Our Rating
Summary:
4
Are you looking for a point of use hot water solution for your home? Do you need something that will be highly affordable so you can keep your budget intact? The Rheem RTE 9 electric tankless water heater has the goods to deliver a quality hot water experience to 1-2 faucets in your home or place of installation. With LED lighting in place to let you know when there is an active element and a standby mode that will save on power, you can pick up this water heater for less than $200 most of the time on Amazon.
This Is a Small Home Solution – With a Twist
The Rheem RTE 9 uses a standard ½ water connection, but adapters can be used if your plumbing happens to be different. There are temperature controls that are available on the unit and the heat exchanger is made with brass and copper, so you’ll get the performance from this hot water heater that you want. The hot water stream is continuous and works with up to 5 gallons per minute.
In practical terms, homeowners are going to find that for most plumbing installations, there will be about a 30 degree temperature rise in the water at the source when the Rheem RTE 9 is installed. That’s at 3 gallons per minute. If your source water is 50 degrees in winter, therefore, the maximum temperature to receive will be 80 degrees at the tap, which may not be suitable to meet some point of use needs.
This is where the price of this tankless water heater comes into play. You can hook them up to work in conjunction with each other to boost the performance at the point of use to achieve the level of hot water that you need. Combined with the continuous flow, two of these working together can boost 50F water to 130F pretty easily.
What Are the Best Uses For the Rheem RTE 9?
If you have a small home, a cabin, or a single faucet or two that need to have hot water, then this tankless water heater is going to save you money. What we see being the best use for this equipment, however, is for mobile solutions. You can hook up the Rheem RTE 9 into your RV pretty easily and have the hot water that you need. It would also work perfectly on a boat where hot water may be needed.
You will need a 50 amp service in your boat or RV to use this tankless water heater.
For the home, you’ll need a #8 wire, which is similar to an electrical stove. Installing it takes a couple of hours if you’re a DIY’er, but if there isn’t a tankless heater already on site, a professional installation may be necessary.
Those with higher water pressures may find themselves disappointed with the results of this water heater. It works very well at the 1.5 GPM range. You’ll also need a 220V connection, which may mean installing a new outlet by the point of use where the water heater is needed.
The Rheem RTE 9 tankless water heater is more of an as-needed type of product, so it won’t be for everyone. If you have mobile or limited needs for hot water, however, this could be one of the best purchases that you make this year.
