EcoSmart ECO 27 Tankless Water Heater, Electric, 27-kW - Quantity 1, 17 x 17 x 3.5

I've had this for 10 months (updated: 2 years now) and it's worked great. I have really high powered water pressure in the showers here, and sometimes also am running a laundry washer and sink. I tried running the washer on Hot, then I turned on 1 sink and both showers to very hot and they all had plenty of hot water. It was pretty easy to set up. While their disclaimer says that you need to have a licensed electrician install it to get the warranty, over the phone 2 people there explained that it's fine for a handyman to set it up, and that they will still honor the warranty as long as the problem clearly is not due to bad installation. In other words, if the problem is due to poor installation, then obviously they won't want to send you a new one. That's more than fair and means that you can save a lot of money having your handyman do it if he has electrical experience. I spoke to some people who said that most companies will put that a licensed person is required to install it for liability purposes to protect themselves. In real life, Ecosmart will cover it even if a non-licensed person installs it. Just write their name and phone number on the warranty registration card and send it in. Also, though their site says (I think from memory) that it needs 120 amps total, we asked them if putting it on a 100 amp subpanel would be enough, and they said yes, and we did that and it's fine. I was told by a number of people that if you put it on a 100 amp subpanel and for some reason it gets more than 100 amps, all it does is switch the subpanel off. That's the point of a subpanel. It makes it so only 100 amps can reach your main panel. So even with 2 showers, a large washer and a sink going, it didn't go over 100 amps. And my showers have great water pressure, so it probably would be like 3 showers in most houses. I only have 150 amps total, and everything has worked great. I found customer service great to work with. If you have a tech question, ask them if you can speak to one of their technical people. They were happy to help me figure it out. The price for this was much lower than other places I researched, and not much more than a tank. I've saved a lot of money on my energy bills as it only heats up water when you need it. I think the savings will pay for the difference in 1 year, and after that it's extra money in my pocket every month. I believe Amazon was a little cheaper than getting it directly through them but check because that could change over time of course. Also, it doesn't take more than about 10 seconds longer to get hot water than with my tank. With a tank, the water in your pipes cools off, so 90% of the wait for hot water is the old water running out. I used to have to wait about 1 minute to get hot water in my showers. With this unit, it adds only 10 seconds to the process as it quickly cranks up and starts heating the water flowing through it. For the occasional mindless person who claims that because their one unit was a dud, that all of them are - get a brain and learn some math. If you buy 40 units and 10% of them are duds, then you can make some claims about overall performance. If you go to any tank or tankless heater that has more than 80 reviews, you'll find at least a couple of reviews by people who got duds. It doesn't mean they all suck. Be honest and just say, "Mine broke and I was unhappy," and don't try to make up that everyone is going to have a problem because you did. In this day and age, pretty much all manufactured things have some duds, even high end computers like Apple. I got a dud iphone and had to have it sent back for a new one. Does that mean you will? Chances are low. I have another property where I still have a tank, and just as many things can go wrong with a tank as with a tankless. And when they go wrong with a tank, it can wreck the floor of whatever room it's in or close to, along with whatever things (furniture, cabinets etc.) are in touch with the floor. I can't wait to replace the tank with a tankless. When the time comes, I'll research what the best buy is out there for price and performance. Ecosmart was when I did, but I'm not wed to them or any other company. I also regained half a closet as it takes up almost no space. I put it in the upper corner of a closet out of the way. You can set the water temp with the turn of a knob. I love it. I will never go back to a tank. UPDATE: I've had it for 2 years now and still super happy with it.

Trying to get rid of gas heated anything in the house to protect the family - I bought this - problem with it is only one thing..... for a LARGE 3 full bathroom house if you used the furthest away bathtub from the unit (downstairs garage) you could not put it on highest setting to get water out of the bathtub - you had to put it on like medium flow of water coming out to get it to super scalding hot - it could not keep up - that being said - showers were no problem - scalding hot - also cut down on my bills - no more gas bill at all plus increase in the electric bill b/c of this unit was about 1/2 of what gas was b/c only ever turns on when water flows period... it was fine to use in multiple bathrooms and kitchen at same time also FYI.... so these were all my worries thinking I was totally screwing up buying one of these devices - but it works!!! one last note::: it cost me $800 to have an electrician put in 4 of the 40AMP connectors necessary to run this device which cost in the end more than double the cost of this device - it will NOTTTT work without a 40AMP and it's very unlikely you have 4 extra 40 AMP connectors on your electric grid in house and if you do they are used by something else guaranteed ! this is something they did not mention!! even though it's on the box it's umm wow... ugly cost - also the cost to BUY the 40 AMPs switches were ummm $60ish or where they $100 ish I forget ... so over $1000 total cost on electrician plus switches! sheesh... but I'm saving about $50 per month by switching to this so in 2 yrs it's paid for anyway but still - sheesh - I will give also another word of advice - I looked thru 100 of these devices - OMG so much work - let me tell you that had I spent that amount of time searching instead of a person who installed 100s of these before (a full plumber/electrician company) I would have probably saved crazy money b/c I don't thing I would have been spending that $1000 to $1200 for an install - I think they would have handled the whole thing for like $700 ish (install for plumbing for this device PLUS upgrade of electrical PLUS 4 switches cost etc) ... OOPS... I did not find this out until RIGHT AFTER the electrician was done - my friend had called me the day of or day after I had it all electrically upgraded to tell me they had found about 3 others that do this all the time in addition to working all sorts of other construction jobs - they did say however these devices are all quite GOOD if you do not go cheap like $187 one - notice I got the 2nd to most powerful one in existence the 27 version with 4 of the 40amp connectors and so on... they said they just dont have trouble with these devices but they do require maintenance like de-scalling the calcium scales off every few yrs - I never need that though b/c I have a water enhancement unit that forbids scaling for life - hehe....

I bought the Ecosmart Eco 27 a month ago to replace a Hubbell 280-3 tankless heater that LITERALLY blew up catastrophically. (You can read more about this below if you are interested). I have to say that this unit is head and shoulders above the Hubbell products in a number of ways and if you are in the market for a tankless heater I'd strongly recommend staying away from Hubbell after my experience. Overall, this unit does a great job in coastal British Columbia where inlet water temperatures in winter are 50 degrees F or below. Unlike the Hubbell unit, it doesn't struggle to put out 140 degree water with a faucet fully open. The Hubbell never achieved this kind of performance even in the summer months even though it was exactly the same power. Of course, if you open multiple faucets or showers you are likely to see a drop in the temp but most people do not require 140 degree water and should have little problem. The controls on the unit are easy to use but you may need to go to the Ecosmart website to find full instructions as the Owner and Maintenance (O&M) Manual they provide doesn't describe things like trouble shooting and the various Error messages you can get. But they are on the website. The Eco 27 digital display only lights up when there is a demand for water, and the temperature display can be switched quickly from F to C just by pressing the main rotary temp control knob. Pressing and holding the knob brings up further information including inlet and outlet temp and flow rate. All very easy to access. (Not nearly as easy on the Hubbell) I installed this unit myself and as you can see in the photo had to install an additional electrical sub-panel in order to comply with the need for three separate 40 Amp breakers because my main panel didn't have enough space to add extra breakers. Not that difficult if you know what you're doing but it did add about $150 to the cost for the sub-panel, breakers, and cabling. Conveniently, the spacing of the inlet and outlet connections is exactly the same as the Hubbell unit so I only had to do minimal plumbing work. Additionally, the mounting holes are at 16" centres so it can be mounted to standard wall studs. Lastly but certainly not the final or least great feature of the Eco 27 heater was the price which is about 1/3rd that of the Hubbell 280-3 it replaced. As I mentioned previously, the Hubbell blew up and the price I was quoted to replace JUST the heating chamber on it's own was DOUBLE the total price of the Eco 27!! So, overall, I've been very impressed by this unit. For those interested, my Hubbell 280-3 caused me a number of problems over the years including the fact the the original flow meter was made of a hard plastic compound and when I disassembled the unit in order to replace burned-out heating elements, the threads crumbled and rendered the unit unusable due to leakage. I finally replaced the flow meter with a newer brass-bodied unit (that on it's own costs about 1/4 of the total price of the Eco 27) but when I turned the unit back on one of the heating elements burned a hole the size of a pea through the side of the heating chamber in what was, literally, a catastrophic explosion. Very fortunately, I was standing right by the heater when this happened and was able to shut off the power and the water otherwise significant damage from flooding or fire could have resulted. What makes this failure most alarming is that, when I contacted Hubbell about it they admitted that they KNEW this could happen but fail to mention it in the O&M manual! I was using the unit 100% in accordance with the manual and yet it still blew up. To make matters worse, once this issue came to light Hubbell completely stopped communicating with me, taking absolutely no responsibility for the fact that their unit can fail catastrophically in normal use. Buyer Beware!!

After some conversations with the Ecp Smart company, and a few emails, I order one. The unit was delivered faster than expected. It seems to work only fantastic! Electric hookups took about 90 minutes, and copper work took me about 4 hours with trip to hardware store for parts I didn't have on hand. If you're handy, and are familiar with plumbing and electrical, you can do this no problemo! I installed my first HWT at the age of 10 unsupervised, so this was an easy job. I ordered the 27 instead of the 24 because it was cheaper, and I have the available electrical supply-otherwise the 24 would have done the job. In fact, the 18 would have been fine too. This is installed in our cottage which is used only about 5 months out of the year, and mostly on the weekends (Friday-Sunday). I say that to clarify that it is not being used in a house 7 days a week with large hot water requirements. There is one lavatory, one shower and a kitchen tap. We do not have a washing machine at the cottage. There are only 3 of us. Using all 3 taps at the same time, we have plenty of hot water. The unit is set at 120 degrees F. We live in rural Manitoba, and the well water coming out of the ground is about 37 degrees F. COLD! The unit has no problem making enough HOT water. The unit is absolutely quiet. I would buy another one in a heartbeat if I needed one. I installed a water softener to treat out hard water which was 390 mg/L. Manufacturer suggests no higher than 200. I did consider getting 2 smaller units to place one in the kitchen, and the other in the utility room for the washroom. If it was new construction, I think I would do that instead, rather than using one unit to take care of all locations, quick fix way. But, you do have to wait to get the hot water from the unit to the faucet-just like you do with a HWT. Installing one in the kitchen would have taken care of the wait! I will be blowing out he unit in the fall after I do an internal vinegar wash as suggested by the manufacturer. Making the 2 connections leak proof was a challenge though, using the Webstone 44043PR IUPS Isolator valves. in the directions, it says not to use teflon tape or pipe dope. I'll guess the reasoning is that they don't want ANY tape or pipe dope debris in the heating elements. I get that. BUT, the fitting to hold with a wrench at the bottom of the unit is really tough to hold onto, and even though the metal cabinet fits fairly snuggle around that fitting, you cannot rely on it to hold the fitting tight while you are super tightening the connections. After 3 failed attempts, I carefully used teflon tape, keeping it about 2 threads away from the open ends of the pipes. One slip of the wrench, and you could probably write the unit off. I would suggest better placement of the fittings at the bottom of the unit, by making them 1/2" longer or beefing up the bottom of the cabinets that the fittings are securely held in place, or considering a shark bit type of fitting. Hopefully this unit will last as long as the 28 year old HWT it replaced!

One of the cheapest units to get, was sceptical to buy. Did some research and chanced it. I’ve had the unit installed for about 5 months now, and has reduced my power bill by about $35-40 a month (water heater rental of $17 included). Always hot water within seconds, even on city water in canada on a -25° day. Costed $500 for local plumbing company to install it for me (I had water tank removed prior), was quoted $700 from electrical company to run wires, but had friend do it for about $350. However, it does draw ALOT of power when it kicks on, and will dim some led pot lights from the draw. Can be annoying at times. Hot water keeping up to demand, not too bad, we can run up to 3 items in the house at a time before noticing not as hot water coming out. But really how often is 3 things all on at once needing hot water. (I.e dishwasher, shower, washing machine) Currently Overall, worth the investment, it will pay for itself in 4.5 years providing it last that long.

I have now had this installed for 8 months. The unit is OK, does take a lot of time/water to heat up to temperature, even after using just 5 min apart. Takes about a gallon of running water before the water temp is hot. My sink is only 4 feet of plumbing away from the unit. When unit is up to temp it is great, I am on a well pump & the water stays the same temp even with the fluctuation of pump pressure (42-60 PSI). You could shower all day & have hot running water. The price/value is great as most other units are noticeably more expensive. I did have to exchange this right out of the box as the 1st unit temperature was inconsistent when running. Amazon was great with the return, no issues there. However if you are paying a plumber to do the install, could get expensive for that. I would recommend this unit for a cottage (if you have 200 amp service) or a garage/shop as it does not take up much space or waste electricity when not in use. I give this product 3.5 stars.

We replaced a 60 gallon tank with the 27 Kw unit. It was overkill. In hindsight, half that would have been more than enough. I reduced the water temperature from 135F to 118F and I still have to blend cold water to take a shower. The only difference in performance that is discernible is that it takes a little longer for the water to "get hot" at the faucet. Once hot, it stays that way until shut-off, never getting cold. We're on city water, mid-September 64F, down to mid 50's F in winter, and it does the work. A wifi control would be nice to enable remote temperature change. The unit failed on August 10, 2019. I followed the trouble shooting guide on Ecosmart's web site and was able to easily determine that the impeller in the flow meter had melted. This morning (Monday) I called the companies help line and the technician explained that this is probably due to reverse flow from the heating element. They will ship replacement parts today. He also suggested that I de-scale the unit to help prevent this in the future. Their recommendation is to do this yearly. As we have never had a water tank failure due to scale build-up, i thought that yearly was too pessimistic for our quality of water. To be sure, I also ordered a circulation pump today to de-scale the unit. All to say, excellent service. Now, end of November, after 18 months, one heating element has failed. It is considered a "wear" item. Other manufacturers give a five year component warranty. For the heating element to fail unacceptable. I have buy a new element.