Rheem Solar hot water tanks experience?

[Guda]

Anyone have one of these?

Browse Rheem's Entire Line of Air and Water Products - Rheem Manufacturing Company

Find the best water heater, HVAC system, or pool and spa solution for your home or business today at Rheem.com.

www.rheem.com

 

[onokai]

Yes I have two of them

 

[Rossman]

Believe the LithiumSolar youtube channel has a review of them.

 

[onokai]

Its straight up water heater not the hybrid model I have just a 80 gallon tank with 4 taps from solar water loops on panels on roof-it also has electric elements (usually you add them as most come ready but none installed)I had one for 25-30 years before it gave out now I have one thats 10 years old and another spare one when that one gives out.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

I have a 50gal Rheem from Home Depot. I'm in my 3rd year of operation and works great + got 50% off due to rebates and sale.

I run heat-pump mode only (400w) but it has a touch screen (and remote app) to switch to 'regular' heating element mode (4500w) or a mix. Heat-pump mode takes about 3hrs to heat up 60F (cold water) tank to 120F. Heating element is 45min? - much faster but takes 4500w of power.
Highly recommend heat-pump hot water in general and my Rheem has been A-OK

Power consumption context:
* Heat-pump only mode maxes out at 400-450w - very gentle on the inverter. (I'm off-grid)
* It's under the house with ambient 55F/13C winter and 75F/24C summer temps - so it works a little harder than if in an attic in summer.
* There are 2 of us - 2 loads of laundry, 8 showers / week, 4 dishwasher runs / week - lighter use than a family of 4.
* We have 200ft of water circulation (it's a large house) for 'instant' hot water at the taps which takes extra power by some amount - not sure how much - maybe 20% extra.

Here are the kwh per month for 2020 and 2021...

 

[OzSolar]

Anyone have one of these?

Browse Rheem's Entire Line of Air and Water Products - Rheem Manufacturing Company

Find the best water heater, HVAC system, or pool and spa solution for your home or business today at Rheem.com.

www.rheem.com

Yeah.... about 15 years ago. I didn't realize they still made them.

It's a nice way to do solar water heating but drain back is better from a failsafe standpoint. The failure more for drain back results in the panel(s) being drained so there's a no chance for stagnation if the pump fails, the power goes out or when the storage tank has hit it high limit.

 

[Rossman]

Sorry, my mistake - thought the OP was about the heat pump Rheems

 

[onokai]

Yeah.... about 15 years ago. I didn't realize they still made them.

It's a nice way to do solar water heating but drain back is better from a failsafe standpoint. The failure more for drain back results in the panel(s) being drained so there's a no chance for stagnation if the pump fails, the power goes out or when the storage tank has hit it high limit.

I have a drain back sytem-The government (Jimmy Carter paid for it in rebates back in the early 90s) I put 3 of these same sytems in on other homes as well. Both of those homes are now gone due to wildfires. The system is a 80 gallon solar tank (I refered to solar as water heating since 82). The electric side is pretty new compared to water for me. Anyway I'll outline my sytem ina new pots

 

[SilverState]

I have a 50gal Rheem from Home Depot. I'm in my 3rd year of operation and works great + got 50% off due to rebates and sale.

I run heat-pump mode only (400w) but it has a touch screen (and remote app) to switch to 'regular' heating element mode (4500w) or a mix. Heat-pump mode takes about 3hrs to heat up 60F (cold water) tank to 120F. Heating element is 45min? - much faster but takes 4500w of power.
Highly recommend heat-pump hot water in general and my Rheem has been A-OK

Power consumption context:
* Heat-pump only mode maxes out at 400-450w - very gentle on the inverter. (I'm off-grid)
* It's under the house with ambient 55F/13C winter and 75F/24C summer temps - so it works a little harder than if in an attic in summer.
* There are 2 of us - 2 loads of laundry, 8 showers / week, 4 dishwasher runs / week - lighter use than a family of 4.
* We have 200ft of water circulation (it's a large house) for 'instant' hot water at the taps which takes extra power by some amount - not sure how much - maybe 20% extra.

Here are the kwh per month for 2020 and 2021...
View attachment 90699

This is awesome, thanks so much for showing that. I'll be watching the Lithium Solar review here shortly.

 

[robby]

Sorry, my mistake - thought the OP was about the heat pump Rheems

I am so confused because I thought this was about a solar powered heat pump but after reading the rheem page it just looks like a regular two element heater.
I am not even sure what makes it “Solar”. They give no details.

 

[Rossman]

I am so confused because I thought this was about a solar powered heat pump but after reading the rheem page it just looks like a regular two element heater.
I am not even sure what makes it “Solar”. They give no details.

I initially thought this thread was about the heat pump version as well, but seems this is not the heat pump model, this model is for use with solar water heating systems - you can connect it to solar water heating, not solar PV

 

[OzSolar]

I am so confused because I thought this was about a solar powered heat pump but after reading the rheem page it just looks like a regular two element heater.
I am not even sure what makes it “Solar”. They give no details.

Correct, nothing to do with a heat pump. Some details are there if you dig into "view documents".

Depending on the model they have extra ports for a solar collector OR a heat exchanger for transferring heat from a solar hot water collector (or other heat source) to the potable water built into them. If the solar doesn't keep up the built in element kicks on.

I've hooked them up to solar hot water panels, wood stoves and outdoor wood boilers.

 

[efficientPV]

My idiot sister replaced one of these when it started leaking, this tank is the same as they sell for hot water oil furnaces. The room it is in is like a sauna with the oil burner kept hot all summer. She should have replaced it with a HPWH since she runs a dehumidifier year round and air conditioning.

 

[Shimmy]

I am not even sure what makes it “Solar”. They give no details.

Usually it is a higher thermal overload and overpressure valve rating. I have two 120-gallon tanks and three 4x10' collectors. When it eventually fails I will just replace with three zoned instant hot water heaters and 1kW of additional PV. Plumbers are too expensive.