Theres about 600 positive reviews on Lowes website. A couple folks on here have had good luck with them as well. Maybe one person wrote all the reviews on Lowe's or one pissed off person wrote the 20 reviews on amazon. Who knows...
Electric or Indirect (oil) water heater?
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Theres about 600 positive reviews on Lowes website. A couple folks on here have had good luck with them as well. Maybe one person wrote all the reviews on Lowe's or one pissed off person wrote the 20 reviews on amazon. Who knows...
Look at that price ........and those ratings, run
!! You would be far far ahead with a simple 40 gallon tank rig with it's slight inefficiencies. Just put it in an upstairs closet where it's warm with a blanket on it. Way cheaper all the way around. That high tech stuff isn't nearly what it's cracked up to be, mostly sales hype.
I replaced my indirect oil fired water heater with a Geospring a little over a year ago. I am very happy with it. I run it in heat pump only mode and it never runs out of hot water with a family of 4. It costs me less than $30 a month to run it. I believe many of the poor reviews are from units that were purchased prior to spring of 2013. Those units had Chinese parts that seemed to have caused a lot of problems. The current models are made in USA. Maybe they should have changed the model name for the USA made ones given all the issues with the previous models.
I installed the geospring because I only used my boiler for the indirect since installing a pellet stove. Overall I am very happy with it. My electric bill has not even gone up. I no longer run the boiler at all so the electric to run the boiler vs running the geospring is just about a wash. Heat pump mode works great for medium demand. I have a family of four, including two small kids. The recovery on heat pump mode is slow. If I have my monster in law over I need to put it on hybrid mode so the recovery is quicker, but usually I don't so she gets a cold shower and wants to go home back to her trailer!
I was going to go electric but had a conversation with a friend of mine who had boiler issues. Some boilers do not like to be turned off. The can form a leak when cold and once a leak is formed, it is there for good. I have a direct fired coil in my boiler and have since switched my efforts to finding a stone lined indirect. There are plenty on craigslist and will hook it up myself. It may only save a 10 or so gallons a month but should pay for it self in a couple of years.
RickNH
Member
I just yesterday installed the GeoSpring. I got it from Lowes .. It's on sale right now for 999. My electric company is offering a rebate to the tune of 500.00 ... I have a $25 off 250 project starter coupon from MyLowes ... No-Brainer ... No installation costs because it is replacing an existing small one I had and used parts from it. The existing small one was added in-line to the oil boiler to compensate for it's poor performance (30 Gallon)... Completely shut off the oil hot water coil but have it plumbed to be able to switch between the two.
If you get one of these Heat Pump water heaters be sure you have a plan as to how to handle the condensate. I have mine in Heat Pump Only mode and it seems to be OK so far. Very quite. It's in the basement so due to the fact that it dehumidifies the area, I will no longer need to run my $$dehumidifier$$ down there any more! Win-Win-Win for me.
If you get one of these Heat Pump water heaters be sure you have a plan as to how to handle the condensate. I have mine in Heat Pump Only mode and it seems to be OK so far. Very quite. It's in the basement so due to the fact that it dehumidifies the area, I will no longer need to run my $$dehumidifier$$ down there any more! Win-Win-Win for me.
That was my plan too, but it didn't dehumify my basement enough so I still have to run the dehumidifier, just not as much.
Well to almost quote the tech who always serviced our boiler if it leaks when its off you probably need a new boiler. He did mention you may have to tighten the bolts for the coil which are torqued to a specific spec rather then just cranked down. Our boiler was 20+ years old when I shut it down it leaked from the coil I tightened the bolts up a little bit and it did not leak again.
RickNH
Member
JDenyer236
Feeling the Heat
Installed a Geospring a couple of years ago, oil usage is now zero, costs about $20 a month to run the Geospring for a family of 3.
CaptSpiff
Minister of Fire
So that's not necessarily true. Plenty of folks running an Electric Tank water heater with a 100 amp panel. If you meant Tankless Electric water heater then you're correct.
The Ductless heatpump might work also.
List your electric appliances and pumps.
LuvMyPellets
Burning Hunk
My Geospring is shortly beginning its 4th year. The condensers were originally made in China and most all of them failed. It was replaced under warranty even though the labor part of this had run out. It cost me nothing. The rise in electric cost was negligible. It replaced a pretty fancy Oil Fired Crown Boiler and separate stainless steel domestic water tank that despite being 87% efficient was still costing me well over $30 a month average in oil. Homey don't like running that boiler.
Electrical load calculations would disagree with you unless you have a propane stove and line dry all your clothes. Sure you could hook it up and it would run. You only have 80 amps to work with breakers start tripping derated 20%.
Can be done on a 100 amp service but you will need to change out the heating elements and live with a longer recovery time.
In 2009 I replaced a failed 50 gallon electric with a tankless propane unit from Home Depot. The first year I used about 230 gallons of propane. I have since installed a geothermal heating system. I have reduced my propane usage to about 130 gallons per year. I use a bunch of hot water and I have never run out of hot water.
In the winter time I power wash my vehicles with hot water. In the summer time I fill the kiddie pools with warm water.
That being said my next unit will be a geospring.
In the winter time I power wash my vehicles with hot water. In the summer time I fill the kiddie pools with warm water.
That being said my next unit will be a geospring.
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