With so many Heat Pumps on the market: Which do you choose? – We *had* an Edwards rooftop solar unit that eventually stopped working (18+ yo) and the process started of either replacing it or going Heat Pump. The bloke I called to look at the rooftop solar indicated that a Heat Pump was a better way to go as they're on the ground and can be super efficient. I would have considered replacing the Edwards with Edwards but they had been bought out and I wasn't interested in handing over money to the company that bought them.

Heat Pumps.... LOTS of them... LOTS of reviews.... LOTS of opinions... Which do you choose? I'll make the statement here and now that I received NO benefit for doing this review.

For us, I read all levels of reviews with focus on the bad ones as many people will write a bad review before they write a good one. This points out where the failings may be and if they are corrected and addressed by the companies involved.

In the end, it came down to two to choose from.... now to source them and get prepared for the disgusting freight costs of moving things around this country since everything seems to be based in Melbourne nowadays.

A chat with the bloke who looked at the rooftop unit and he said he keeps some in stock ready to go and I was stunned that out of the two I had selected to enquire about was one that he stocked ready to go.

So, down to the things that matter: The good: * It's a split system and not an all-in-one with the power unit being crammed on top of the HWS. Some may like the all-in-one thing but I see it as a negative in being more difficult to service and needing specialised parts should anything go wrong in future. * It is SUPER QUIET. You have to walk over to the unit to see if the fan is on because it is not apparent if you happen to be even 3 metres away. * It is easy to select an operation plan for the unit through the panel should you decide to have it able to run all the time; some of the time; or daytime hours to suit drawing power from solar panels. * Hot water comes through in less than a quarter of the time over having the unit on the roof. A major consideration when on tank water. * The unit itself has a sticker on it indicating when to replace the anode in order to extend life. A great idea that is far better than having it break down a year after the anode goes only to be told that it should have been replaced a year earlier. * First run of the unit in turning on, water was at a usable temperature within an hour - and it just kept getting better after that. * This last bit is in relation to the installer: The plumbing work he did is like a work of art. No garbage or rough bends with everything covered with insulation material. He left the site spotless and ensured that all legislative requirements were adhered to.

The Bad: * Seriously, the unit and the installation cannot be faulted from my perspective - and I have spend a LOT of times over the years having to fix the mistakes of lazy tradies for many people. * If there is anything that I have to look for to criticise: It would be the website of Reclaim Energy. There is a lot of information missing from it that could answer questions for people. Some will just look to another supplier that does provide the information required. Thankfully I made the effort to ask and the information was returned within 24 hours from a very friendly support person.

Considerations: * More expensive than other units. I could have bought any number of similar sized units for $1,000 - $1,500 - even $2,000 less without any problem at all (freight to Queensland would have taken most of that though). I chose this unit because of the stellar reviews. * Government rebates are going down all the time and it isn't as much rebate for a Heat Pump as a rooftop solar. I say that the power saving for not needing to use the booster on cloudy days will balance it out. * Reclaim do tanks that are stainless steel or glass-lined tanks. Glass-lined is the cheaper option and examination of the longer warranty for stainless really doesn't give that much benefit.

I hope the info helps someone else in the future :)