slefain said:Checking out how the hybrid/heat pump water heater thing works the only issue I see is making sure that coil stays clean. Doesn't look like there is any sort of filter on them, so whatever dust or debris in the air will get sucked into it.
This one has a filter. You're supposed to clean it yearly.
I just got a rheem marathon two years ago. Amazing electric hit water heater.
Anybody have one of these HPWH in a mostly unconditioned space in a cold climate? These work by extracting heat from the ambient air (cooling the space they're in). That's probably great in warm places as it could have plenty of heat to exchange, while simultaneously making cooling the living space easier. But what about places with seasons?
I see a lot of water heaters installed in garages and basements that may or may not be conditioned space. These spaces can stay pretty cool during cold weather months. How well do these function in an environment with little external heat to exchange? Online reviews seem to be mixed for these kinds of applications. Anone here have first hand experience?
I installed the water heater on Sunday. It went fairly smoothly. I had to make a few trips to the HW store. I had planned everything out but as they say no plan survives first contact with the enemy. The cold water line wanted to be in the exact same spot as the condensation and pressure relief lines so I had to get a couple more fittings. Then I realized that the CW line would interfere with removing the filter on top. Then the electrical box at the top of the unit was literally about 1 x 1.5" x 3" to get 3 #10 wires connected. That wouldn't have been so bad but the wires from inside the WH came into the box directly opposite where the supply wires came in and there was only about 1/2" of space between the two fittings. As I tightened up the cover plate it popped the 3/4" knockout with the 1/2" EMT coupler off the plate. berkeley! Anyhoo. I got past all of the installation obstacles and finally filled it up with water to find that the HW outlet had a drip. Got that fixed, filled it up and realized that the copper nipple that was threaded into the wall for the HW was dripping. I pulled it apart, reapplied teflon tape, put it back together and it was still dripping. Double berkeley! I wound up buying some teflon based pipe dope and a 3/4" female pipe brush, got the fitting cleaned up and put it back together for the third time and it was finally water tight. Whew.
I took the advice offered here and tucked as much of the plumbing into the gap at the left. It came out pretty clean.
Operation wise its... different. Its quiet but it isn't silent. Its very similar to a 16k BTU portable AC unit and it sounds like one. It seems to run a long time to recover but that might be my imagination. We haven't run out of hot water yet. The garage is 10-15F colder than I'm used to. That will be great in the summer, but it's kind of chilly compared to what I'm used to. I thought about ducting the outlet outside. It would be great if I could do that in the winter and then duct it into the garage in the summer. Honestly though, I don't work out in the garage that much these days anyway so I'll probably skip it.
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