GE 50 gal. Heat Pump Electric Water Heater ENERGY STAR®

Our most helpful positive review

2 people thought this was helpful.

Great energy savings - for the right installation April 24, 2011

I installed this water heater last November (11/2011), and decided to wait until after winter to review, since the energy savings is reduced in cold weather. I have the unit installed in a non-heated utility room, which is attached to the house but can be closed off with a door. So on those really cold nights (under 20 degrees), sometimes I had to hit the "stop cold air" button to turn off the heat pump temporarily. If you had gas heat for your HVAC, this may not be a problem, but with mine also being a heat pump, it was having a hard time keeping up. Overall, it still wasn't a problem, and was mostly just something in the background I didn't notice.

I see many people complain about the noise - well it has never bothered me (I would compare it to a clothes dryer) but it is located back in the utility room so I suppose if you put it near your living space it could be annoying. We have not had to change how we use hot water at all, actually I was surprised at how fast the recovery time is. It must be extremely well insulated, because it very rarely has to cycle unless there is a usage event. We have taken two showers back to back with no problem. In short, this unit has not required us to make any significant compromises.

Now that the weather has warmed, there is an obvious significant savings. I have included a chart of my daily KWh used from 11/2009 - 4/2011. The red vertical line I added is when I installed the new water heater. The volume of electricity used is clearly less for the early part of this year, compared to last year, and this is also reflected on my bill.

I'm sure it will take some time to actually pay for itself, but the old unit was pretty ragged so if you consider only the difference between replacing it with a conventional electric, and this unit, I would estimate I should recoup that within 2 years with continued average use. As an aside, I cross-shopped instant water heaters and if my math was right, the only one that would have been consistently cheaper would be a natural gas unit, and natural gas is not available in my area. The volume of gas or electricity used in a whole-house instant unit is pretty ridiculous, making propane more expensive than even a conventional electric tank, and electricity borderline (and the electric units were not eligible for a tax credit).

Overall, happy with the purchase and would recommend to anyone.

Our most helpful negative review

0 people thought this was helpful.

Excellent Unit - Terrible Installation March 31, 2011

Our Hot Water Heater was installed on March 1, 2010, so we have had it for over a year.

Wife and I and 29 year old daughter have really enjoyed the unit. The controls are easy, and we enjoy the flexibility the controls offer. In the summer months, we can lower the temperature to 120 with no complaints. In the winter we have to raise the temperature to 122 degrees to keep the women happy. We really feel that our electrical savings will pay for the increased initial cost.

On the negative side, the only problem is with the installation. The installer did NOT bring anything to raise the heater off the ground. This it makes it all but impossible to attach a hose so the unit can be drained a little each month. Sears has REFUSED to fix the problem, even after I sent pictures showing the problem.

For our new water heater, there is about 2 1/2 inches between the floor and the bottom of the water heater drain, and that is after the installers used some plastic pieces from me to raise the heater off the floor. That, in my opinion, is just a little low to make it easy for anyone to attach a hose each month in order to perform the required draining as specified in the owner's manual. To me the easiest would be to place 3 or 4 bricks under the water heater. This will be our last purchase from Sears.