Looks like my current gas water is about to die soon, so I’m looking at a smart replacement that also makes use of the fact that I have solar panels installed.
From what I’ve seen the Rheem ProTerra line is a solid choice, but I just wanted to check if there’s anybody here who has one of these installed and who’d be happy to share their experience.
I see that there’s 2 options to integrate these HPWHs into Home Assistant and from what I understand they can even be run in parallel, so there’s no need to chose upfront:
Is one of them more useful than the other - apart from the cloud vs. DIY & local part (which I’m totally fine with).
Does anyone have a list of Dos & Don’ts that would get me off to a better start?
I can probably have a 240V socket installed easily, but I wonder, if somebody has some positive experience with the 110V version as well.
Yeah I know: Open mouth. Insert foot. Post internationally. US means UnServiceable or Up the Sh*t in my workshop, (same as your existing hot water service) - that’s what I think. Maybe I was wrong and am suitably chastised. If you’re throwing shade, you’ve won your battle before it started, and I see your original post may have been edited after I posted.
Too many TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) floating around.
Too bad I’ve got up in the western hemisphere a little cranky, as I’ve had several Rheems, both gas and electric. I’ve seen units in multiple countries, some installed well, others ‘rather agriculturally’ is how it was put to me by the long-suffering owner. Solid units overall, especially if you change the sacrificial anode/s at correct intervals to suit your local water supply, and make allowance for electrolysis when plumbing and connecting to your energy source. Rheem has global reach, and do make different units for different locations to suit local requirements. Installation can make the big difference to longevity. Maybe ask your local installer, who probably also has a wealth of local knowledge across a number of suppliers.
Quick Update:
I had my water heater installed; went for a Ruud instead of a Rheem - same manufacturer, same system (EcoNet), but it’s the ‘installer version’ of the Rheem product.
In the end, my preference for proper warranty through one company sealed the deal, i.e. I can go to the installer in case there are issues rather than having to deal with e.g. Home Depot for the hardware and the installer for - ahm - installation issues.
Plus, I was told (but haven’t been able to verify), that the hardware chain would only provide a ‘prorated warranty of 10 years’. It’ seems as bad as it sounds: if the water heater fails 5years in, you only get 50% reimbursed, or however the situation is being dealt with.
And now on how I’m managing it:
I’m currently running both integrations mentioned above in parallel, but I might ditch the native EcoNet one and keep the ESPHome-EcoNet one.
While the manufacturer’s solution provides some info, the ESPHome one shows much more of what I want to see, e.g.
I also get real-time power figures (in W) from the ESPH version while the native integration only provides daily energy consumption (in kWh) - and the native consumption figures seem questionable at best.
Once I had all the parts ready, setting up the ESPHome solution took me only about half an hour to 45min, so I was very pleased with that as well.
I’ll ‘close’ the topic for now, but if anybody finds it useful or has any questions, please just go ahead and ask!
I don’t pay attention to that one to be honest I also have it on a span panel and watch that circuit. But I’ll give it a watch and see if they drift for you…
Yeah mine is installed in a garage space with a louvered vent. When it rains one drop hits that pan and beeeeeeeep! I had to build my info pack for Friday to check if it was raining before yelling at me about it…
