Rheem Solar Premier

Ordinary system. Promotes the benefits of solar, forget to tell you that outside that, the system decides when to use electric boost - which in our case (at least in winter) seems to be around 7am and 7pm - the absolute peak power price - presumably more than offsetting all of the benefits of the solar. Just another maddening example of horrible Australian manufacturing dressed up as something else. Show details

Excellent product stainless steel tank – 10 year warranty for piece of mind. Made in Australia. Great service from my local rheem solar specialist. Show reply

Excellent product – 10 year warranty and stainless tank. Great product and warranty.  Show details ·  1

Not Happy – Had a solahart system on my roof for 34 years. changed on recommendation to Rheem. Has been on the roof for less than 5 years and having problems already. Not happy. Show details

Not impressed – We have only had our Rheem solar Hiline 180 for 1 month and we have only 2 people in the house and do not use for anything but 2 showers and 2 lots of dishes per day and we do not have enough hot water at the end of the day. Either hubby has a warm shower and i boil the kettle to do the dishes or i do the dishes at night and hubby has a cold shower! We are not impressed! Our plumber is scratching his head. Show details

An absolute dud! – I moved into this house in May and have had 3 Rheem technicians to try and get a reliable supply of hot water. Still nothing. The last visit cost $350 for a new circuit board and this weekend I am again without hot water. I have also had the tempering valve replaced on a separate occasion. The gas booster kicks in very sporadically and hence no… Read more

hot water when there is cloud. If I have to replace this unit, which will cost thousands it won't be with a Rheem as the product is woeful and they obviously haven't trained their technicians on how to fix them. They look and shrug and say it will cost $$$. I don't mind spending the money but I want a guarantee that it will give me hot water. I own four other houses which all have reliable hot water systems, this is the newest system and by far the worst. You have made a product which is a lemon! Given the comments on this page, I may start exploring a class action as Rheem seem to be selling products that clearly don't function.

Bad bad bad – When my house was built this was installed and a year later I started to have problems. First when my hot water didn’t work I thought it was weird so I reset it. Then it started to happen on a daily; Every time there is a cloudy day and I’m about to have a shower there would be no hot water; I have to go outside and reset it. I would not recommend this to anyone! I am beyond Disappointed  Show details

Does not heat water – Have had the unit for around 8 years almost every year sometimes 2 times per year the unit broke down and needed repair When ringing Rheem, they say we will get back to you but never do. I am a builder, and with the lack of support from Rheem,I will not put a Rheem hot water system in any of my houses any more. I payed around $4500 for this… Read more

unit, and would not know how much I paid in electricity to have hot water. Bad product, bad service, not happy,

Not even 6 years old and needs replacing – Have had a couple of repairs done in the first 2 years to the board, 1st was under warranty, continuous issues with the gas booster not firing,now not 5 years and 10 months of use and strange noises heard. Plumber came and looked both panels are severely holed, gushing into panels and leaking onto roof, pump is also broken. Rang to find out… Read more

warranty is only 5 years and offered no assistance. This damage has definitely been going on for well over a year due to the size and amount of holes. The warranty is a joke. The build quality is a joke. This is called a Solar PREMIER Loline. There is nothing premier about it except the price tag. AVOID. Whole system needs replacing. Not happy

A very good solar hot water system – Our Rheem solar hot water system (stainless steel tank) was installed 1 year and 8 months ago (South West Victoria) We're happy with our unit and it provides us with all the hot water we need. Get a Licensed Plumber who has quality solar HWS installation experience and your plumber should provide you with VBA compliance certificate and Certificate of Electrical Safety. ,  Show details ·  1

unreliable, doesn't seem built to last – For the second time our Rheem Solar unit has failed - plumbers have told us the solar panels have broken and leaked over the roof and damaging the roofing materials which now need replacing. The original installing plumber says he wants nothing to do with it as they are so unreliable - to paraphrase the plumber. I have been told that even if I get… Read more

it fixed again it is likely to break again - I was advised to get rid of solar part of system and just use gas booster alone. This unit has not met my expectations - Australian Consumer Law says products must be reasonably durable and having the system fail after 3 years is not acceptable. I phoned Rheem and was basically fobbed off. Can't see us ever using Rheem again and would not recommend them or this system to anyone. If anyone from Rheem wants to tell us to call them to give more details I would remind you we have just spent 30 mins on phone with you only to be fobbed off. Buyer Beware.

shocker – The unit appears to be designed to run with booster on all the time ie goes cold o/night goes cold after 2 showers I have previously had solahart dux and heavenly solar all fabulous units this thing was installed by the builder and is sub-standard in my opinion.After a month complaining to the builder Rheem sent out 2 technicians out to assess and couldnt find anything wrong with the unit other than clean the dust off the panels  Show details

Absolutely terrible - highly NOT recommended – Rheem are terrible, i highly regret spending over $4000 on a hiline system as Rheem's customer service is the worst i have experienced. The Rheem solar specialist didn't install the system properly as i had to keep the booster on 24/7 to get hot water. The 'solar specialist' was extremely difficult to get in contact with (as soon as they have your… Read more

money....) and tried telling me it was my fault it wasn't working (ummm how?)

Rheem wanted to charge me to have someone come out and insure that it was in fact installed incorrectly, when this did occur the inspector couldn't believe the mistake and ensured me that it was in fact a terrible install as all the coolant had leaked all over my roof. The original installer did eventually come out and fix his mistake and Rheem promised me compensation based on the poor experience.

However following through on their promise, they completely palmed me off as the case went to the state manager claiming 'Rheem didn't supply or install it so they don't have to compensate for it'. Interesting comment as you can't buy a Rheem product without going through a Rheem solar specilaist and have them install it.

Nothing Rheem promised actually happened, only caused me to wait 3 months for a 'smack in the face' result

Honestly, save yourself the pain and go elsewhere - Solarhart is a much better choice and highly recommended. I wish i listened to my family and friends. Rheem just screw you around, can't trust them.

Got to be kidding! – This unit is 3 years old and this is the second time I have had to call someone out. No hot water pressure. It's a dribble. This problem slowly came on over 6 months and I only realised how bad the pressure was when I had a power outage and had to shower at my mother's place. Out of curiosity, I just checked my paperwork from when I built the… Read more

house and I paid over $4000 for the unit. I didn't question what was chosen by the building company as Rheem always had a good reputation. Not anymore with me.

I am not impressed that something this expensive is having problems. I'm using a Rheem plumber at $143 for the first half hour!! So this had better be under warranty or I will have to reword this currently nice review.

Do not recommend Rheem – We had a solar hot water system installed in May 2015. Six months later (12/15) we had an element replaced under warranty as we were not getting any hot water. It's been another 6 months and we are having the same problem. No hot water. Waiting for someone to call us back, we will not be happy if it's the element again and it's not covered by… Read more

warranty. I think we were given a lemon. Before purchasing Rheem, we had an Everdure which lasted us 18 years with no problems. We have only had Rheem for approx 14 months and 2 call outs to problems with it. We thought Rheem was the best, obviously not!!!!

Avoid a reem solar hot water system – I have previously had a 300 l Solarhart which performed exceptionally well even when there was no sun. This new Rheem only produces hot water in the sun but it looses all the heat overnight so you wake up to cold water. The suggestion from Rheem is leave the electric boost on always....sort of negates the reason for having solar hot water. I… Read more

thought Rheem was a reputable product name.

Electric boost on the Solarhart was only necessary when overcast for a number of days.

Would not recommend Rheem Premier® Loline 270L + Gas Boosted Water Heater – I am disappointed that only approx 5.5 years after installation, it needs to be repaired. I have been quoted a minimum of $1400 to be repaired or to replace with a new solar unit $2577. This unit has costed us about $5000, This seems expensive shelling out a minimum of $1400 for a system that is only 5.5 years old.. not happy

Disgraceful waste of money – We installed our hot water solar system 2003. Since then it has cost us thousands from repairs to water bill soaring as it dumps water every day. Never any hot water on a cloudy day. Always have to remember to press booster button. Not just me, neighbour has had the same problem. So far we have spent $1200 on repairs plus unknown excess water bill. Do not buy.

Constant problems, consistently poor service and warranty – Same issues as Matt V. Replaced tank after 3 years,had to pay $1000 in labour, while contractors left us for a week without hot water. unit is still is not particularly effective. i.e. luke warm water on a summer's day. Warranty only covers one defective unit, so we get nothing from Rheem. Looks like we'll have to cut our losses and try another… Read more

brand, which we will hopefully have a lot less trouble with. Will never trust Rheem as a provider again.

Unbelievably bad warranty and early tank failure – The tank failed on our system after 3.5 years. The tank is covered by the warranty, but the labour, crane and paperwork is not. To perform this warranty repair it will cost us $1400! Already spent $300 on labour and parts for a glycol topup which didn't fix anything! Because the system cannot transfer heat from the panels to the water this… Read more

system cost us over $500 per quarter in electricity to run the electric boost every day. Looks nice I suppose expensive, extremely poor warranty

August 1st 2019 Update: A follow up to my previous review - another catastrophic failure!

After my review 6 years ago I think it's time for an update. After the last review Rheem replaced our faulty system under warranty, but we still had to argue our rights, pay a large-ish sum for them to replace it under warranty (which is definitely unethical and possibly illegal), and they drained the remaining glycol into our rainwater tank while doing it (thanks guys!) but we needed the system so I paid it. 6 years later and the replacement system has now failed the same way as the first did. It has some sort of internal rupture which has caused it to lose all of its glycol so it can no longer transfer heat from the panels to the tank. I'm not going to bother getting this repaired because it will definitely fail again and I won't pursue the warranty (as guaranteed by Australian Consumer Law) because I already know how hard it is to convince them of their obligations. With the amount of money spent on the original system, the warranty replacement and the huge amount of power consumed by running the boost every day (all on peak power of course) there is no way this was financially worthwhile. We would probably have been better off if we purchased a basic electric hot water system and put it on off-peak economy tariff instead. The original system (installed by AGL) lasted 3.5 years and the warranty replacement (installed by Rheem) lasted just under 6 years. That's very poor considering the initial cost of these systems. I would have expected it to at least 15 years considering the life people get out of their old Solahart systems. We will never purchase a Rheem product again or anything from their other brands. The quality just isn't there.

Non-stop problems. Extremely vague product manual. Bad, bad, bad! – This hot water service constantly fails to supply hot water. It can't seem to cope with cold weather (3-4 degrees celcius outside) and fails at least once per week, meaning either myself or my husband has to go outside in the dark and cold, to reset it, so that we can have our night-time hot shower. I would NEVER again purchase a gas boosted… Read more

solar hot water service. We tried the warranty service, but all it does is refer you to a local plumber (at your own expense, to be reimbursed later if it is in fact a product fault).

UNRELIABLE, expensive, bad warranty service

Terrible – Unfortunately I didn't even get to try Rheem's products due to their very poor customer service even to provide me with a quote. I requested a quote a week ago to install solar following the recent Brisbane floods. I was given a time between 12-4. When I asked for a more specific time they said they were unable to give one. Not great but I went… Read more

with it.

After waiting all afternoon I then called at 4pm to ask if they were still coming. First they said they couldn't find me in the system, then when they found it made no apology for the fact that they just didn't make it as they were dealing with another breakdown. I commented that a phone call would have been nice to advice that they wouldn't be able to make it. I was told this wasn't possible.

The customer service was so poor and I would never bother going with Rheem.

Can you imagine how they would treat you if you had a problem with the product? So poor!

Customer service is terrible.

Bad - Do not buy, I wish I bought a Solar Hart – By the time you add the cost to install it and the extra amount of electricity you need in the Winter months, I would have been better off keeping my gravity fed electric. It never missed a beat and the water was always hot. System works on a hot day. No good in Winter. My gravity fed 250L electric on offpeak 1 worked much better in the winter… Read more

months. The Rheem solar system is hooked up to offpeak 1, on colder overcast days the system tank cannot contain the heat like the old gravity fed electric. Now I am required to change to offpeak 2 which is 50% more in cost.

Update on Hiline Premier in April 2019: * The element has already been replaced and the thermostat three times. * We've had contractors out at least 5 times over the years to figure out why the system kept tripping the circuit breaker. If the thermostat was set at 65 degrees with power boost on for some reason this system keeps tripping the circuit breaker. Once it was turned up to 70 degrees this stopped the breaker tripping. * Does not keep the water hot unless it is a really hot day. Family of 4 - if we shower in the afternoon there's no hot water left in the morning. System needs power boost on all the time, we are on off peak 2 and without it we'd be having cold showers in the mornings. * System is again tripping the circuit breaker and I've contacted a contractor to see why it's tripping again.

Do not buy waste of money and time! I wish I bought a SolarHart !!!

Good – good panels and always be better and those fragile solar vacuum tubes the rheem collectors have a toughen safety glass and can handle hail upto 25mm dia. Tube will break and leave shards of sharp glass every where and probably in yout rain water tanks. cheap system with no style its just a rheem