Richmond® 50 Gallon Electric Water Heater with Hybrid Heat Pump any good?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Disagree on the cheaper & better part.
I cant see it as better than a HPWH. And changing your whole ELectric entrance service is not an easy or cheap task. Certainly you will spend more when you add that in. No standing losses but also not making hot water for 370% less cost than a standard resistance WH.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sloeffle
Hello
I got an Eco 24 and only heat the water when I turn on the faucet. Cheaper and better for under $500. :)
See Home Depot cheapo Price
3 x 40AMP Breakers = ((120AMPS * 240V )*.14 my per KWh cost) = $4.032 per hour to run :eek:. That thing is sucking down some serious juice when running. Nice looking install BTW.

Personally, I'll take my HPHW any day of the week. It costs me roughly $5 a month to heat hot water, and in the summer time it dehumidifies my basement.
 
Last edited:
3 x 40AMP Breakers = ((120AMPS * 240V )*.14 my per KWh cost) = $4.032 per hour to run :eek:. That thing is sucking down some serious juice when running. Nice looking install BTW.

Personally, I'll take my HPHW any day of the week. It costs me roughly $5 a month to heat hot water, and in the summer time it dehumidifies my basement.
Do you think it makes your basement feel "cold"?
 
Hello
I got an Eco 24 and only heat the water when I turn on the faucet.
You should get yourself a Pex crimper ($40 ) You would save a fortune on sharkbite fittings. Most of the pex fitting are just .50c to under 1$ from pex universe. As an example my local Hdwe store is charging $7 for a sharkbite 1/2 plug. I can buy a pex crimp type plug for$.36c . Ball valves are $2.90 Pex universe is slightly more. Sharkbite is $10 to $12 from my local Hdwe Store.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Don2222
Do you think it makes your basement feel "cold"?
During the summer, and when I'm running the wood burning furnace - no. Outside of those periods - yes. My basement is only 768 sq ft though. If your basement is bigger I don't think your temperature fluctuations will be as bad. They recommend a minimum installation space of 750 cubic feet ( Site location section). That seems awful small though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: brenndatomu
3 x 40AMP Breakers = ((120AMPS * 240V )*.14 my per KWh cost) = $4.032 per hour to run :eek:. That thing is sucking down some serious juice when running. Nice looking install BTW.

Personally, I'll take my HPHW any day of the week. It costs me roughly $5 a month to heat hot water, and in the summer time it dehumidifies my basement.

And I'll take my plain Jane tank heater any day of the week, over an on demand.
 
Last edited:
Just installed mine about a month ago and so far I'm thrilled with it.

Keeps up with 4 showers no problem. Only draws about 600 watts in heat pump mode and is fairly quite.

For anyone on the fence about this ...BUY IT !
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20191129-065236.png
    Screenshot_20191129-065236.png
    70.9 KB · Views: 217
Do you think it makes your basement feel "cold"?
Takes 1 or 2 degrees from my basement year round which recover when its not running. I dont notice any difference at all. Room is 400sf adjoining another 575 sqft room.
 
Just installed mine about a month ago and so far I'm thrilled with it.

Keeps up with 4 showers no problem. Only draws about 600 watts in heat pump mode and is fairly quite.

For anyone on the fence about this ...BUY IT !
What make and model do you have ?
 
Finally getting around to installing this thing today...wish me luck...the kids needs baths later on... ;lol
 
Finally getting around to installing this thing today...wish me luck...the kids needs baths later on... ;lol
It took me about two hours to install my new one. I did have to cut some of the piping ( pex ) because I put the new one on blocks.
 
It will take me longer since the two hook up so very different...plus I need to run a condensate line too.
Its taking forever to drain...100' hose out to the driveway drain, and it seems to plug up now and again too...water heater sludge in the bottom I'm sure...
 
This time year i get very little water from the drain. In summer its a lot.
 
It took forever for our tank to drain too. About an hour in my patience got the best of me and I ended up draining a lot of the tank via the cold water inlet. I flush my tank every few months too.
 
I cut the copper lines and soldered the new unions on while it drained...old heater is out now. The install commences after some lunch...
 
Wasted too much time looking for tools and materials/supply's today...need another hour to be running, but have a family gig to go to, guess I get to finish this up later.
Pipe dope was AWOL for at least a half hour...then the plumber dope remembered where he put it after the last plumbing project :mad: ;lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: vinny11950
It took forever for our tank to drain too. About an hour in my patience got the best of me and I ended up draining a lot of the tank via the cold water inlet. I flush my tank every few months too.
Im referring to the condensate drain for the HPWH. Low humidity this time of year = little condensate water.
 
Well, still have a few loose ends to tie up, but she's making hot water...didn't get powered up until this morning then.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20191225_110208239.jpg
    IMG_20191225_110208239.jpg
    116.5 KB · Views: 522
Well, still have a few loose ends to tie up, but she's making hot water...didn't get powered up until this morning then.
That thing is fancy. My AO Smith doesn’t give any of that information out. You’ll be happy you put it in when you get your next power bill.
 
  • Like
Reactions: brenndatomu
I'm not home today, but I have been online trying to find out how to get into the "tech only" menu...I'm sure there is one... ;lol
Also, it was interesting, I added about a 16" piece of 8" metal duct onto the intake to make it pull warmer air off the ceiling...the ambient temperature reading went up 5*, that has to help efficiency since the Kuuma is only about 15' away...
 
  • Like
Reactions: sloeffle
I'm surprised by how quiet it is too...
Our new HPHW is a lot quieter than the old one. It looks like yours is 2db quieter yet.

The Rheem definitely has some things about it that I like more than mine. Your air filter setup is way better and I like that you can set it up to text you alerts too. Hopefully it will last you a long time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: brenndatomu
Would be nice if my Geo spring went into Hybrid mode at a certain cool water temp. So i dont have to manually set it to hybrid during heavy use periods.
 
Would be nice if my Geo spring went into Hybrid mode at a certain cool water temp. So i dont have to manually set it to hybrid during heavy use periods.

GE has a wifi module for 50 bucks that lets you control your tank to do just that right from your smartphone. I believe the software is open source that controls it so tons of people have done some cool stuff like read all the sensor data.