Recommended Heat Pump Water Heater – Is Rheem too loud?
tighterhouseNH
| Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on
Could use recommendations for a HPWH to replace my straight electric tank.
I understand there have been noise problems with recently built Rheem units.
Are there better choices available to the consumer? This will be installed in a basement in a colder climate.
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Replies
I don’t know about Rheem but I did just purchase an AO smith as it has been recently (relatively) redesigned to have intake and exhaust on top with easy hook up to ducting and a new noise rating of like 45 decibels. I haven’t installed and turned on yet so can’t tell you about noise but I think with duct and possibly duct silencer is will be reasonable.
Sanden Sanco2 is slightly more efficient than Rheem or AO but it is a split system so install cost will be higher to run line sets. Also it’s more expensive to begin with.
As somebody else already mentioned, AO Smith has a new unit called the Voltex AL that supposedly has 45 db or so sound rating. I've only seen one or two reports of it actually in use so far, but both were positive.
It's also manufactured under a "State" brand (or something like that) and sold at Lowes under a slightly different name that I don't recall at the moment. When I was poking around, I noticed that the rebranded version at Lowes seemed to be pretty widely available, but the actual AO Smith branded units seemed to be backordered. That was a few months ago, though.
Stiebel-Eltron is another brand that I've seen positive noise reports on.
I recently installed a Rheem (within last couple months) and it met the 49db at 3 feet without issue. It was easily available and was able to get it on sale for a good discount.
Given that we have not seen any new complaints to the “Noisy Rheem” post I suspect Rheem has increased the number DB they publish in the specifications and made changes to lower the sound generated to the point that most are happy enough.
Last time I looked Rheem still got a highest rating on the energy star test protocol.
Walta
Thanks all, PNW guy — I do see A.O. Smith signature 900 model available for me at Lowe’s.
Rheem is at HD.
I guess will have to keep an eye out for noise reports on Rheem and I’ll do some more research on the A.O. Smith 900. That’s a great start, thanks!