2024 Top 7 Heat Pump Water Heaters Compared

Love these type of videos without sponsors. And checking out most of the manufacturers. Great job Matt.

I have the Rheem 50G heatpump tank (240v), and so far, I've only had 1 scenario where I ran out of water. My plumber was fixing another, unrelated plumbing issue, and ran my hot water at full blast for almost 1/2hr, while we had a dishwasher, and shower running. We ran out of hot water. This is the only time its happened. For those who complain about a cold basement in the winter, install a vent kit for your exhaust side. I did this on my tank, with a flap that I can redirect the cold air inside in the summer, and outside during the winter. It only drops the temps in that room by 1-2'c during the winter. During the summer, it helps reduce my cooling load on my heat pump hvac unit.

We have an A.O smith hybrid water heater (required a 221v connection 🙂) that I installed myself about 5 years ago to replace a leaky gas unit. It's a 50 gallon (46 actual) in a 2 person household and has been rock solid. It has run on econ mode for all but one week when I flipped it to hybrid when we had several houseguests. It does cool down the basement in the winter to the extent I added a door to close off the finished half (when I work from home) for comfort. The dehumidification in the summer is a great benefit. As a careful and practiced DIYer, I am disappointed that the American made AeroTherm units are not available direct to consumers.

The SanCO2 is the quietest HPWH at 37 decibels. We installed a SanCO2 83 gal system in the garage with the heat pump hanging on the wall next to the tank to keep pipe runs short, cools the garage and the coils stay clean. It replaced a gas water heater and we have hotter water and more of it. It's a great system.

I’ve an 80 gallon Rheem in my basement in New Hampshire. During the winter, it drives the basement down to about 50°F, which is fine unless we have guests. Then, the app comes out and I switch it over to electric resistive mode which is quiet and doesn’t cool the area down. Yes, it uses literally 3× as much energy but the space becomes livable. In the summer, it keeps the basement cool and dry but is still a bit noisy.

Matt, the way the inverter model would work is that if the compressor isn’t running at maximum the efficiency will be higher since then the coils are oversized. Turbo mode just runs it at the highest speed it can handle which isn’t nearly as efficient. It’s like how a mini split type A/C is 40% more efficient running in that let’s say, 20-60% or 80% range, then is less efficient at it’s 100% output rating. Fan speed on the evaporator side makes an efficiency difference also.

Would love to see this same video for mini split heat pump air conditioners

I installed one in a friends place in his basement. He operates a pretty hefty home network, as well as a variety of smart devices from a small room which would get pretty hot. We ran a supply and return duct from that networking closet to the utility room where the new water heater was at. The network room now is in the low 60s which extends the life of the hardware, makes them more efficient, and the water heater also runs more efficiently.

The CO2 in the sanco will not degrade like other refrigerants at the high heat and pressures sustained at the outlet of the compressor. So therefore they can increase the compression ratio without much risk to get hotter temps.

In ultra low energy houses (like passive houses), the Sanden can also be used as a heat plant. This is a manufacturer supporter setup, and requires a Taco X-Block (which adds a few bucks). The Gen3 Sanden units make water up to 175F, but maybe the gen4 units only go to 150F. In-laws have a standard combined unit, and over Christmas with lots of guests the shroud over the compressor (top of tank) had so much condensation that it would run down the tank and trigger the automatic leak shut-off valve. Had to reset it multiple times.

Hey Matt, I use the Rheem 240v Proterra 50Gal in Ottawa, Canada. I use it to heat my small house thru in-floor hydronic and provide hot water and no issues with supply from the elements in the winter and in the summer I switch to Heat pump mode to get free AC. Electricity rates here are pretty good and it should cost me approximately 600$/year for heat and hot water.

I have a Rheem 50 gallon 3.55 efficiency. I’d buy it all over again. Everyone house I’ve lived in I’ve ran out of hot water many times! The design of this water is excellent in that we never run out of hot water. I run it at 125 degrees in heat pump mode and we can do 2 long showers at the same time no problem. I only had it happen once, but one time I accidentally had the washer, dishwasher, and shower going at the same time. I ran out of hot, but it kicked on the elements and recovered the hot while I was showering. I found that incredible.

Matt, wifi is not just for vacation home or "owning multiple properties". Some people travel a lot and are not home for weeks or even months at a time. I had a job for which I flew somewhere every single Monday, returning on a Thursday or Friday. Rarely did I have a weekend at home. A different job I had sent me to other countries for weeks at a time. If you live alone or no one is home, your primary residence is vulnerable to unchecked plumbing issues. Also, if I own rental properties I would want to be able to keep tabs on my equipment, especially if they are far away.

Thanks for a full follow-up video without a sponsorship, not that the other one was bad it's just nice to know there's no money

I've had a Rheem 240v for 3+ years. Outstanding tech support - which is needed as most repair companies know nothing about these units. I recommend a 120V unit if you're in an area subject to power outages because it's easy to find a generator to power a 120v. One advantage I suspect most units have (including Rheem) is the ability to schedule heating times to correspond to lower power rates. However, the Rheems EcoNet app needs a makeover. The app is laggy, sometimes will not connect to the heater, and occasionally simply forgets to return to the scheduled program after any change (meaning no hot water).

Man I love this stuff. Thanks for the comparisons!

I installed a RHEEM heat pump water heater back about 5-6 years ago. Thing just works and never has given me any issue. It's in my basement in Maine and it drops the basement about 5-8 degrees vs. not running. By no means the end of the world. I also lead a large portion of the pumped thermal energy storage technology which is a partnership between Westinghouse and Echogen Power Systems. We use supercritical CO2 to pump heat from freezing to around 350C (662F) with a COP around 2. It's an amazing technology.

Brilliant. We live off the utility grid and have been expanding our solar electric system. Now we’re looking at replacing our propane water heater. Several of these units look to be ideal for us.

We've had the Bradford White 65gal unit for almost three years here in New Hampshire. We've spent almost $900 on service calls (e.g. $500 in labor to diagnose and replace the controller board, which died under warranty). We have to use hybrid mode to speed up recovery time, so we are using much more electricity than expected (300+ kWh in December and January). And even in hybrid mode we sometimes run out of hot water. I estimate that we're saving about $400/year compared to the propane water heater we had previously, but especially considering the service issues it's unlikely the unit will pay for itself. I hope that other people's experience has been better.

Wouldn't mind seeing a deep dive into geothermal heat pumps for both heating and domestic hot water.