Customer Reviews

Rheem RTG-74PVN Indoor Natural Gas Tankless Water Heater for 2-3 Bathroom Homes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

As a service provider, here was a recent and typical service call on a 74 model. the customer lives 1 1/4 hr away, call Sat with an error code 11. this had been in service for 3 months and worked fine, then quite. Rheem requires as a service provider, that I call in, get a case number and proceed from there. They are available Sat for tech support but good luck waiting on the phone. I came back Monday, trip number two, talked through two levels of tech support. I didn't agree with their assessment and they sent an ignition module. Wed, trip three, I installed the part and it. I tried to explain, it was most likely a control board and gas valve combined problem and the tech, she didn't think so. after 9 commbined hors of driving and attempts at service, the customer was left with a still non functioning water heater. I've been working on these for about 30 years but when I have to work according to their at a distance analysis, reading a prompter, service fails. They do not have a system of regional parts available and are not willing to allow me to purchase and stock these.
so if you are considering purchasing a tankless water heater, a little due diligence with regards to service will save an enormous amount of heartburn...
Paloma and Rheem need to create a service network that supports those in the field who will be performing warranty work. Until that day arrives, I do not recommend these...

I installed this unit myself with some help. It took some extra copper pipe, pipe cutters, sand paper, solder, a propane blow torch, concrete screws and drill for mounting, wire for the remote, and a flex-hose for the natural gas. The unit worked great the first time. With 2 people using it who like to take long showers and a dishwasher, it uses no more than 10 CCFs of natural gas per month (~$10). It provides enough hot water for at least 2 showers, though you still have to adjust as showers come on/off, as you would with a tank. The only real difference from a tank (besides the energy savings) is the extra 10 seconds it takes for the water to get hot. This is probably because it has to heat up the heat exchanger first before the water can get hot. I'm more than willing to deal with that for the savings and unlimited hot water!

I'm more than satisifed with our new Rheem tankless water heater; like the previous reviewer said, it does take a little longer to get hot water than it did with the tank. So when washing your hands, you may have to wait an extra 20 or 30 seconds for warm water. But once it does warm up, it never quits. We don't have any trouble with temperature fluctuations either. Endless showers, laundry, baths, and dishes are not a problem. So glad we decided to go with a Rheem; the Bosch units get inconsistent reviews and lots of complaints about customer service. My husband was able to install the Rheem himself and it fired right up on the first try. This unit is more than adequate for our family of five. I'd recommend it to anyone!

We installed a Rheem/Paloma tankless water heater a few years ago in our home. After having a tank water heater for years, we really loved the fact that you could get tons of hot water and not waste gas keeping a tank warm. We had received a notice of a recall on a defective part and had a number to call. It took forever to get a response from them. They said someone would call us to schedule a time. They never did. I finally had to call back for assistance. About the same time, we began to have trouble with the heater cutting off. This was totally unrelated to the defective part. You would be in the middle of a shower and suddenly there was NO hot water. brrr. Tech support said that the code on the panel said we were low on propane. This was not true. They kept insisting that was the problem. We had our tank tested and it was fine. The tech support was positively no good. The service tech came to fix the recalled part and he couldn't figure out what was wrong because he was only trained to replace the defective part. I called around to several local plumbing people who sold other tankless water heaters and they couldn't help us at all. We finally reduced the water pressure in our system and lowered the water temp which helped some. However we still keep getting cold water in the middle of a shower enough times that I am fed up with this brand. We have to reset the system now several times a week or reset it and then go finish our shower. I could not recommend this product to anyone because the support is so terrible.

I think I am going shopping for a new tankless water heater this week.

I just installed this unit for my house. 3000 sq ft with 3 full baths. I did a self installation. It was far more involved than just replacing my old water heater because its mounted on the wall requiring me to run all new gas and water lines as well as new venting to the outside. The extra work was well worth it. I performs wonderfully providing a neverending supply of steamy hot water. This thing is a godsend with a wife and 3 kids, all of whom love to take long showers. It performs exactly as advertised.

I wanted to wait to evaluate this purchase until the water heater had been installed and tested with various home duties such as laundry, showers, dishwasher, etc. The product is performing flawlessly so far. The only drawback was a missing wire in the packaging which needed to be attached to the thermostat - the installer was able to jerryrig a wire from an old phone line extension to get us started.

Works great, so far there has been no shortage of hot water with normal use just as with the tank heater. I did increase the temp on the unit to 130 and in doing so found that there was an error in the documentation on the correct switch to press. After a quick call to customer service I was walked right through the correct procedure and things worked great.

I have had a Paloma tankless water water for a few months now. Once it actually provided hot water for an entire week without having to be reset. Most of the time the best I can hope for is about 2 minutes at a time. Just enough for half a shower, or a few dishes. Then I have to go down to the basement and reset it. I am trying to wash last night's dishes right now, since this thing has completely eliminated the "wash as you cook" concept. I paused on my SIXTH trip to the basement to reset this useless piece of junk so I can continue to wash one meal's worth of dishes to warn everyone here to NEVER BUY ONE. I am dreading the approach of winter with what amounts to having no hot water in my house, just because I wanted to "go green" when my old water heater broke. I invested almost $1,000 buying and installing this thing and now I can't afford to buy and install another tank style one. Customer service has been friendly enough on our several calls, but obviously not helping. Zero stars.

Purchased this unit at the recommendation of my plumber. Needless to say, the unit was working beautifully for the first three months. Delivered hot water no matter how much of a load we put on the unit.

However... the nightmare started about 3 months after purchase. One morning, cold showers. Went out to the unit and it was flashing "76 c8" as an error code. Not knowing what that meant, we tried resetting the unit (unplug, then replug) and got hot water for about 3 minutes. Then it stopped again and errored out. At this point we started researching on the web to discover that this particular unit has a known problem with this particular error code. In fact, it sounds like (from looking at others) that this failure is a common problem.

As mentioned before, getting customer service and repairs on the unit has been... problematic to say the least. After a couple weeks of no hot water (we ended up borrowing an old tank unit from a friend and "temporarily" installing it) and lots of back and forth, we finally had the unit removed. This ultimately ended up being both an expensive as well as "chilling" experience with what initially looked like quite the gem.

I don't know if this particular problem has been fixed in recent units, but its enough to turn me off from both the product and the company as well (due to their customer support).

I have multiple rent houses in a resort area. The weekly rental tenants use tons of hot water, so I thought endless hot water would be a great advertising point for my beach rentals. When I saw one of these on clearance at HD, I bought it and put in the garage for later use. I'm an experienced landlord and plumber, I can wire and install normal hw heaters, faucets, toilets, drain and supply lines. I have a full set of pex crimpers and can sweat copper too. To install this tankless, I had to locate it very close to the gas main, which entailed moving the gas main. The power company did this for free, because I added three new gas appliances. Normally it would be $600 extra they said. They buried the line under my new deck, so it had to be dug up and re-done. Then the meter had to be moved twice. Then I ran 10 feet of Trac-Pipe, which cost me $35 dollars a FOOT! and $1600 for a licensed gas contractor to install, plus $200 permit. I did this myself to save $1800. Then I had to have the electrician wire a plug in the attic for $100. The supply lines had to be re-routed. Then I had to buy a "Z" vent for $300 and install through my roof and go out on a 12 pitch to paint it. That wasnt enough, as the hot water hits the cold air, you get condensation, so I had to install a condensation drain line. After all that, the thing starts up, blinks 14 then -0, but no hot water. I check an all the valves are open. I make sure I have adequate water pressure. I open the gas line and purge it. Still no hot water. I call the number on the manual and get some Chinese guy, who tells me to call an 800 number which then tells me they are closed. I call the next business day and its a byzantine voicemail system I've yet to get through. So I checked for error codes on google, but cant find 14. The manual has so many caveats , I'm sure I did one of the install steps wrong. You have to have the proper range of water pressure, the drain line has to be oriented right, Lots of details. NotSince its been a year since I bought it on clearance and stuck it in my garage, I dont think Rheem/Paloma are going to support me in this problem, but I'll let you know what happens. So far, tankless has been the most dissapointing home improvement I've EVER made.

Update. I junked the unit and hired a pro to install a Rinnai. My total cost for a hot water heater, nearly $5000. Just put a tank in guys. What a waste of money.