesting 12 photos, Rheem customer support said to dry it out and that, while it may reduce the life of my $1,300 water heater, they didn't plan to do anything to compensate for their poor design and my trouble. I would strongly recommend against buying from a company that is trying to sell a premium-priced product but refuses to provide even basic customer support.

So far the heater has been working great and keeping the temperature at what we set it. Will have to wait until summer to be sure it works well when the water temp coming in is a lot warmer.

This was expensive at $1300, but it is top of the line. But it was also not trivial to install. The exhaust and intake is 4" pvc or abs, but exhaust can't be the cellular styles the store carried, so I had to order it or get it at a furnace shop. This is better than the metal exhaust because being gable mounted instead of the roof top, it was out of the wind, insulated better, and the plastic intake eliminated the need for garage venting any more. (although roof top is possible if you need to, it only comes with a gable port cover kit.) There is also a $100 brass valve and adapter kit recommended, so that you have a place to run the hot overflow to, clean-out flush and drain ports, and easy unions with O rings. You can do it yourself cheaper without this kit, but it did make it a little easier. Propane, (or natural gas), input has to be 3/4", so you may not be able to use the existing fuel piping. I had to follow the 1/2" back to the main 3/4", cut the pipe, rethread it, and install a union in order to switch the Tee to an all 3/4" instead of the reducing Tee that was in there. There is no pilot light, has a 110v plug, and also comes with a remote bellwire controller/thermostat. The instructions also show how to use it as a hot water furnace if you have a baseboard radiator or radiant heating system. The instructions imply all rigid connections, but I prefer all flexible connections, and while Home Depot had the flex water lines, we had to order the 3/4" flexible gas line. It came with the 3/4" overflow relief valve. Do not open the case. You never have to. All the water, gas, and wiring is available right in the open on the bottom, and the air/exhaust ports are right in the open on the top. There is a 10 second delay or so before hot water starts, but it is infinite once that is over. However, I do not recommend turning the hot water on and off rapidly, such as to rinse each individual dish. You can hear the valves and pilot cycle each time you turn the hot water on and off. Can't be good in the long run. For rinsing dishes, either tub them until you can rinse them all at once, or just leave the hot water running at low volume. I has a very inefficient water heater with tank before, because the high speed winds howled in the garage where it was mounted, but it seems this cut the propane use about in half, and the whole garage is now about 20 degrees warmer in the winter because it no longer needs venting. Drip tube does produce about a cup of condensation per day. I empty a quart container each week, but running it outside or drilling a floor drain would be easy. About 100 lbs, so I needed help to hook it over 1st screw. The rest I could do myself.

This is a review on Rheem 9.5 gpm liquid propane tankless water heater. Heater was nicely boxed, plenty of foam padding. Shipping company was supposed to deliver to my house but would not bring their 18 wheeler into my neighborhood so I had to rush and meet truck with my pick up in an old parking lot. More of a pain than I expected. Home Depot no help. If I knew they would not deliver I would have picked up at store at my convenience instead of rushing to meet truck. Long easy to understand instruction book. Had professional plumber (smart guy I trust ) do install, but mounting system I did myself. Unit is heavy, approx. 80 pounds so do not use "tap cons" on block wall, I used lead sleeve anchors to hold wood frame to block wall.. Had plumbing and propane and venting done just like instructions, no short cuts, Venting used 3 inch pVc, propane used 3/4 steel pipe per manual. Had the 3 drain/overflow tubes all 1/2 in. go into 1 1/2 pvc main drain, Used existing AC electrical out near heater. Water pressure on house set at 60 psi. Cost of install about $ 1,500, Plumbing crew of 3 men at my house working for a day and a half. Heater and install kit was about $1,500 at Home Depot, So $ 3,000 total costs. New tankless unit Replaced 2 Rheem 50 gallon heaters that were 20 years old. House has 4 and half baths. Highest standard setting on heater is 120 degrees, which I set my heater on. Only two buttons on control box, Up and Down. Turned two faucets and one shower (3 outlets) full blast on hot, after a minute and a half all three had hot water, hotter than you could stick your hand in. This is in October, so water coming into house was at about 55 degrees, cool but not super cold. So can not comment on winter performance when water temps are lower. Unit is very quiet with no vibration, can not hear unit outside of basement. See attached picture

Works well. Replaced a 17 year old Noritz tankless water heater that could not get a new part for. Rheem hooked up and gives me plenty of hot water. Happy

We had this installed by a professional plumber 1.5 years ago - Half of the combustion chamber won't ignite anymore, and after paying a plumber to diagnose, determined that it needed to be replaced. Rheem refused to replace it, despite it only being 1.5 years old and supposedly being under warranty. Will never purchase a Rheem again and do not recommend anyone else does, either.

I never did work.. my plumber called in and we were told it was the flame sensor.. they sent us one and that did not fix it, so we replaced it with a Navion

So far so good. Got this to replace my Noritz which we had for 17 years. If it lasts that long I'll be ecstatic. My only issue is temperature can only be set to 120 degrees. My Noritz would heat to 185. Installation was almost a direct swap, just had to relocate the gas line. The venting is simple enough. I'm not crazy about having a condensate drain. All in all, I'm happy with this unit

Easy to install. Fired right up!

I have only had the heater installed for about a week and a half. But so far I am happy with it.

Easy installation performs as expected. Very satisfied!!

So far we love it. No problems at all

This resides in a warm basement in new construction house. Have 4 tankless water heaters in various buildings; 3 work fine, but not this one. Had to thaw it 8 times since October. Yesterday it froze and burst. Cannot buy just heat exchanger (must buy full new unit), no warranty on frozen water heaters. They are supposed to have freeze protection but either the sensors are faulty or the "freeze protection" simply doesn't work. Rheem told me to just run hot water 24/7 all winter as a fix...

easy install adjusted for over 8000'

Really easy to install and love the endless hot water. Not to mention the savings on my propane.

I believe tankless water heaters are the way to go. Less cost in fuel. Lower over all care.

Fabulous, The Gas and Propane require certified tech installing gas lines. Works Great.

Very quiet! Get a good plumber to install it for long life. I could have installed it myself but decided to hire a contractor and don't regret doing it. Water temperature is stable, even with all bathrooms in use. Very happy with the purchase.

Have been using this for a few months now. This heater works amazingly. It’s surprisingly quiet and the only limitation I have noticed is my home water pressure has a hard time keeping up with three showers running at the same time, but the water is hot still!