Faulty Assembly = failure and big leak

Heat is modulated through Triac integrated circuits, bolted to a heat sink that control the power to the elements. One of the three Triacs (blue) was assembled in a faulty manner with a lock washer between it and the heat sink. The heat couldn't dissipate and it failed in the on position. The water in the unit boiled and melted and bursted the flow sensor, made of plastic (yellow). This caused a massive flood as water poured out of the unit for hours! Photo is after my repair.

Great electrical bill saving.

I'm happy with my decision to buy the ecosmart water heater unit. I'm replacing it after 10 years of use. Saving me a lot of money in the monthly energy bill. To maintain the water heater the technician from an electrical company recommended to install a water treatment filter for thankless water heater. The city water in my area has a lot of quimical ingredients and this damaged my old ecosmart water heater because it was not protected with a filter.

Uses way too much power

I’m an electrician and I installed this water heater myself thinking it would save energy over time. It basically uses full power at all times which is 100 amps even to just turn on the kitchen sink. It was dimming the lights in the house also from turning on one faucet. This is a horrible and misleading product. It was said to be energy saving when I bought it. I noticed that they have taken that sign down now at the store. :(

worthless warranty

If you install this your self they will not honor their warranty. I bought one new in Nov.2020 and it failed in Feb 2024. It burned holes in 2 element tops ( sending a strong burnt smell through my house) and was leaking water. would not cover as I self installed, even though I owned my own appliance repair business and had been doing this work for over 30 yrs. Must have a plumber or electrician.

Failed after one week

I am very disappointed in the ECO 27 water heater I purchased. I installed it just 12 days ago and it worked really well for one week and then it quit heating water to the setpoint. Set all the way up now at 140 the water is only 110 now. When I first installed the unit, I could set it at 130 and it go to 130 and work just fine. Since I did not install it until recently I did not know I needed to send in the warranty card within 30 days of purchase.

The warranty is a joke!

I purchased this hot water heater about 6 years ago and had it professional installed to ensure I would have a lifetime warranty. I also registered the unit with all the required information and received a confirmation of my registration. The installation cost 1.5 times the cost of the unit because I was going from a conventional tank water heater to tankless. The installed suggested I flush the hot water heater every 6 - 12 month with vinegar which I have been doing it's a simple process only take 5 mins to setup and you let it run for 2 hours. Fast forward to last weekend when I was only getting lukewarm water at the taps. I started doing some troubleshooting and determined the right hand element had expanded and was now touching the walls causing it to not work so only two elements were working and the 3rd was probably drawing a lot more power than normal. I went out and purchased an element removal wrench though the element wouldnt budge. I tried removing the one next to it and I was about to without to much difficulty. I emailed customer service SATURDAY because they are closed on weekends. TUESDAY I receive an email back stating and I quote " You can try pouring vinegar down the tube to loosen up the element if you are unable to remove it the unit will need to be replace element is stuck inside of the tube due to lack of maintenance." No where did they ask what maintenance I had been performing they just jumped to the conclusion during the first interaction that it was my fault. I asked what maintenance I was missing and they said I had to remove the elements every 6 months and soak them in vinegar for 2 - 3 hours. WHO DOES THIS NO ONE THAT I KNOW! I asked where that was stated in the documentation. They sent me maintenance instructions with 3 options one of them being the recirculating maintenance which is what I had been doing for the last 6 years. I told them this and they then just responded that I needed to call and speak to an agent. Mind you it is now Thursday and I have been without hot water since Saturday. I've tried calling customer service 4 times now and after 30 to 90 mins I have had to hang up because I have a job and I can't stay on hold all day long. DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT FOR THE WARRANTY BE PREPREPARDED TO BUY YOUR OWN REPLACEMENT IF THIS ONE BREAKS.

Poor reliability; poor customer service...avoid.

Bought this for my son's home. Bought the additional warranty for the unit, which I never do. The unit quit working within 4 months of installation. He spent time with customer service; which were rude and not very helpful. They said since he had registered the unit within 30 days there was no warranty. He had to buy the part himself and install it...all told he and his family were without hot water for 1 week.

It blew up in three years

The Eco Smart company was no help. The unit was not in use at the time of the explosion. If I had not been home at the time the entire house would have flooded. They suggested I buy a new one after telling me it was not repairable. I followed the recommended maintenance schedule in the manual. I let them know that I would never be buying another Eco Smart product ever. $500. plus dollars for a water heater that lasted three years. No thanks! I will buy from a different company.

Water heaters & scale removal

Bert, 1/2023 wrote "May I suggest another brand?" But he should read online the WHYs of removing excess minerals ("scale"). Yes, water heater manuals should explain about this. But hard-water scale is a major problem wherever the water has high mineral content, especially calcium and magnesium, and EVERY water heater has to be cleaned regularly if you don't have a water de-scaling system. With a tankless, at least you're not dealing with cooling and draining away a big tankful every year.

Customer Service from this company is horrendous. Beware. ...

Customer Service from this company is horrendous. Beware. I had to buy a second one so I didn't have have a plumber redo the pipes so I could buy a different brand. The "lifetime warranty" is a joke. When you system fails and it starts shooting water all over your electrical outlet and basement floors, they will tell you to send them pictures so they can determine if you qualify for replacement parts for you to fix it yourself after they determine if you qualify for the "lifetime warranty. I'm stuck with them for now. Don't make the same mistake.

STAY AWAY!! It will not last.

Like all of the 1 star ratings, my unit failed after about a year.

Great for a Second Home

We replaced a 50 gallon electric hot water heater with this. It is in our second home, with a single bath. It is nice to have endless hot water for the shower. With a single handle mixer for the tub, we did have to restrict the flow to be able to fill the bath with hot water. The flow was too fast for the water to maintain the 120 degree setting. Our washer has a similar problem, but we are okay washing with 110 degree water on hot. My son had a similar problem with a commercial dishwasher in NYC. We like that there is instant hot water when we arrive for a weekend, and we don't leave 50 gallons of hot water to cool down after we leave.

A friend of mine had 3 of these EcoSmart tankless...

A friend of mine had 3 of these EcoSmart tankless Electric Water Heaters from Home Depot n his 3 houses and highly recommended this particular one for my two application needs.

Water Heater

Ambiguous on how to rate this. The system is working as advertised by Ecosmart. My problem is with tankless water heater is not what I expected. note this lack of what I expected to what was received is NOT DUE TO ANY ADVERTISEMENT OF ECOSMART. Instant HOT WATER AFRAID NOT. With a tanked system you can expect your water to start warming at about 5 to 10 seconds. I timed this and it took 27 sec. to start feeling a change in water temperature and 32 sec for a significant change in WATER temperature occur.

This is my first time with an on demand type water heater. It seems to work good so far. It is w...

This is my first time with an on demand type water heater. It seems to work good so far. It is well made and compact. Wasn't hard to install using a Watts installation kit. The one big problem I had was with leaks at the inlet nipples? Took me many times to get it to stop leaking! Instructions say not to use Teflon tape or pipe dope, it leaked at both connections. I tried tape, they leaked. I tried pipe dope, they leaked. I tried special pipe dope with gasket product (Block), both connections still leaked! I left the dope on and added 4 layers of yellow Teflon tape (thickest tape) and cranked down again, Finally no seepage, YEAH! Still holding. My solution

DON'T BUY! It WILL fail, there is NO warranty

Warning: if you install their yourself, there is NO warranty whatsoever. The registration card must be signed by a a plumber.

Read The Fine Print

We purchased the Ecosmart ECO 18 Electric Tankless Water Heater with expectations it would be an energy efficient and reliable alternative as compared to another traditional 40 gallon tank unit which it replaced. Unfortunately, it failed to meet our needs and expectations.

Do not buy

Have had this water heater for about 4 years. Control panel has had to be replaced twice. Company will not honor warranty. Lights flicker every time you run hot water. (Many others have said the same thing). I’ve read many reviews about pipes getting clogged but luckily haven’t had that issue yet. Customer service is horrible. Would not talk to me unless I was in front of unit. Took day off to do so and after finding answering questions that unit would not turn on, there were no more questions so no reason for me to be in front of unit. You will have to hire an electrician to bring in new service as I can’t believe anyone has the wiring needed by this unit. I have not noticed any decrease in my electric bills. It takes at least twice as long running water to get hot water as before. Not worth the money or aggravation. Surprised to see so many good reviews here. That’s what got me to buy and was a big mistake. Read the one star reviews and check some other sites. I’m so disappointed in this product that I’m mad at Home Depot for even carrying it!

If you like playing Russian roulette, your in for a surprise.

If you’re thinking of making the change from tank water heater, to this water heater: DON’T DO IT. After having the water heater for a little more than a year (installed it in May 2016) we started having problems in August 2017. In the beginning, the water heater worked only about a fifth of the times you turned the faucet. Eventually it got to a point that no water anywhere would heat up and u fortunately for us, this moment was on a Friday afternoon so we had to wait until Monday morning to have any sort of customer support for the device. Once we finally got through with a customer support person from EcoSmart, he told me that the device was just dirty and emailed me instructions on how to clean it. Obviously it didn’t work, and we did this for more than a month; they would send me Intructions on fixing what wasn’t broken and something that wasn’t broken and I would follow the instructions. Unfortunately, they don’t have any electricians if you have any problems, in my area, they will only recommend someone if it’s about installing the system. Problems continued for months until we found an electrician that was willing to try to fix it on our own. This product is u reliable and the customer support is non existent, even if they claim they have a life time warranty, they will send you parts (that most range under $100) but won’t provide the installation, that could be really costly if you’re doing it every year.

Normally I do not provide feedback on products unless it is really bad or excellent. In this inst...

Normally I do not provide feedback on products unless it is really bad or excellent. In this instance this product is ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS.