Customer Reviews for Rheem ProTerra 80 Gal. 10-Year Hybrid High Efficiency Heat Pump Tank Electric Water Heater with Leak Detection & Auto Shutoff

Love the app and vacation mode and water leak detection. Hope it saves as much as they say. Haven't had it long enough to tell if it saves yet.

Hot water heater is working ATM error free. But before I continued to get A108 Condensate is blocked. My plumber tried everything to fix the issue but the error continued. When I contacted customer service this error is a known issue since these hot water heaters are stored in a climate controlled warehouse. Once shipped to Home Depot the condensation builds up. I was given very limited advice on how to fix it. I was able to just move the sensor to help clear the error. It did come back once. Called customer service and they said the sensor is bad and sent me another one. But with no instructions on how to replace it. Also they were unable to give me a plumber in my area to put this part in. I live right outside of Austin,Tx the capital of Tx and they have no plumbers. I don’t get that. So now I’m stuck with this sensor and no instructions to give to a plumber to fix this. But the error is gone ATM. With the price you pay for this, the customer should not have to handle this known issue.

I decided to replace my old electric hot water heater with the Rheem 50 gal 10 year warranty hybrid high efficiency smart tank. It was easy to install using the piping and wiring from my old heater. To isolate if from the house to reduce any possible noise from the compressor I used pex pipe and fittings. I did have to run a condensate line. My heater is in an unfinished basement so I get the side benefits of reducing the humidity in the basement and some cooling of the area. I am very pleased- with a family of 4 we are running in the compressor mode only- and have plenty of hot water. It is very quiet- I have to hold my hand in front of the outlet air vent so see if the unit is running. It runs a whole lot less than I anticipated. I expect reduced electric bills in the future. There were two concerns. After installation one of the heating elements was running all the time. I contacted Rheem customer service- the representatives were knowledgeable and friendly. They overnighted me a new control board and it was easy to install. Also I have an issue with connecting the heater app to my phone but that is a phone issue that will be resolved soon. I am happy that I bought the heater even with the 2 minor issues.

I was replacing an electric water heater from the mid 1980's so this is a big upgrade. -DIY in less than 1 day -CPVC connections, flex connection to tank to sharkbite connection with shutoff valve -Expansion tank on inlet water line -PVC condensate drain lines into sump pump -Does not include WIFI module or any other connections -Very attractive with $500 BGE rebate -Currently running in "High demand mode" which is moderate power consumption and high rate of recovery. Blends heat pump mode and electric element heat. Still super energy efficient compared to electric heaters. ECO mode only uses heat pump to heat the water. My water wasn't getting hot in that mode being in the basement where its 64 degrees yearly.

I installed it myself. Got the $500.00 rebate from SMECO in MD. Had to re-route copper pipe, water heater SS shark bites for the hookup to the copper pipe and a new pigtail for the electric line to get me up to code to the existing water heater disconnect. Not a hard job if you know something about plumbing and electric. $20.00 to $30.00 less a month in electric bills, I think you would save more the more people you have taking showers. Knocked off a star because I can't get the phone app to hook up after following the instructions numerous times. I guess I need to call tech support to get it to work on my phone, but haven't had the time to deal with it. The phone app has terrible ratings. It is very quiet and doesn't run much unless you are using hot water so don't expect it to keep a room cold. It is also great for removing moisture from the basement room it is in. I was thinking about venting it outside in the winter, but it doesn't run enough for the trouble. I just ran PVC pipe for the condensation line to my AC condensation pump. You only need a pump that is capable of 2 gal a day, almost any pump can handle that much extra water. I have a 3.5 ton AC/heat pump and the water going to the pump, and it has been hot and humid with no problem pumping it all out, so far. It's been installed for about three months. I left the setting on the "Hybrid Mode" @ 120 degrees. We don't notice any difference with the amount of hot water we have from the old water heater, just a smaller electric bill!

when you unbox this! wow! so secure you just know you bought some quality stuff! i actually have a youtube video of this so go here: https://youtu.be/wkCQomh5YXw

If you need an electric water heater and want to save money over time, you need this. The quality of this unit is excellent and has many more features than I expected: temperature sensors (that you can see readings from) for the upper tank, lower tank, ambient temperature, evaporator temperature, and output temperature. So if you're interested in maximizing its efficiency, it's easy with all of these sensors. I've set mine to heat pump only mode (doesn't use the standard electric heating elements) and I've noticed no difference in how fast it heats up or recovers compared to my old bottom-of-the-line electric water heater. From completely cold water at 65 degrees (in Texas), I was ready to take a warm shower in under 2 hours. And since then, with a family of 3 shower takers, I've not ran out of hot water yet. Though it's nice to know that the heater has faster heating options if needed. There's some things about the heater that I don't like. It has strange locations for pipe connections. They come out the side, which was probably needed to maximize efficiency, but they also come out of the front. The pipes should be coming out of the back or side - which is where your wall will be. I ended up ripping out my wall and relocating the pipes and positioning the unit slightly sideways to make a semi-clean looking installation. But maybe there's a way to rotate the top - I haven't looked into this yet. Replacing the anode rod in a few years also seems like it will be more difficult than a standard unit since it requires disassembly of the top of the unit. The Rheem app isn't the greatest and doesn't give you all of the same data/information that's available through the unit's touch screen. But it does give you a graph of kwh usage over time (by hour, day, and month), so you can easily see how much energy your unit is using. Finding a place for the condensate is really the biggest thing you'll need to consider. It produces much more condensate than a refrigerator, so you must find a way to remove it - either to a drain or outside. Mine is located in the middle of my house with no easy way to run a pipe outside, but thankfully I had a drain pipe in the wall behind it and was able to tap into that. It's quite a project to get this thing installed properly (especially if you also need to create a drain for the condensate), but is doable by any dedicated DIYer. Now here's hoping it lasts for 10+ years!

Fine piece of equipment. Runs smooth and quiet. All seems in order; installed about 2 weeks ago.

Installed several months ago and so the heater is working fine. Only complaint is the wi fi connection is a challange. Have not been able to install that feature to date.

It is great to have hot water without losing the heat, and the dehumidifier aspect is wonderful.

This has been just great so far. Replaced an older tank, and this is only running a couple times a day to keep us in hot water all the time! The efficiency is amazing! Appreciate being able to monitor and control over the Internet so we can turn it off to participate in demand management (ohmconnect.com). Also enjoying the cooling and dehumidification of our garage and the quart or two of distilled water (condensate) we have collected and used for our plants. We have eliminated all natural gas from our home, and this was the last piece. The home of the future is an ALL-ELECTRIC HOME. They actually had it right in the 50's! I've done the math and this is cheaper by far than either a regular electric tank (payback in 6 months) or a natural gas water heater (payback in about 15 months). Also, even if ALL the electricity was produced in a natural gas power plant (it isn't -- we are 100% solar), it would only need about half the natural gas of a natural gas water heater. So, the greenhouse gas (GHG, i.e., carbon dioxide) emissions would be about the same as if we had gas with a solar water heating system. Ours is producing zero (0) GHG since we power it with solar panels on the garage roof (it only needs about half a kiloWatt of panels to supply all the power it needs). Please, please, please, Home Depot, start stocking these in your stores and stop promoting gas and standard (resistance heater) electric tanks! These tanks can be a big help in reducing GHG emissions from our homes, but no one knows about them.

I ordered this unit online with delivery to my local store. The order, delivery and pickup process was painless, fast, and well executed. Self-installation of the unit in my garage was fairly easy. Most of the work was re-routing the hot and cold-water lines to the front of the unit, required by the bottom-fed design. I added an expansion tank, vacuum breaker and condensate drain line to the existing setup on my 18-year-old electric unit. Running in Energy-Saver mode at 120 degrees, the difference in operation compared to the old unit was immediately noticeable and extraordinary. It uses considerably less energy on a typical day in our two-person household. Both the upper and lower heating elements fired briefly when the tank was first filled, but on subsequent days only the heat pump was needed. The unit is very quiet when running. Water produced is not quite as hot as the old unit and the recovery time is longer in heat pump mode, but that's not a problem for us. The only problem came four days after the unit was installed, when a commercial power failure caused the control board to fail. Rheem over-nighted a new board and sent a link to a YouTube video that showed how to replace it. Unfortunately, the failure occurred on a Friday and I didn't receive the new board until Monday (FedEx doesn't deliver to my rural area on Saturdays). But the replacement was easy, twenty minutes and we were back on the air. Standby loss in this unit is amazing - we still had fairly warm water after three days of non-operation. I'm disappointed with the fact that the control board failed so quickly, my experience and other reviews suggest there may be a design and/or quality control issue there. But, I'm very impressed with the performance of the unit so far. And very happy with the performance of Rheem's knowledgeable and responsive customer support staff.

Works great. Uber efficient! Easy install. Had it delivered "over the threshold" into a back door near the installation site for small extra charge. The Home Depot installation bid was absurdly expensive, so I ordered the unit myself and once delivered, had it installed by a competent plumber in my community - easy and quick. While some plumbers warned that Rheem would blame any malfunction on the plumber, Rheem confirmed the unit does NOT need to be installed by a Rheem-certified plumber and they will honor the warranty. We're getting plenty of hot water in heat pump mode. The technology is well tested and the savings substantial - the extra cost for this unit compared to a conventional heater pays for itself in a few years, and the reduction in energy use cuts emissions. Highly recommended. No rebates from my utility, but there was a $250 price drop at HD that went off and on over 6 weeks, so watch the price and order when discounted if you can.

The only thing I was aggravated about was a 1300.00 water heater didn't include the wireless connectivity module, so after a huge purchase, I had to go back and spend another $50.00 for something that I feel like should have been included with the water heater purchase. You do not need the wireless connectivity module to operate the water heater...you only need it if you want to be able to adjust settings and modes from your smartphone, which was a major reason for purchasing the unit in the first place. As far as a operational, it is leaps and bounds ahead of the standard water heater, and by observing my energy usage report from my power company, it does indeed use much less energy. planning on purchasing another one to replace my other water heater soon.

The feedback is on the 65 Gal unit. This is an excellent unit that I was able to install with the help from my father-in-law. We are pretty handy, but were naive to the copper pipes soldering. Nevertheless, after some learning curve and reading the local plumbing code this project turned out to be fun and rewarding. The overall economical effect is favorable, I think in fact that this is one of the best investments that I made so far after the home purchase. It is driven by the several factors: (a) self-install, (b) Massachusetts sales tax exemption on the air-sourced heat pump water heaters, (c) generous local electric plant rebate, (d) great energy efficiency that is by far more favorable than the smaller conventional 50 Gal Electric unit that I had in place before and which was given away within hours via craigslist. Regarding the size, I was worried that it won't be sufficient for my family of 5 with three young kids, but so far we had gone through the Mass winter and had no issues that I would remember. The key here would be to be reasonable with expectations and practical with the timing of baths/showers. Since 65 Gal unit is no longer offered, I think this is not going to be a question anymore and I would just recommend to go with 80 Gal for the large family. A few words about the all-around use. Thanks to the wireless connection you can track the energy consumption. I can see that during the coldest month of Jan i used 230 kW, which means around $25. For the reference, September was around 87 kW, which totals at ~$9. So far, since Jun 2018, I've used 1262 kW, which will probably add up to around 1400 kW annually. This is almost three times less than my old unit. Keep in mind that during the winter time the expenditure raises due to the lower ambient water temperature (we are on the well water, which probably makes it even more significant), and the temperature of the air intake. I tried to mitigate the second aspect by venting the unit outside at the air discharge using the 8 in flex insulated AC duct and specifications provided in the manual. It wasn't very involved process, but did helped with the overall temperature in the basement. One outstanding task is now to add the drain line that connects to the septic, which is quite doable, just make sure to follow the manual for interconnections (there has to be an air lock). I would encourage fellow diyers to try. The unit pays for itself with a proper planning.

This water heater is pretty amazing. It's just my wife and I at home so we have the WH heater set on heat pump only mode which is the most efficient. Since its been installed we never ran out of hot water. When we have guests, I'll use the app to temporarily turn on the dual heating. The water heater is in our garage which is not insulated. It keeps the garage cool/dry in the summer. I like the app, I can easily track usage. We are on track to use about 600 kilowatts in the first year - the savings is incredible. I am very happy with the purchase.

Excellent product - installation is a little more involved than that of a standard water heater and it needs enough airspace (up top and one side) for the fan to circulate air for the heat pump to function properly and to service the air filter. This unit can be installed by a do it yourselfer with a little above average mechanical ability. Electrical connection is on the top and the cold and hot inlet and return are on the side along with a condensation line that needs to be connected to a pump out or floor drain. Also, this model has the WIFI built in, no need to purchase the external WIFI connection with this model and it is easy to setup (for just under 2K it should), however, not forgiving if you make an error with the initial programming (suggestion: have a teenager program it). You’ll find the Econet customer service hotline to be first-rate to walk you through the programming mode if needed. Initial power up under energy saving mode takes approx. 6 hours to completely heat the big 80-gallon tank to 130 deg’s, but, once it is your good to go for showers, laundry and dishes all at once. There are seven of us in my household five of which are mid to late teens that seem to take more showers than any human should. I am happy with the purchase and do recommend this product to anyone with a large family and or with a large soaking type tub within the home…

Have this installed and running for just over 3 weeks now and after getting my first bill from BGE I am extremely happy with the efficiency. What really surprised me is how much more efficient the "Heat Pump" only mode is than using the "Energy Saver" mode (which uses both Heat Pump and then Electric Elements when hot water is demanded). Install was no more difficult than a standard electric water heater, just had to run a Condensate Line. Used CPVC for all piping. Had neighbor (certified plumber) do most of the plumbing since I was installing in a different location since mine was previously on the first floor inside a large bathroom closet; moved to the basement. Love that I can change the mode or the temperature from anywhere on my phone, as well as see reports on hot water usage. Currently there is nothing that I "dislike". However, buyers beware of install costs though; I called around 5-10 local (Anne Arundel) companies and even after having some of them come out for in home estimates they were all between $1500-$2500 (Labor Only!). We did this in about 8 hours, and that included removing the old one, re-routing CPVC pipes, and relocating Electric Shut-off box.

Easy install, well built. I replaced an older 40 gallon electric with a 65 gallon. The first month savings on a dedicated meter was $60 @ $0.0912/kWh. I recommend upsizing 1 size to help with first hour. The rheem app is slso very helpful and the different modes are great for efficiency.

I had this water heater installed in our house January 2017. It is now March 2019, and I wanted to update my previous positive review. Over the two years prior to installing this water heater our electric bills averaged $247.16 per month. For the 25 months after installation our electric bills have averaged just $150.85. The average monthly savings is $96.13. So, the bottom line is that this water heater completely paid for itself in just 25 months. I am impressed!

Easy hook up runs great

65g wasn't available in stores. Had to order online. NO military discount online. :(Shipping was quick, easy, and free. Install was simple and easy. Extra connections lines needed due tanks side connections. Performance is so far so good. Plenty of hot water with 3 adults and 3 kids using 3BR.

I needed to replace my 25 year old water heater. I shopped around looking at electrical and gas water heaters. The hybrid water heater have the best energy rating by far. Also, I get a rebate from my electrical provider. This water heater is very heavy but once in the basement installation was pretty straight forward. No big surprises. I run it in heat pump mode most of the time. Connected via Alexa, Nest and its own EcoNet app. I don't recommend vacation/away mode during the day since to heat up when you come back it uses electrical heat even in heat pump mode. If 4 people shower back to back you will need electrical power. I put it in Energy Saver mode on the weekends. Be aware that the cold air blows out into your basement cooling it down. Overall, it definitely reduced my power bill significantly.

Installed this about two weeks ago. My thoughts, in bullets: - NOISE. I was very worried this thing would be noisy, as it is located immediately below our TV room, but it is whisper quiet. The fridge in the next room is considerably louder. It sounds something like small box fan on its lowest setting. - INSTALL. It took me and a buddy (with zero plumbing experience at all) about half of one Saturday to install, including removal of the old unit. Would have taken less time but the transfer pump I borrowed was broken. I used about 8 feet of 3/4 PEX, a small handful of PEX elbows, a small handful of crimp rings (don't forget to borrow the tool), plus three 3/4 FIP-to-barb fittings and a cheap TPR valve fitting I spotted at HD. I also took the opportunity to replace some old flex pipes since the washers were rotting. Materials cost about $60. Hauling the new one into and the old one out of the basement was by far the hardest part. I haven't installed a condensate pump yet; waiting to see how long it takes to fill a bucket. - EFFECTIVENESS. The water is hot. And recharge is surprisingly fast, even on heat pump-only mode. - EFFICIENCY. Boy this thing works. I left it on electric-only mode for a few days to get a baseline and it was pulling about 10kwh on average, or $1.30 in my area ($474/year). I've had it on HP-only mode for a week now and it's averaging about 2.7kwh or $0.35 per day ($128/year). The vacation mode worked great when we went away for four days last weekend. Hasn't been through a high demand period yet, but I will probably switch into high demand mode for that. - BELLS & WHISTLES. Whoever Rheem hired to make their EcoNet app should get a Pulitzer or something. I was expecting the buggy, skeuomorphic stuff that most companies churn out, but this one is great and easy to use. The different settings make perfect sense and seem to work from my limited fooling around. And the usage monitoring is terrific. A+

Had this delivered and got it running about a week ago. Was very pleased to see the newest version has wifi built in and no extra hardware or subscription is required. Just download the app, connect to the wifi coming from the hot water heater to configure it, enter the password for the regular wifi, and then let everything reset and it worked. Very nice to see the very low power consumption in a daily, hourly or monthly graph. While I was changing out the old hot water heater, I added a 28" drain pan, a pressure tank, and earthquake straps that had never been installed in my house. Seems like cheap / simple protection and the pressure tank helps avoid high pressure spikes. This thing requires a bunch of connections - 30A 240VAC electrical connection, cold water in, hot water out, a condensate drain line, a line for the overpressure (T&P) valve (which I pointed into the drain pan), and then the drain pan line to the floor drain. It shows a lot of status information on the screen - I showed some examples.

Installation wasn't too hard, nice and straight forward. Hardest part was changing the cooper water lines from a top mount water heater to a side mount. This required cutting and sweating new pipes to allow for the slight height change and inlet location being on the bottom. Connected to my wireless with little effort and worked fine with existing security settings.

Jury is still out. Installed 2 weeks ago. Simple install. I haven't ducted the unit to the outdoors, but will do so this summer; it definitely makes the garage feel like a freezer. We've run out of hot water several times so far, getting, instead, lukewarm water. Temp is set to 123F. 50 gal model. Energy Savings mode. I talked with customer service tech. He was somewhat dumbfounded and asked me to record temps on display screen when water supply temp issues arise (inconvenient, but okay). There are two key readings: upper and lower tank level temperatures. He informed me that on energy saver mode, resistance heating kicks in when lower tank gets to 95F. It seem, from my limited experience, that this is too low to be useful with a 50 gal tank. On High Demand mode, that number is supposedly 105F. I checked tonight while my wife was taking a bath and the top tank was reading 102F, so that's the lukewarm water she's feeling. I'm going to try to do two things to combat this: 1st: try setting temp to 125F (or higher) until it's no longer an issue 2nd: use high demand mode I will probably contact customer support again to see which of the two options produces better economics. I guess I should've gone with the bigger unit even though this was replacing a similar sized electric unit that we had never run out of hot water with; the extra $500 for the unit is a big pill to swallow So, disappointed for now; optimistic that it can be remedied with some operating tweaks. Hoping there are still cost savings to be had, otherwise it's a useless product for us.

The unit has never given us "hot" water in the past year. I discovered the upper element had a failure (A-129). After 3 new circuit boards Rheem is going to replace the entire unit. These are very expensive and so far not worth the money. I can try to update this rating after we get the replacement installed. I have yet to go through the entire replacement process so I'm rating this low for now. Rheem tech support has been excellent. I'm just not excited about having to do all this legwork etc. on a less-than-one year old water heater. BTW The installation of these heat pump WHs is not typical.

Installed myself a couple weeks ago. Used soldered copper pipe that was rerouted from previous water tank. Working great. Much less electricity. Was quoted around $1000 for installation originally. Had to call the EcoNet app phone number to get wireless hooked up to the phone. Turns out connecting to the network whilst setting up the app required the use of the phones back button and not the app back arrow. App works great now and shows usage history. Very happy.

The 50 Gal. Hybrid Rheem water heater replaced my GE Smart Water 50 Gal. I have a family with 2 Audits and 2 kids that take long showers. I tried to use ECO Mode but the recovery was too slow for 4 consecutive showers. In High Demand mode, hot water recovery was fast. During my vacation I left my water heater in High Demand mode. The daily kWh consumption is between .70 and .80 per day with no usage. My average daily kWh used is about 5. This water heater definitely saves money compared to my GE electric only water heater. The best reason for going Hybrid is the AC! My water heater is located in the garage, and now I have free AC/Dehumidifier in my garage. While not substitute for real AC, it uses a lot less energy than say a wall unit and does drop my garage temp 5+ degrees and remove the humidity which makes the garage feel much crisper. If I need more AC, I can put on the water heater in heat pump only mode; however, heat pump recovery is slower than electric. The install is easy. I used PEX pipes and Shark Bite.