Home and Away almost never work for me
After a couple of years of trying, updating, moving my wi-fi access point, and being on the phone with the nice people at Rheem: I cannot get the app to reliably switch into Away mode. I even installed a new wi-fi module on the water heater and . . . nope.
It’s ironic, In believe the one most important function this product [water heater + wi-fi module] should have is the ability to control a remote site with respect to Home and Away, and it just doesn’t work.
I recommend the Rheem people take a hard look at this and work to make the combination of the hardware and software *rock*solid*, and today — December 2022 — it is not, at least not for me.
It’s ironic, In believe the one most important function this product [water heater + wi-fi module] should have is the ability to control a remote site with respect to Home and Away, and it just doesn’t work.
I recommend the Rheem people take a hard look at this and work to make the combination of the hardware and software *rock*solid*, and today — December 2022 — it is not, at least not for me.
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Non-functional
What’s the point in spending so darn much on this heater and downloading the app if all the fancy communication the app is supposed to do doesn’t work? We basically have to control our heater at the source on the heater display. The app is entirely useless. Went away for a week and put the heater in “I’m away” mode thinking we were saving on energy. Logged in on our way home only to find it had defaulted back to heating water whenever it wanted to, not even on the schedule we’d programmed. I’m looking at the schedule right now: it says water should be 120 degrees and on energy saver mode. But the main screen says it’s heating to 140 degrees in high demand mode! What a waste of money and energy. We’re so so so disappointed in Rheem.
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Embarrassingly Unreliable
After 6 months of owning a Rheem heat pump water heater, I have had adequate time to assess the EcoNet app that is used to control the water heater schedule and mode from my phone. Not only has the app been unreliable from the start, but its performance issues have worsened in recent months (as of Sept or Oct 2022).
The app disconnects from my home network frequently. Previously is would disconnect every two weeks or so, and I would have to reconnect the heater— a frequent annoyance, but I tolerated it, thinking that version upgrades would improve the situation. Now, however, the app disconnects every single day, rendering the schedule feature completely useless.
There are no known issues with my home wireless mesh network, and all other applications have been able to connect and operate to it without any problems. My conclusion is that this very buggy app has only become more reliable over time. The water heater itself is excellent and has saved a lot of energy, but unless Rheem gets its act together and makes a significant app improvement from the ground up, they will lose any competitive advantage they currently have as the app significantly limits the functionality of the heater.
The app disconnects from my home network frequently. Previously is would disconnect every two weeks or so, and I would have to reconnect the heater— a frequent annoyance, but I tolerated it, thinking that version upgrades would improve the situation. Now, however, the app disconnects every single day, rendering the schedule feature completely useless.
There are no known issues with my home wireless mesh network, and all other applications have been able to connect and operate to it without any problems. My conclusion is that this very buggy app has only become more reliable over time. The water heater itself is excellent and has saved a lot of energy, but unless Rheem gets its act together and makes a significant app improvement from the ground up, they will lose any competitive advantage they currently have as the app significantly limits the functionality of the heater.
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Nice water heater. Setup instructions need work.
After trying over a dozen times to connect the hybrid heater to the WiFi/EcoNet app over several days I finally decided to call the help line listed in the app. Up until I called, the phone connected to the heater WiFi signal but went no further. It said “Module Connection Error. Please ensure your module is ready to connect.” All of my other connected devices went through a similar setup process and worked perfectly so I knew it wasn’t my router. The person who answered the phone was very nice and one of the first things he asked was whether or not I was using a VPN. I was. He told me to disconnect it and try the setup again. It worked perfectly. If you are using Norton VPN you can’t just toggle the “off” button otherwise it turns itself back on. You have to turn off the “connect on demand” button. This will prevent it turning back on during the setup process. Once the setup is complete you can turn your VPN back on. I’ll give 4 stars because the app is pretty good, but I’ll deduct 1 star because the setup instructions should mention the problem with VPN’s. Instead I had to call to get that information.
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Need the ability to customize
You’re only allowed 4 time periods to customize your thermostat.
Simply adding the ability to add another time period would make this app so much better. Do some customer interviews and understand how we want to use it not how you think we should use it.
Additionally why do I need to see the sign onscreen every time I open the app. I get it, you need a sec for the app to connect to the device. It’s super annoying though. (Again, customer interviews) Why not instead allow someone to gain access to a control panel fist and then make the connection?
Slider controls are not great for ux. The hit state you allow is so tiny. Why not use the heat display and just swipe up or down. You for sure don’t need a slide that’s so massive either. Do people really need the ability to jump 10-15 degrees in most cases? Ot is it 1-4.
Again, customer research.
A few pointers that will lead to more success. As it is right now I would not recommend the wifi thermostat because the app that exists today is lack luster and missing features. What’s good with a smart WiFi thermostat if you can’t actually make it do what you want it to. So this is an app review as much as it is a WiFi thermostat review. They are connected.
Simply adding the ability to add another time period would make this app so much better. Do some customer interviews and understand how we want to use it not how you think we should use it.
Additionally why do I need to see the sign onscreen every time I open the app. I get it, you need a sec for the app to connect to the device. It’s super annoying though. (Again, customer interviews) Why not instead allow someone to gain access to a control panel fist and then make the connection?
Slider controls are not great for ux. The hit state you allow is so tiny. Why not use the heat display and just swipe up or down. You for sure don’t need a slide that’s so massive either. Do people really need the ability to jump 10-15 degrees in most cases? Ot is it 1-4.
Again, customer research.
A few pointers that will lead to more success. As it is right now I would not recommend the wifi thermostat because the app that exists today is lack luster and missing features. What’s good with a smart WiFi thermostat if you can’t actually make it do what you want it to. So this is an app review as much as it is a WiFi thermostat review. They are connected.
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