Customer Reviews for Rheem Performance Platinum 50 Gal. Tall 40,000 BTU Powered Damper Natural Gas Water Heater with 12-Year Warranty

This is the best water heater I ever purchased and installed! The engineering is state of the art and surpasses any water heater on the market by far! No pilot light to waste energy, the thermostat can actually be set to a specific temperature instead of the old fashioned, Warm, Hot, Very Hot settings. The flue damper is 24volt so it closes when the burner cuts off to keep the heat in the flue stack! The 12 year warranty is also a big plus that comes with this model.

it has been working good for close to a year with no complaints

Bought this a week ago and so far it works great! Would definitely recommend this water heater. Great value for the money

The water heater arrived on time and I picked it up from our local Home Depot (HD). The heater was installed professionally by one of our local plumbers (not from HD). I was very impressed with the quality of the unit. This energy star unit comes with an electronic flue dampening system. The original Rheem unit that it replaced did not have this new feature. The old water heater (that was warranted for 6 years) lasted 15 years! This unit can also be monitored via wi-fi through your smart phone where you could change the heater's setting, lowering the heat while you're away on travel. Since I got 15 years out of a 6 year unit, no telling how long this 12 year unit will last. Time will tell.

There are 3 adults in our family that enjoy long, hot showers and this tank doesn't disappoint. Plus water temperature is constant unlike our previous tank which was about 20 years old and just didn't do the job anymore. Another plus is this unit doesn't have a pilot that stays lit all the time. Only fires when you use hot water. The dimensions are exact which allowed us to increase the capacity from 38 gallons to 50 gallons in the same space. definitely recommend Rheem and this Energy Star model.

Works well, pretty quiet. Wifi option is nice to have with the leak detector.

I purchased this model to replace a 36+ yr old electric hot water heater after we installed natural gas. I considered more efficient condensing models, but reading reviews, it didn't seem like they would have the long term reliability commensurate with their price. Installed it myself, and I'm very happy with its performance. I wish that Rheem's wifi module for this heater had a better reviews, because I would like to be able to monitor and control it remotely.

Relatively easy installation. We like the electronic ignition and flue damper. Plenty of hot water to fill our claw-foot tub. Major improvement over our old unit!!

Self installed to replace 16 year old HW heater of same brand. Self ignitor worked perfectly. Quiet operation. I have yet to connect WiFi module but looking foward to testing. My only criticism is that draft hood was not secured well for transporting HW heater home. Also draft hood screws no included but not a big deal.

Happy new home for a top quality product. I believe it will be trouble free for many years to come.

This water heater is a lot bigger then the one I replaced. Same volume but this unit is big in gerth. Easy to install, i'm not a professional plumber but with a few tools it was fairly easy to install.

This is not your old water heater. This unit is big not tall but big around. You better have a spot for this because it is a sturdy girl. Easy install after I got over how big it was. Has no feet , my floor is slope to the drain so I had to put some wood shims under it. Worked out fine. Very nice looking unit. Very happy.

Had a professional plumber install in conjunction with some related cleanup work that needed to be done. No installation issues, although there is a requirement to plug it into a power source. From day one the water heater has worked perfectly. Fits well in the existing space too. Great experience so far!

We bought the water heater a year ago and so far it has been great, uses noticeably less gas than our old smaller water heater. It is quiet, a good thing for a closet install off the living room. Also we now have plenty of hot water, so far we are happy with it.

We've had this water heater installed for just a few weeks now, and I must admit that I paid a plumber to install it, so the installation was super easy (for me)! Seriously, though, he didn't seem to encounter any issues, but then again, he does this all the time. As for the Super Hot Water, he had left it on setting "B" which is 2 above "Hot", which I guess is the standard setting. Holy smokes that water was hot! I had to turn it down to settings, to Hot. Now, we were upgrading from an old water heater, so improvement is to be expected, but I didn't expect that much. Now, with our faucets on full hot, even on the Normal setting, I can leave my hands in it for more than a second without getting scalded. I'm sure this is helping us save water, since you don't have to waste so much waiting for the hot water to travel through the pipes. Out here, in California, that's a big deal to me as we are in a severe drought. I had no idea what rating to give for value, so I picked average. However, through PG&E, this unit is eligible for a $200 rebate, which is how I picked it, and justified the over $700 price tag. One final note: Home Depot had it on sale, or at least was advertising a lower price, just days before I bought it at $729. It was previously listed at $649. This didn't make me think "value" either. I'm hoping the price drops again soon and I can get a price adjustment, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, seems great so far! I'll let you know how it's doing in 10 years. ;-)

Instructions straight forward. Qualified for a $100 rebate. Added a expansion tank at the same time.

The first unit we installed had to be replaced, the outlet on top of the heater was leaking, the threads were damaged inside the unit and on the threaded pipe. I had to call Rheem and have the unit replaced. After the second unit was installed, the drain outlet was leaking and I had to call Rheem again and have another contractor come and replace the drain.

Got the WIFI module have not tested the water leaking sensor .

I purchased two of the same model this year, as both water heaters in my home were 20 years old. The energy savings was noticeable the first month, AN I had more hot water volume - an unexpected benefit. It appears my old hot water heaters were filled with silt from years of use. One thing you need to plan for, if you are replacing an existing gas water heater, is that this unit will require a 110v outlet. This isn't a big deal, but you need to know BEFORE you install it, or you will not be able to fire it up.

There is never a good time for a water heater to fail but Home Depot had everything I needed to replace the leaking one. I picked up 3/4" 2 Shark Bite shutoff valves and 2 flexible Shark Bite connectors to make the install easier. Added shut off valve to the hot water feed to the house. Using a Shark Bite valve I was able to attach it to the hot water feed to the house and stop the draining back into the basement. Can't install a solder joint with water flowing. With the flexible connectors you eliminate all of the soldering and exact placement of the water lines to the water heater.

As all of the other positive reviewers stated, this hot water heater is above average in all categories pertaining to quality, ease of installation and reliability. With that said I only had one complaint, buyer beware of the rebate offer made on these energy efficient units. The state of Oregon will not allow a home owner to install a gas appliance, insulation or any other energy savings devices and insist that it must be done by a licensed contractor. Say what????? We used all of the latest plumbing accessories i.e. shark bite connectors, a replacement ball valve and new gas fitting. The fact that this hot water heater has a sealed combustion chamber and can be installed in your hall closet and on a combustible floor does not matter to the energy trust of Oregon. What boils my blood is they could not really give me a good excuse as to why a home owner cannot connect two water lines, gas line and exhaust pipe to a new tank without paying a contractor big bucks to do it. I even offered to pay for an inspection to check out the install, nope! no can do.. Go figure.... at least we have a new high efficiency hot water tank for the next 12 years and it did not cost us double the price by having it installed.

i have to first sat i haven't had an gas bill with this heater installed. so is it more efficient? most likely,my old heater was about 25 yr old. i could only hope this one would last as long.i would run out of hot water with back to back showers.it was a 40 gal unit. As you know the new unit is 38 gal.i have all the hot water i need. I would bet you could run the shower,dish washer,and clothes washer.all at the same time with out running out of hot water. I installed it myself,with out any problems.

We were told that installation, including permits, would cost between five and seven hundred dollars, nearly as much as we'd paid for the heater itself. We installed it ourselves. Installation wasn't very difficult, and we were finished in about an hour, including draining and removing the leaking unit. This unit is completely insulated, which saved the time to cover it in a tank blanket. We had purchased a leak collection pan in which we placed it, and we used Shark Bite connectors for water supply and distribution connections. this unit has an electronic pilot, so the flue closes when the flame is not on, an electrical device that hooked up to a standard 110v wall plug. All in all, a simple installation of a tank that has held the water hot through all five family members' baths in one evening. This is an excellent water heater.

Got the heater to replace our slowly dying 13 year old Envirotemp water heater. Got the Rheem heater because I trust the Rheem brand. Ran new water lines to replace the old galvanized lines, also installed a drip pan and put an outlet in the utility closet to power the water heater. It does require a 120volt power source to power the control as well as the electronic ignition and flue damper. Once installed and filled it fired right up and had hot water within a half hour, so far so good we no longer run out of hot water and it is more energy efficient than our old 30 gallon water heater. Time will tell if it holds up but so far we are satisfied.

Has all the features you might need NOX2 sensors easy temperature controls LED diagnostics, Electronic ignition, flue damper control, WIFI capable. Truly an outstanding product no pilot to light, Make sure you have the extras like a drain pan for safety, shut off valves, flue piping, tools, fittings to do the job right.

I appreciated this unit was slightly less in diameter as it helped me get it up through the attic steps. The old unit needed tugging to pull it down. I installed it with an expansion tank, unions, and a pressure gauge. Picture taken before pipes were wrapped.

I have to say, water heater installation is too easy now. These new press-on connections make everything easy. That said, this water heater replaced a builder-grade 40-gallon water heater that barely gave us two full showers. In addition to that, we have a whirlpool tub to fill (that never happened unless it was 100 outside) and occasional college kids home for the weekend. Needless to say the old water heater didn't cut it. Installation was very straight forward, gas line was the same height as the old one, and we had to cut the water lines anyway for the new fittings. After filling the tank, it took about an hour for hot water at 140 degrees. This water heater along with a tempering valve successfully filled our tub with 120-degree water with no cold water in sight. We can all take showers at the same time with no loss of hot water. This should also help us with the plans for the additional basement bathroom coming in the near future. By the way, if you're in the Midwest and use Laclede Gas, you can apply for the $125 rebate for this water heater due to the Energy Star rating. I verified this water heater is on the list and confirmed the rebate with Laclede. A very nice additional price drop...

Easily installed this by myself. Had help from a friend getting it down the stairs, then I was on my own. Easy peasy! All of the connections lined up, and no problems at all,

It requires 120v AC, a detail omitted from the product description and details on the web site. Took some thinking and a small bit of fabrication to get the power to the water heater. Was otherwise a simple install and easy start up. it’s been in for a couple of weeks and has worked well. Well see how it is doing in year 11 of the 12 year warranty.

1 year old Rheem water heater failed. Rheem customer service experience was the worst. The play "hide the warranty". Can't find out what is covered because they won't give you a copy, nor is available online or at Home Depot. They have it set up so that repair under warranty will take one to two weeks. You heard that right, multiple WEEKS without hot water. And, if you want to call a plumber to fix it sooner, Rheem pays only $150. Good luck with finding a plumber who will make 2 trips for $150 (1 to diagnose and 1 to do the repair after parts arrive) I would not buy Rheem again because of their warranty policies. Don't think that it can't happen to you. I bought a high-end Performance Platinum water heater with a 12-year warranty that failed after one year.