Generic reply about the Rheem because Rheem/HomeDepot sensors comments and questions. 
Thanks for any info you can provide. I agree with William. But this time, when came back home I cannot turn off the vacation mode, the controller appears to be frozen as it does nothing when pressing any of the buttons. All good. 80 degrees? It sure sounds like this person is really talking about the Energy Saver mode. Id like to see data to confirm this and without it any debate either way is probably not constructive. I get municipal water from Seattle Public Utilities. https://patents.google.com/patent/US8385729B2/en, https://v3.myrheem.com/360/Rheem/WH/docs/hybrid-heat-pump-rheem-hybrid-heat-pump-spec-sheet.pdf, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A0RHSJO, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JHKZ3L4. See attachment for about a random 40 minute span of measurements. Your water heater operates on a 30-amp double-pole breaker. I forgot to add in my initial post the response I got from Rheem Tech Support: "In pre-warm mode, the unit does use the electrical elements.
She attended Tarrant County College and studied English composition. You can see that I have no vacations set up. In any case, I have CO detectors. Anyone doing upstream preheat, from a geothermal desuperheater as an example? 3. Just installed the Rheem 80gal. unit set to Heat Pump Only at 110F. Pull the insulation from the cavity behind the covers to expose the thermostats. 
I was afraid it might still be the case that it took multiple different folks. I have this same question. I believe the heat pump uses 360 watts at steady state, though typically startup has a higher load. Planning to buy a 50 gal one soon. If the heat pump cannot raise the temperature to the preset temperature within either of the lockout periods, the controller turns on the heater element. Until I hear confirmation that Rheem has fixed the quality issues, I can't recommend the 5th Gen Rheem/Ruud hybrids. It generates a pretty loud tone that you can easily hear in the house. 2:55pm = 110 F May try narrowing 140F window to reach temp closer to 3pm to reduce standby losses (at potential loss of capacity? Slightly less noise than the GE GeoSpring it replaced. I like the anti-legionella benefit of routinely hitting 140+ F as well. Of course, you may never use the heating element if the unit stay in heat pump mode. I then hired a plumber to install the HPWH. Rheem phone support has no answers. How Do You Remove or Delete Apps from a Chromebook? This will give me a bigger, better, buffer. FWIW, my hybrid was (and still is) set to 140 degrees, which may increase the need for "prewarm?" Im wondering if having it cycle a bit, every once in a while, is good for the heat pump. Seems like "het pump only" should use the least energy, ya? The point is, no matter what, every other hour energy usage time slot is ALWAYS zero and this is when I validate that the compressor ran without stopping for 3hours straight. So now I have no hot water expense now and no gasoline expense as drive an EV for transportation. Turn off the breaker to your Rheem water heater inside the breaker panel. Still nothing. Does anyone know why it does this? Is there some advantage to using Vacation Mode, as opposed to turning off the water supply and cutting the power at the breaker? It averages around 330W. Rheem phone support told me they are not Rheem employees and are a contracted out phone support center business. Is there a date code or other indication to know which ones to avoid? I also have a PV system with an eGauge, so I can see real time energy use. In the 2021 model that I have in my main house, it went into serious alarm mode (loud beeping) when the tank temperature dropped too low during a prolonged period of high demand, and I didn't see any sign that the heating element kicked in. I think you are over-thinking this. How Can I Properly Change Default Web Browser in Windows 11. Note that my Rheem (Ruud) is actually a heat-pump hybrid. Is it worth it financially, and/or environmentally (total energy use) (2 sep.?s), to bump up to 140F and have more standby losses, vs. just leaving at 120 and letting it run if it needs to (given only 40gal)? Just from my own personal experience, I believe there's been a change from 2019 to 2021 Rheem Performance Platinum water heaters in how they handle "Heat Pump" mode. A question: did you get your Performance Platinum? - extra drywall I've done a warranty replacement twice (paid for fully by Rheem) and both replacement units had the same problem. A Rheem water heater leaves the factory with the temperature preset at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, but you can adjust the temperature on the thermostat anywhere from 90 degrees Fahrenheit up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Is High Demand mode = all electric element use, no heat pump? 3 Electric Only this turns off the heat pump. I can hear the compressor, but it's not deafening as I've heard in some YouTube videos. 3 people HH, ~ 4 showers/week, typ. You must be a magazine subscriber to access this feature. I'm wondering the same thing because my daily usage increased about 0.5 kWh by changing from "energy saving" to "heat pump only". Our lawyer says "Thanks for your cooperation.". In general I am very happy with the low energy. Knowing what I know now (nobody told me!) 8am = 135 F could ask Rheem, but not sure will get straight/correct answer. The complete source for building, designing, and remodeling green homes.
The attached picture shows mine during installation, before further support, insulation and condensate line. An odd thing I noticed with setting the schedule on the app was it sometimes would switch into energy saver mode from heat pump only. Showers themselves are generally distributed over a couple hours, but occasionally back-to-back. Hein, thanks for your detailed system description. 120 is generally considered the minimum safe temp. This is possibly done to avoid shortcycling the compressor, but as it is it runs too late too long. Neither situation being practical/realistic, but I can still nudge usage towards production ours with pool pump timers and the Hot Water heater], "however it looks to be $2K more expensive " I recall the Sandens recommend 80gal if used for hydronic heat to maintain stratification, I believe for efficiency reasons I discovered bidets after traveling to Japan and Southeast Asia, and never looked back. Thanks for the pointers. [I did the math. I didn't have any issues w/recovery in heat pump mode vs. energy saving. The spec sheet gives max amps, but I assume that is for when the coils are running at max. Thus, it seems like the best way to schedule it is to push the buttons on the unit's touchpad and I'd rather be pushing buttons for two schedule set points as William describes. Thoughts on +/- of stratification vs. mixing (transfer efficiency from HP coil w/larger deltaT, but more cycling? 4. Can you also check your alarm history? Another note on the Energy Saver Mode from Rheem: Energy saver mode is not recommended for water systems utilizing recirculating.. It's louder than our 4 ton heat pump outdoor unit was, and it's located inside the house. Rheem says the utility room has to be at least 700 cubic feet and ducts have to be between 5 and 8 inches. Follow me on LinkedIn The bottom line is I am happy with my heat pump water heater and can validate that it saves me significant money compared to natural gas. So those storing energy at higher temps are probably loosing efficiency and not gaining as much as they are think doing that. (I may have mangled the details, but it was something like that.) For example, if you tell to heat water from 4-7am, you see the daily energy usage graph shoot up at 5am, then show no energy used at 6am, then at 7am again the graph shoots up again. They told me the support staff has not been given any documentation to help customers. The app does track your electrical usage but there are quirks to it that make you doubt the information. The app and its remote connectivity is nice but it does not provide as much information as you would imagine. However no matter what, the unit shows energy usage. Once I install a regulator I'll set that to 122 or so, and set the heater to 130. The charts seems to have same pattern as Heat Pump mode and my setting is 135-138F usually because it is a vacation rental on weekends.
You might also want to add a mixing valve set to 120 so nobody gets scalded. - strap to walls with BR isolators (or dep. As for the install, please be sure to indeed add a heat-trap as recommended in the manuals. There are several aspects to this. Then I want to schedule their temperature setting to be so low that the heater won't turn on unless we have a full house of guests visiting for a rare holiday or similar, and then turn back on after 9pm when the electricity rate schedule gets cheap again. Could @S_K or someone maybe try out my idea of how to trick the system to never enter pre-warm with a simple stair step scheduling approach? Cecilia Harsch has been writing professionally since 2009. If set to High Demand, usage spike from normal daily of 2kwh to 20-30 kwh daily. My plumber's distributor says I'll probably have to wait until June if I want a 2022 unit, which I do. Any idea whether Rheem auto-push firmware updates into the heater? Heat pump only mode is the most efficient mode but offers lower recovery time. If this bacteria is a concern in your area, you can mitigate your risk by maintaining the tank at that temperature. I've not done anything about my loud unit, the local expert came out to install the new "sound reduction kit" Ruud sent us but he said it wouldn't make any difference so we passed (a ball bearing fan and a cheesy piece of foam). Also, anyone have a max current draw in heat pump only mode? Not so good, since I am poised to spend the night out of town.
140?) My guess is in the mode you have selected should the tank temp fall to far below the set point the heating element will be energized. Rotate the thermostat to your desired temperature. That said, it might be interesting to try to synchronize the furnace (which is scheduled to turn on an hour before we get out of bed) with a water heater heating cycle. Can you double-check your settings? evening; other HW uses mostly off-peak mornings. Vacation period is setup, but what happens? Now, of course, putting in an electric water heater would mean decommissioning the gas line as well, as that's our last gas appliance. Remove the two screws holding the access cover to the side of your Rheem water heater. Required fields are marked *. Also, the incoming water temperature plays a big part in determining if the elements have to come on to assist the heat pump with heating the water.". Lots of buyers feel let down that Rheems heat pump water heaters do not provide the current temp of the water. Nor a resource to find out. The cloths dryer's hot-moist output is to the outside. Then download and set up the Rheem app, entering both values when prompted, and you should be good to go, with your water heater showing up in the app itself.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'askdavetaylor_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_1',107,'0','0'])};if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askdavetaylor_com-medrectangle-3-0')}; If thats all good, then launching the app should show you something like this: If you arent seeing your device, go through the setup steps again until you do see it show up (notice mines Gas Water Heater in Basement on the lower left). It stinks that the current water temp, the most obvious metric to provide, is not given. Something that bit me when installing a Professional Prestige ProTerra 80 gal is the noise it generates. When I replaced my gas water heater with a HPWH, it was a three-step process. So I don't do that anymore! I have no idea what the unit does. Like William Morse, I suspect you are over thinking it. vs. more storage if better mixing)?
It's in Heat Pump mode, not Energy Saver mode. When you're paying up to, virtually 50c/kWh, it's amazing how much you can save with off-peak usages and heat-pump only modes. But no more than 6-12" long, through a single layer piece of sheet-rock. My original plan was to install in my basement garage, with an intake duct of just a few inches to suck air from my basement utility room that houses my gas furnace and electric cloths dryer, and set it to 110 or so on Heat-Pump-Only mode. Not sure what the cutoff temp would be that causes heating elements to kick in though. To set up a water heater vacation, tap on the desired location (in my case, Home).if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askdavetaylor_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_5',131,'0','0'])};if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askdavetaylor_com-large-leaderboard-2-0')}; Now you can see the default start time is the current day at 5pm, to end at 5pm the following day: Not quite right? Thanks for the suggestion ! On the Status screen, it says pre-warm status. I have an Emporia Vue 2 to monitor my household energy usage. I may try putting insulated flex duct on the exhaust and intake and see if that reduces the noise. In order to kill legionnaires bacteria it is recommended to get the tank to 140f for 32 minutes several times each year. I only run in heat pump mode. resistance elements (for price/availability reasons; hope to not ever use them), in vented crawlspace, w/mixing valve, Berkeley CA. So if you want to only heat water at 4-5am on TH, you can do that for any temp you select. A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part. I assume it is dependent on ambient temperature (i.e. 2:30pm = 145 F (or max) I spoke to one installer and was told the supply houses receive batches of HW heaters all having the same manufacturer date. Installing Rigid Foam Above Roof Sheathing, Climate Activists React to Dont Look Up. Never miss a single article, review or tutorial here on AskDaveTaylor, sign up for my fun weekly newsletter! The Rheem unit uses R134a refrigerant like the modern USA automotive industry, so it cannot get as high as the Sanden CO2 solution but they claim to be able to reach 145 F on their datasheet. A fairly current Rheem manual is pretty silent on the specifics, but it will talk to your phone.
This patent application may explain what's going on (https://patents.google.com/patent/US8385729B2/en). Does High Demand ever use heat pump? Be aware that anything over the 120-degree setting can reduce the scald time and could cause a serious burn to you or a member of your family. I am actually surprised that you obtained as much info as you did from the Rheem techs. Its a safety and health issue. Hi. That's way too loud for inside the house. When I was trying to find out the CFM and W.C. of the fan in their units, they had no clue. Replace the Rheem water heater access covers and secure the covers with the screws you previously removed. Highly recommended. Eventually, not wanting to go the whole general contractor route with coordinating two sets of folks at once, I bailed and got another gas water heater. Unplugging and resetting was the only way that worked for me to get our Rheem hot water heater out of away mode. Also going to add some dampening material to the wall. I implemented a schedule to heat to 140 after midnight and we've been able to coast during the day. There are many harmful bacteria that can survive and multiply at 110 F. Wow. Thanks for all your replies. OSHA says 140 degree water kills legionella after 32 minutes. On the other hand, we would then save the base charge on gas, which is around $140 a year, so that would make the increase in electricity usage more palatable. You need a big enough space and may or may not want to include inlet and outlet ducts. Even if the furnace has its own air source, I'd be concerned that cloths dryer will cause the HPWH intake filter (which is pretty basic) to clog more quickly or even allow fine particles to build up on the heat pump. We have an 80 gal. The utility room is 840 cubic feet (just measured). Due to distribution cost going both ways - is it better to use when producing with solar but it is minimal. Another idea I'm trying: heat to 135 in the early morning before we wake up, and then drop the temperature to 120 all day. I should have installed a temperature controlled mixing valve, and I may still retrofit that. Then you need to make sure everythings talking and that youve got your Rheem water heater set up on the EcoNet network too. It really 'traps' the heat in the short 12" upward strech. That's what I would buy if I had to do it over. Our gas bill is nicely down. Side goal would be even more relative capacity. Can I Automatically Disable Macros in Microsoft Word? Lowering the temperature can save you money on your energy bill, but anything lower than 120 degrees could reduce your dishwashers performance. Love the water heater, and the rebates, HATE the opaqueness of the app and instructions! Being able to scavage heat from the dryer might work out, but both appliances have to be running at the same time. Main goal would be to l allow the heater temperature to drop a long way say down to 125 and kick in the compressor already before the drop it becomes noticeable at the shower. I was just saying that day-to-day we keep it at 110F. Turn off both breakers if your breakers have not been labeled inside the panel. Is there an affordable/recommended 240V equivalent to the Kill-A-Watt meter (plug-based) or would I need an Ammeter (clamp) or even hard-wired-in data logger? You will have two 30-amp double-pole breakers inside your panel if you have an electric dryer. that app times seem to be off, and overall not trustworthy: showing no usage every other hour (only 2 hour granularity?!? We are just 2, but frequently get 3 daughters and husbands visiting and showering at which point we need the 80 gallons.
My Rheem central heat pump default control settings seem to be selected to maximize comfort at any cost. Here is a link that might be helpful: https://v3.myrheem.com/360/Rheem/WH/docs/hybrid-heat-pump-rheem-hybrid-heat-pump-spec-sheet.pdf. I would of course much rather not have to schedule the stair step, especially based on seeing the Apple iOS app store reviews of their very buggy app not communicating with the unit itself. What was your manufacture date? I would still like a better resolution so anybody with this issue please speak up if you have a breakthrough! See attachment for the current rate plan. According to this patent you have 3 options. For me 120 deg serves my needs. I noticed that the big box is now selling a newer generation of Rheem Hybrid which may further refinement of the "heat pump mode" operating parameters. Now, to set up a vacation period when the water heater will automatically lower its target heat to save you money tap on the Vacation button on the top right. Once you remove the covers, confirm that power to the unit is off using a noncontact circuit tester. The fact that you are getting a pre warm message means your tank has cooled below the unknown pre warm temp.
Thanks for any insights! 10pm = 120 F Fan is very low noise, and while I can hear the compressor, I wouldn't consider it bothersome. I was surprised and disapointed to see this and would much prefer it stay purely on heart pump mode. They're crazy loud. This is just for my interest. Has anyone figured out exactly what conditions trigger this pre-warm mode?
If there is a sensor issue (A101, A102, A105, A106, for example), the HPWH with switch to the electric element. Thank you very much. As it is, with temp set to 124, it frequently drops to 120 or below and my wife likes her showers hotter than that (30 ft pipe run?). tank. I was only overthinking it because of SK's original post for this thread that the resistive rods kick on unexpectedly and the diagnosis was due to low temperature. Id like to understand what is going on and to not have it do this, as I am OK with longer recovery times in order to save energy. Any update on the 5th Gen Rheem noise issue. The closest they come is a tiny icon of a cylinder that is colored green when there is water available at the temp you set it to heat to. I stop using the scheduling app after the second time this happened, and just leave it at set temp with heat pump only. Thanks. Insert a small flat-head screwdriver into the slot on the thermostat dial. I would love to know if this is happening but not easy to keep an eye on the heater itself Answers to questions that I never knew I had. I ask because it could be that you incoming water is cold enough to trigger an "add-heat function" in the HPWH programming. usage is low, materials modest, labor unpaid;), Rheem Performance Platinum XE40T10H45U0 - 30A 240V w/2 elec. - damping in wall (be careful about how dense/contact w/both sides), The noise is across a range of frequencies so may need a range of solutionsboth light and heavy materials, Final tip: I have mine set to run up to 140degF by 3pm when I (in normal times) am not home, then coast until the next day (mix down to 120 w/valve). Can you just unplug and replug-in the device to let it reset? After he finished up, I made the final connection between the HPWH and the 220 VAC/30 Amp connector. So this installer told me that he could solve my AFTER Jan 2022 requirement by going to the Orange box store instead. Any feedback on whether the 2022 model is quieter (or at least acceptable) would be very helpful as well. Does the app tell you the temp of water in the tank, not just the set temp? Rheem does not define this icon behavior anywhere. How Can I Change Security PIN on my Android Phone? Please read on! If you have a noisy unit that came from a supply house, replacing it from the same place will likely not solve your problem until the supply house has depleted their supply stock and they get more recent units. The notes for the Rheem tested in this group of five would seem consistent with what you are experiencing. They are way louder than spec. It also can be set via timer, not sure how many timers/day, but you basically only need 2, 110, and 140. I am getting the 80 gallon "Performance Platinum Rheem" within the next month or two from the Orange Big Box here in Seattle. Water heater installed in garage. 1Energy Saver that only turns on the heatpump after the element as somewhat warmed the tank and will turn on the element is the heat pump takes too long to warm the water. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to our terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. I'm not planning on scavenging heat *directly* from the dryer. The turnover at that store is higher than the supply houses and the manu date can be validated before purchase. Then when you use some of that water, the green fill level of the cylinder might show half way instead of full. Reason for asking: I got the Ruud version, and there seems to have been a manufacturing quality issue with the 5th gen units. It is 28.5 years old and is a standard forced-air with cold return through house-wide ductwork. That is, if my HP runs from 1-4am, only slots, 2 and 4am have kWh data. 9am = 140 F This is not documented anywhere and phone support is there but they dont know either. How many users in your household, and do they tend to all put demand on the HPWH at the same time? Do you know if your furnace uses sealed or atmospheric combustion. 49 cents vs. 17 cents. Harsch received her Certified Nurses Assistant license in 2004. Happy to see all the additional information posted. 11pm = 125 F. So, basically, using the Rheem's max temperature of 145 F as thermal energy storage and coupling the output to an anti-scald tempering valve that regulates the output temperature to, say, 125 F. The Sanden unit would be even better at this because it has a 120 gallon tank option and claims to go as high as 175 F due to the CO2 refrigerant supercritical thermodynamic cycle, however it looks to be $2K more expensive with fewer systems installed which makes me worry about service when something inevitably goes wrong. I have the XE80T10HS45U0 purchased online from the 'Orange' big box store on 3/28/2022 and received a unit with a production date of "08MAR2022". note: During the summer I disconnect one of the hvac air outlets in the top the picture and hooked it up to the cold air outlet on the heater. (All odd number hours are always zero). If the HPWH is in heat pump mode, the electric resistance element should be off. But I didn't see anything in the use guide about colocating a HPWH with other appliances. I look at consumption chart in the app and did not notice any outliners when using Energy Saver mode with recirculatory pump though. The link I found is: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/building_america/hpwh_eval.pdf, The tests are from 2011, which means new products may have adjusted their methods in response to consumer preferences. My Econet app is constanly urging me to swithc to Energy Saving mode.
Check with your municipality for any codes regarding the temperature setting of the water heater. I think a significant section of the USA population, even on this website (which I thought meant people would approach issues with a broader understanding of the nuances involved in the regional green building) often forgets how much regional electricity prices vary they sometimes think their "9c/kWh" electricty prices are country wide. Don't know if this was due to app updates or some other reason. In my case that's no issue as the hybrid system allowed me to install in the 'core' of the house near main consumption points instead of the 50+ ft run of 3/4 copper piping we had to get to the vented gas heater. Also, I ran across a comment where somebody said the new models seem louder than the older ones. I read these heaters loose 1 degree per hour and I doubt this loss is linear.
That is, every 6 hours, 140wh are used even in that OFF mode. I can confirm there's a quality issue with the 5th Gen hybrid water heaters. Done by NREL - Laboratory Performance Evaluation of Integrated Residential Heat Pump Water Heaters (another poster provided a link I have lost) In 60 deg basement air, with the cold output air vented to the outside, my first month usage of just about every other day of water heating, I used 37Kwh of energy which is slightly more that one day of solar generation for a month. One I encourage everyone to consider is having a bidet. I am NOT happy with the Econet application for its lack of displaying the live temperature sensor data and it's lack of browser support - why the heck does everything need to be an app?! Any idea on how to resolve it? She has several years of experience in the home-improvement industry, focusing on gardening, and a background in group exercise instruction. I'm about to install temperature valve (factory set to 120, hard to go above) to allow me to safely heat extra to say 130 and when the sun shines.