The Rheem Smart Electric Water Heater is a great electric heater and features in our round up of the best water heaters. To see the best overall water heater, check out our Rheem Gladiator 50-gallon Water Heater review, which looks at a heater from the same company. For our review we’ve compared multiple models, read hundreds of user reviews, and asked the experts to find out information that you can trust. Rheem has a great reputation for making quality water heaters so we delved a bit deeper to see if the Smart Electric Water Heater was up to scratch.
The Rheem Smart Electric Water Heater comes with a ten-year warranty and well-thought-out features that are really handy. Energy Star rated, this water heater is complete with a hybrid electric heat pump which aims to save you up to $475 in energy costs each year.
Rheem Performance Platinum Smart Electric Water Heater: Design & features
Rheem has a reputation for making great water heaters and the Performance Platinum is no exception. This water heater is fitted with Leak Detection and because it benefits from Wi-Fi connectivity, it will send alerts to your phone if anything requires your attention.
Another great feature on this Rheem water heater is how quiet it is. As well as that, this water heater has a High Demand mode which you can easily activate when you know you’ll need a lot of hot water at once. Likewise, when you’re going away, the Vacation Mode is great for saving energy while you’re not using your hot water supply.
This water heater is an ideal choice for family homes as its tank is designed to provide enough water for up to five people, across three bathrooms. Design features like the elements being made of stainless steel means corrosion is less likely and brass valves make for easy draining to help you keep your water heater in the best possible condition.
Complete with a ten-year warranty, the Rheem Performance Platinum water heater can cope with up to four back-to-back showers, or a single shower of up to 34 minutes. That's good for a heater of this size, although you may be able to find higher capacity heaters for roughly the same price, if you're willing to sacrifice some of the smart heater options.
Rheem Performance Platinum Smart Electric Water Heater: User reviews
Quite a few user reviews commented on how heavy this unit is. Many however, mentioned how useful the app was for controlling and monitoring the water heater, and did think it was worth the extra cost. Whilst some users did install the smart water heater themselves, many also mentioned it’s well worth getting a professional to do this for you. Our review includes a link to help you find a local contractor who can not only install the heater for you, but also help with getting smart controls installed too.
Should you buy the Rheem Performance Platinum Smart Electric Water Heater?
If you want a reliable water heater that’s great on energy use, then this is the model for you. For some, the price tag might be too high and if those smart features aren’t important to you, you can definitely find another model that can deliver the same levels of water heating for you, and won’t cost as much. We wouldn't recommend installing yourself, unless you're extremely confident with water heaters, and you should look to hire a contractor.
We also like the ten-year warranty, which is about average for water heaters, and the Energy Star rating, which will help you save on bills and will actually justify the cost of the heater, when spread out over a few years.
