Best Rheem Electric Water Heaters

You're Rolling the Dice Here – I've seen a lot of these units (very popular) and the design and layout is very good - simple and elegant. The problem is the manufacture quality,… Read more

which Rheem don't seem to manage well. On mine the welding on the heater flange is VERY poor, causing it to fail and leak just on the 7 year warranty (I don't think 7 years is awesome for a tank with wires connected to it - I've had gas ones that have done 4 times that). So it's not inherently terrible - if you get one that was made by the good welder it would be great, but how would you know?

Excellent water heater!!! – Hot water anytime, no noise at all, highly recommended for families. Show details

My Rheem hot water system is only 4 years old and has already stopped working. I chose Rheem because of its long-standing reputation for quality and… Read more

reliability, but unfortunately that has not been my experience.

After looking into the issue, I have found that many other customers have reported premature component failures as well. A hot water system is a significant investment, and I would expect it to last far longer than four years before experiencing major problems.

Rheem has built its brand on quality, but based on my experience, the product has fallen well short of those expectations. I hope Rheem takes these concerns seriously and improves the reliability of its products moving forward.

Update 10/06/2026:

I contacted your Customer Service team last Friday regarding my hot water system issue. During the conversation, I was advised that the call-out fee for a Rheem service technician would be approximately $300, which did not include any further investigation, labour, or replacement parts. As my hot water system is only four years old and only the cylinder remains under warranty, I would have been required to cover these additional costs myself. Unfortunately, this was beyond my budget, and I had no option but to decline the service.

As a result, I engaged a local plumber who was able to restore the hot water system and get it operating again. However, he was unable to identify the underlying cause of the fault, explaining that his investigation was limited to the scope of his expertise and the information available at the time.

In the meantime, I have also raised my concerns through ProductReview. Unfortunately, the outcome remains unchanged: the costs associated with having the unit investigated by Rheem are significant, cannot be determined in advance, and ultimately fall entirely on the customer. It appears that Rheem accepts no responsibility beyond the two-year warranty period for the components most likely to fail.

The hot water system is only four years old, and the need for a detailed investigation to determine the cause of the failure raises serious concerns about its reliability. A reasonable consumer would expect a quality hot water system to provide many more years of dependable service before experiencing a significant fault of this nature.

It is therefore extremely disappointing that a product marketed as a quality, reliable system has failed so prematurely, while the customer is left to bear the cost and uncertainty of diagnosing the problem. My experience has left me with very little confidence in the durability of Rheem products or in the level of support provided once the initial warranty period has expired.