ECO 18

The Good As for the item itself I would only suggest that the purchaser make sure they have sized the unit correctly for their needs and have taken their area's ground water temp into account. The unit has a sublimely simple design and its shell is both space efficient and cosmetically pleasing. Unlimited hot water is a decadent luxury and Ecosmart makes it affordable to all. My lady is finally able to take her time wash and shave without ever running out of hot water (yikes for my water consumption). Regarding water consumption I'v found that this unit works amazingly well with the "Spa Fire-Hydrant" shower head, Economy and Performance. The Bad This pertains to the install process and NOT the unit. -- The plumbing is very straight forward and should be doable by a moderately experienced DIY'er with basic plumbing tools and a little soldering know-how. The electrical work is also not very difficult, BUT requires two Double-Pole 40-Amp Breakers and sufficient sized service to handle the unit (which is actually comparatively large). But if you've got the space or are willing to upgrade your electric service, this item is a must-have. Final Warning The large cost for this unit will come from the install by licensed professionals without which you cannot quality for the lifetime Warranty, My advice (if you are not planning to install yourself) would be to get quotes for the install (both plumbing and electrical) and compare those numbers to the cost of the unit if you end up paying more for the install than the unit is worth you might be better off forgoing the warranty because if you do have a problem it would still be cheaper to by a replacement unit. ***One year Update I've had this unit for a year now and recently blew a heating element, (an issue caused by a plumbing change and NOT the unit itself). I only bring it up because its a bit of a pain to have to order a replacement from Eco-Smart since no other place I found (Even Amazon!**(CAN be purchased on amazon now)) carries this odd element size (9kW 240v Screw-In). So I would suggest having a spare on hand to avoid the shipping time wait if it becomes necessary. Also having seen first-hand what kind of scale and build-up can occur at tragic speeds on the heating elements, do yourself a favor and drop the extra $65 on the recommend 'Aqua-pure' scale inhibitor. Most users can only tell you that it seems to work having nothing to compare it against. I have seen both sides and it makes a world of difference! Aside from that, I am Extremely happy with this purchase, there is no going back in my household, Even with my girlfriend's new 45-minute long shower ritual (compared to the 25ish she use to get), I have seen a consistent 20-30% electric consumption drop when compared to the two years proceeding it. So my unit will have paid for itself after another year of usage. If your experience is anything like mine you will NOT be disappointed with this unit, so I'd say buy with confidence ***5-year Update At the 5 year mark, I have been through 2 heating elements (since installed) and always keep 2 on hand to be prepared. I am positive that the unit has paid for itself at least twice and is still working strong. There is absolutely no going back to a standard tanked unit. Until a recent trip out of town in a hotel shower, I'd completely forgot about running out of hot water. The moment this unit breaks I'm replacing it with an identical unit. (A decision made over 2 years ago) every home owner should have one of these units. Save space, save money, and enjoy your unlimited hot water as a bonus for your wonderful investment! *** 10-year update, Just blew another heating element (5 in total now after a decade), and they are now available for purchase on amazon! My unit is STILL running strong and my girlfriend has built her own home and installed an Eco27 (As I mentioned, once you've experienced unlimited hot water there's no going back). This device has already well exceeded my expectations and I'm overjoyed to give an amazing review. Love this product and WILL buy again in the home I'm planning to build.

I purchased the ECOsmart ECO 18 tankless water heater in April from Amazon during one of their open box warehouse sales for a very cheap price. The unit arrived as a wreck (as I expected it would). After beating out the smashed in cover (from improper shipping packaging) I inspected the inner workings, and found several parts ajar, and the cold water inlet fitting missing. Amazon offered an additional discount to me, so I took it, and set out to fix the unit, and replace the missing part. The cold inlet fitting has a one of a kind unique fitting threads, and I quickly found out that it’s irreplaceable. A call to Ecosmart tech support was personally and professionally handled. The tech told me that this part is not available. He then went into their spare parts junk drawer, found one used, and sent it to me for next to nothing. I couldn’t be happier with Ecosmarts service! The unit sat for 4 months until I had time to install it myself. I wanted to be sure it worked before gutting out my perfectly good water heater, so this report is what I found by permanently wiring, but temporarily plumbing the unit so as to not disturb the existing water heater. First of all, I live in South Florida (Broward County). Our water is fairly warm as supplied (70 Deg. Inlet temperatures in summer). I can only report how the unit worked with reasonably warm inlet temperatures. I’ve lived in the past in places where the water is 50 Deg. Year round coming out of the tap (NE Ohio), so I know I’m living in ideal conditions for a tankless electric water heater set up. I can report the following: I measured my normal shower water temperature. I like a hot shower. Using a lab quality thermometer, I find a water temperature of 95 to 98 Degrees is pretty darn hot. Maybe not hot enough to thaw out a frozen Ohio Linesmen, or firefighter with ice frozen to your face, but plenty hot for normal humans. I have the ECosmart 18 because electrically, my house only has 150 amp service. Larger Ecosmart units would overload my supply service. As tested, a 5 GPM flow (That’s enough for two old fashioned shower heads AND a sink running hot, the outlet hot water as measured was 115 degrees. This is with the unit set as high as it will go (140 Degrees). The unit will maintain a 45 degree water temp increase over inlet temperature. Testing at a flow rate of 2.5 Gallons per min.(enough for an old fashioned shower head and a sink), the unit maintained 135 deg. With the temp set at 140. My unit had no problem maintaining 115 deg. output if set at 120 deg. With a flow rate of 2.5 gallons a minute. In testing, I found a constant 5 degree error between what the unit says the set temperature is, and actual. Not bad considering it’s not an aerospace product, and some small gauge error is possible. The hot water tank I’m replacing is a 65 gallon unit, and IT DOES flicker the house lights every time a heating element turns on. (Noticeably annoying). I am super happy to report that the Ecosmart 18 unit does not flicker my house lighting. If you look very carefully, a very, very slight, teeny, weeinee load can be seen in the interior lighting of the house when the Ecosmart unit turns on, but it’s MUCH better than my existing standard tank type water heater. The ECO 18 turns on with very little water flow (a sink just turned on enough to wet a tooth brush will trigger it to heat the water) so flow sensing is perfect, and not a factor at all. My overall opinion is that yes, the unit is delicate, and is prone to damage in shipping. Once placed in service, it’s rugged enough to last a long time, and it works better than advertised. If you are in very cold water climate, you will need the biggest unit, and adequate power supply. Ecosmart lists what the unit will actually do modestly. If you read up on the specifications for each of their units, and match your water need and water temperature and follow the installation instructions you will never be disappointed by purchasing an Ecosmart unit. These things are great! Do your homework before you buy, and match it properly, you won’t be disappointed! Removing that old tank water heater and replacing it with the Ecosmart gave me a whole lot more room in my garage, as an added benefit too!

The Eco 18 has been working great the few years I have had it: Never run out of hot water! Easy install! (Recommend having some experience) Small size! No lugging water heater to basement. I replaced my 30 year old gas water heater with the Ecosmart 18 after it started leaking. My eventual goal is to switch my house completely to electric appliances, so the furnace is the only one I am still running on gas. I haven't seen my electric bill change drastically from this, and my gas bill definitely went down some especially in the summer. In my case I live alone in the Midwest and the only thing I use hot water for is showers and my dishwasher. If you don't know the GPM flow of your shower head, get 5 gallon bucket or other container that you know the volume of and time the fill-up to figure out your needs, then use the chart to determine model. I did try using the Eco18 with my clothes washer and got an error that flow was too high, so if I did ever decide to use hot water for clothes washing I could put a reducer and the washer would just take longer to fill up. If I did ever have more people living with me I might need to get a more powerful model. As for electrical, they recommend using a 200amp or bigger service to run the required two 40amp breakers to power the water heater. In my case, since I don't use the electric oven (50amp) while I take a shower, I am actually doing just fine running it off my 100amp home service. You just need to be aware of what your total electric needs are and plan accordingly. In my case, the water heater could draw 70 amps and the dryer or air conditioner would add another 10 to 15 amp to that, still coming in below 100amps. Again, if I were to have other people living with me I would probably like to have more power available for that plus a more powerful unit. Eventually I plan to upgrade my home to 200amp service, when I replace my gas furnace with a whole house heat pump. Because I have experience with plumbing and electrical I was able to save a sizable amount by making a DIY project of this. As some other reviews have suggested, I keep a few spare heating elements on hand. Highly recommend, would do it again in a heartbeat!

Using their handy guide to select the proper unit for my area and my application, I chose the 18. Mid-Missouri and 2.3 GPM (one high-flow shower head flowing right at 2.2 GPM). Their specs suggest a 53°F temperature increase according to my location. My application might be somewhat unique, as I have a main 55 gal gas hot water heater tank that supplies the whole house except for the master suite, which is in-series with main tank. So basically, this tankless heater is somewhat redundant as the water is already heated before it enters the tankless heater. The only reason I found out it’s not working really good is my pilot light went out the other day on my main tank, so basically that tank was sending room temperature (65° in my basement) water to my tankless while I was taking a shower. The water temperature was warm at best. Not even close to enjoyable, even with the valve turned all the way to hot. The other variable that I’m not sure of is my shower valve is a Delta pressure-balancing valve. I’ve got the unit set to 140°F and I’m not getting close to that. Maybe 100°F. Either way, I don’t how they claim this will heat to 140°F when I can’t get to 120°F no matter what my inlet water temp is. Also, it still takes forever (60-90 seconds) before hot water starts flowing from my shower head. That I can live with, but it suggests that the tankless heater (12 ft away) isn’t working very well. Pros: Low cost for the unit. Energy savings. Space savings vs a water tank. Cons: Had to run new power wires. More breakers – takes up half of my sub-panel. Had to install soft water system because tankless systems won’t tolerate scale buildup. Sales and support don’t know anything more than what’s on the brochure. Everything I read about gas vs electric tankless heaters is that gas heats up quicker, but you have to vent to outside. Initial investment in a gas heater costs more but it appears the benefits are worth it. Knowing what I know now, I should’ve ran the gas line and vent pipe. Some of the gas units have a ‘boiler mode’ that’ll output 160° to 180°F water. I called support from my office and they said they will not troubleshoot unless I’m in front of the unit. So I took an afternoon off work and called her from in front of the heater. She asked my the 4 obvious questions from their manual that I could’ve answered over the phone originally. She had more in-depth troubleshooting procedures that she said she would email me. Why didn’t she offer this to begin with? I didn’t matter since I never got the email anyway. Since I wasn’t getting any good help from their support woman, I tried their sales dept. She told me that I should buy a booster to mount closer to my shower, even though my tankless heater was only 12 feet from the shower. I’m not even sure what the booster is, but I’m sure it involves more breakers and power cable. All that to get 6 feet closer to my shower head. She ended up emailing the troubleshooting guide and that’ll be my next step. Ultimately, I’ll probably put a new 40 gal electric water tank back in, since running gas lines and vent pipes can’t happen now that I’ve just drywalled the basement. Huge waste of my time and money.

I was unsure this model would be sufficient for the demands of my house (3bed/2.5 bath, but high demands for hot water), but the folks at EcoSmart walked me through the specifications and assured me this would definitely suffice. They were right. My existing electrical panel was no longer made, which meant adding the additional breakers was not an option. I ended up having to replace the entire panel; the cost was tough to stomach ($1000) but truthfully having a brand-new panel does give me a lot of peace of mind, and I'm sure the old one was past it's recommended life. Beyond that, all I needed was wiring run from the panel (which was also in the garage, and just under 15 ft from the existing electric tank heater) which the electrician ran in a conduit, and modifying the plumbing to accept threaded connectors. Home Depot had a kit for $30 including hoses and two compression fittings to convert standard copper piping to threaded inputs. All in all, the plumbing, mounting and connecting took just under three hours. I am VERY happy I made this purchase; the unit is clearly well-made and the lifetime warranty just can't be beat. UPDATE 8/24/2014: For some reason over the last week, the unit has not been switching on when hot water is demanded. I checked the breakers, but they were still on. I cycled them, and when the unit came on, the display was flickering, but the water was being heated. I had to do this several more times over the next few days. Tonight, I went through the technical troubleshooting guide to make sure the wiring wasn't crossed (it wasn't) and that the elements were drawing power. Everything checked out. Oddly enough, I put the cover back on and restored power, and now it's working perfectly, even though I didn't change anything. I'm going to keep an eye on it. MAKE SURE TO SUBMIT THE WARRANTY INFORMATION WITHIN 30 DAYS OF PURCHASE!!!!!! http://www.ecosmartus.com/customer-service/warranty-registration.aspx UPDATE 9/2/2014: The problem had started to get more constantly-occurring so I contacted EcoSmart via their website last week. I have yet to hear back from them; one of the reps had emailed me directly to confirm receipt of my warranty registration. I replied to her and asked her to investigate. I told her that we performed the steps in the troubleshooting guide and determined that the heating elements were both faulty since they read 0V from screw-to-screw (properly functioning elements should read ~220V). If this is the case, it makes me question the quality of the parts used on this product; we've only had it for a little over two months and for parts to fail that quickly (and two out of two for that matter) is a yellow flag. Stay tuned... UPDATE 9/5/2014: So I called them yesterday (Thursday) so they could help me troubleshoot. After about 20 minutes on the phone they determined the motherboard was bad and overnighted me a new one. I just finished installing the new one (took 15 minutes, about 6 screws and 5 snap-in plugs) and the thing works perfectly now. Now I know two months in for hardware to fail is a little questionable but these tankless water heaters are still developing and it's the only electronic part of the whole thing (the rest is tried-and-true electrical components, elements and thermostats). I stand by my recommendation...The EcoSmart tech support guys were very helpful getting me straightened out so even if something goes wrong, they will do their best to help you out.

I bought this item when my regular hot water heater started leaking. I will give you the the list of things I like and do not like about this product. What I do like: Takes up very little space. I basically gained about 4 square feet of floor space by changing to this from a regular water heater Easy to set temperature with knob and display Never runs out of hot water Here are the cons: I live in the foothills of NC. The ecosmart website says that my ground temperature is around 58 degrees. It says that This ECO 18 should handle 2.5 GPM. Once the winter got here, the water heater would not heat the water fast enough for the shower. I had a 2.5 GPM shower head. I tried to turn the heater all the way up and that was not the problem because the heater does not slow down the water. It can either heat the water fast enough or it can not. What I had to do to fix this problem, was to go to Lowes and buy a shower head that was 1.75 GPM. The smallest GPM head they had in stock. You can order 1.5 GPM shower heads though. Once I purchased and installed the 1.75 GPM shower head the problem was solved! Now that spring is here and the ground temp is rising again, I notice I am having to turn on more cold water to compensate for the rise in the ground temp. SO if you live in a colder state, or a state that has cold winters you should make sure to check all your shower heads! You can not use the tub nozzle at all because they are about 6 GPM. Unless you live in a hot state maybe. My power bill has stayed about the same. I went online to the power company and compared my bills for the same month the year before I installed the tankless water heater. There was only a couple dollars difference in the price. The reason behind this is when both heaters in the tankless unit are heating they are using 18,000 watts (they are 9000 watts each). Where my old tank water heater was using 3500 watts when ever it called for heat to keep the water at a certain temp. Its a good heater and works great! NEVER run out of hot water. You can take showers back to back. In all I DO like this heater. I am glad that I switched to it. Now that my first winter is over and I have the correct shower head. I just thought I would give a little detail about the heater so you would maybe be introduced into some problems that you might run into. So depending on where you live you might need to change shower heads when you install the heater or go with a larger one. I would recommend this product to anyone as long as they knew what things could cause temporary problems.

Installation is fairly straight forward. Included instructions book is very helpful. Keep it for future troubleshooting because there is detailed information within for any faults encountered. I kept the Eco within 5 feet of my main panel to keep the wire runs as short as possible.. I like the design; all connections feed through the bottom and front panel is easy to remove without disturbing wires or plumbing to access inside as needed. LED display remains dormant (off) until unit detects water flow and then pre-set temperature is displayed while water is running. LED display shuts off a few seconds after water flow stops. Using an ordinary kitchen cup, I measured the minimum water flow necessary before heating elements turn on being ABOUT 2 quarts per minute. Heating elements remain dormant unless it detects water flow higher than that approx quantity. Instructions clearly suggest keeping pre-set temperature around 115-120 (F) degrees. FOLLOW this guideline. I experimented with hotter temperatures thinking the quality/consistency of hot water would be better. Actually, having the pre-set too hot is counter-productive because the faucet water will be too hot, you'll be throttling back to a colder setting at the faucet, and (here we go again) there won't be enough water flowing through the unit to turn on the heating elements. Then you'll be constantly adjusting the faucet handle(s) in efforts to get a stable temperature. Keep it at 115-120 and you'll be quite happy. I live in South Florida and the coldest weather we've had this season dropped the incoming cold-water temperature to "only" about 60 degrees on that "cold" morning. So to "stress" the unit, I turned on 2 showers, 2 faucets, full blast, and the washing machine (all at the same time); the ECO 18 had no problem keeping up with the hot-water demand. If your incoming water temps (are lower) and usage quantity (is higher) than my baseline, you'll have to experiment for yourself or talk with the tech assistance line. Cons? - - Only arbitrarily minimal. My Eco-18 has a pattern of making really hot water, then warm, then hot again as it stabilizes just as the faucet/shower is turned on, only at beginning (eg. Mornings). I verified this by asking a family member to turn on a tub faucet as I measured the temperature at the copper "water-out" side directly near the unit. I can also tell by the way the bathroom lights dim ever so briefly (twice) as the initial electrical surges hit the power panel. After all, the TWO elements pull about 37 Amps EACH at initial start-up. It takes about 7-10 seconds for the unit to stabilize it's temperature output (and the bathroom lights remain at constant brightness); but I can live with that. It's no major complaint. If there's any critics out there: 1.) Yes, I installed all electrical as per NEMA standards, 2.) Yes, my main panel is rated for this amperage with plenty reserve capacity, and 3.) Yes, I installed a separate 100-amp subpanel with two 40-amp breakers dedicated to this water heater (as described in the installation instructions) using (overkill) 6-gauge wire as a safety precaution. Pro's? - - Small package size, space savings compared to a conventional 40-gallon tank. Hang it on the wall, make the connections, set it once and forget it. "Hot water forever." On a side note, South Florida water is quite hard. Curiosity got the best of me with the old tank-heater. I cut it open and discovered a 4-inch thick layer of calcium deposits on bottom of 7-year old tank. How does this relate to the Eco-18, you may ask? Well, since water flow through the Eco-18 is at a high velocity, I have a feeling that calcium deposits cannot collect within unit.....so it will last a looooong time. Time will tell. The one-year duration for my household has proven successful thus far. Middle-Ground Opinions? - - There's lots of talk about energy cost savings. Well...<pause> (?) ...I did a comparison of my household's last year Kilo-Watt usage to this year (month by month) and did not notice any consistent measurable savings. Of course, there are variables to consider such as growing kids, the time they spend in the bathroom preparing for the day, and how much laundry ends up in the hamper every other day. All this tends to increase as teenagers get older. The only quantifiable fact is that the Eco-18 does not consume power while at idle...waiting for the next person to turn on hot water. Despite the lengthy narrative, I'll give the Eco-18 a number "9" on a scale of 1 to 10. A small human learning curve and adaptation is necessary to live harmoniously with the heater. Be sure to have the temp pre-set to 120, be aware that a minimum water flow is necessary to "wake the heater up", and don't be nervous about the lights dimming temporarily as the heating elements energize. ...enjoy. :-)

We had another tankless water heater that was costing too much money for labor to replace warranty parts. I got so tired of it that I bought this unit hoping it will last longer and won't require service calls. Compared to the other one, this thing is beautiful! It's nice seeing the water temp so clearly and dialing in what temp you want. Tankless water heaters this size can handle one hot water item at a time. You can either take a shower or run the dishwasher, not both. One night I forgot the dishwasher was running and took a shower. I couldn't tell anything else was running! It works beautifully! What sold me on this model over others was the life time warranty and talking with the service dept before the sell. Very nice, patient people! We haven't had it during winter yet, but I can say so far, this unit gets the water much hotter than the old system, it stays hot, meaning no fluctuation, and the pressure is constant. I'm very impressed! Great little unit that takes up very little room and saves money on heating water. UPDATE: We've now had this heater for a couple of months and had one issue. We had a bad electrical storm come through and instead of tripping the breaker, it blew the fuse in the tankless water heater. Not a big deal, other than I couldn't find one locally! I went to hardware stores, electrical stores, plumbing stores, even Radio Shack. No one had this fuse! But Amazon does! They sell it in a 5 pack, Cartridge Fuses 250V .187A Fast Acting 3AG. I would recommend ordering that as well and storing them in the inside the cover so they are always on hand. Other than that, we are still loving our new Ecosmart 18! My old one would get the water hot, but I could still keep my hand under it. This one, I can't hold my hand under it. This thing gets the water HOT! Now that I have spare fuses in the case, I think we are set for the next several years or more.

Tengo un poco mas de 9 meses usandolo en casa, donde hay 2 baños completos mas el servicio del sink y todo a funcionado sin problemas, cabe mencionar que la distancia maxima del boiler al servicio mas alejado son unos 8 metros, el otro baño a unos 4 metros y el sink mas o menos igual distancia, es raro cuando se usan todos los servicios a la misma vez, asi que no se que tanto baje el rendimiento, probare y les actualizo, lo que me agrada de este boiler de paso, es que si permite regular el agua caliente y fria como si fuera uno de tanque, asi que bastante satisfecho con la compra de este equipo! Actualizando hoy 28 Nov, 2023, el boiler sigue funcionando sin problemas, ambos baños pueden usarse a la vez y no hay perdida de agua caliente, sigue funcionando como la primera vez y hasta el día de hoy, ya casi 4 años, no ha fallado ningún componente.

Be aware that this needs to be installed by an electrician or plumber within 30 days of purchase for the warranty to be valid. Apart from that works well as long as you don't mind the minute wait for hot water the first time you need it.

I loved the product but unfortunately due to the rapid declining poor customer service i have decided to cancel my account I habe slways felt that the best customer service I habe ever had was with Amazon but recent transaction has left a horrible scar and I hope nobody else endures this but if you shop here like I did you will soon find out that this once small company that I bive built their trillion dollar company from what I considered the best customer serviced I have ever had now do not need to meet those expectations. Way to go Amazon. Likely this will not get posted because Amazon will want to let people find out the hard way so if not I will find another way to voice my opinion and if it does get posted it just a warning for anyone who has been long time customer

Don’t expect the run all the taps ! But this one does the job for our cottage in the mountains well. And the groundwater is COLD!

Le premier défectueux, le 2e parfait