*This post is sponsored by Rheem. Thank you for sponsoring the fabulous brands that make Reality Daydream possible!*
Hi friends! Nick here!
It’s been bringing us so much joy to honor this historic home by restoring and keeping as many original features as we can, while still being true to our style. AND, it’s been equally fun sneaking in ‘smart’ elements to our home that are so convenient and exciting!
So when Rheem reached out to us about partnering with them on their Gladiator water heater and it’s corresponding smart features, we were so excited! Especially since our existing water heater was on it’s last leg.
We really didn’t like that our existing unit had a conventional draft exhaust utilizing an old galvanized gutter and we really didn’t want to go to a new gas unit with a power vent, requiring us to poke additional holes though our exterior wall.
Which landed us on converting our Water Heater system over to electric, with Rheem’s Gladiator Smart Water Heater! This seemed like a no-brainer, since the electrical unit allows us to have the additional smart features.
With the basement being unfinished, it was short order getting things converted over and plumbed up.
One of the nice safety features about this water heater is that the base of the water heater is a sensor, sensing water. In the case that it water is detected, it will shut a valve closing the supply line to the water heater.
The app’s interface “EcoNet” is intuitive and easy to understand. The landing page allows you to make adjustments to the temperature on the fly, even when you are away from home. This is handy! It allowed us to set our water heater to vacation mode while we were gone for the holiday weekend.
The battery-looking icon, lets us know how much hot water is remaining. I can think of countless times that I have gone to take a shower, only to find that there is about 3 minutes of hot water remaining. Oh how nice it would have been to have some advance notice that i was about to enter the chambers of frozen doom, leaving me gasping for air and lunging for the warmth of a nearby towel. No more cold showers!
This function allows you to create a schedule for the water heater… very similar to a thermostat in your house! Which makes me wonder, why this is just now a thing?!
I am really excited to see how much money we can save by playing with the water heater temperature and schedule.
The Usage Report function allows you to view energy consumption. My plan is to review this, and modify the schedule, as necessary. Trying to tweek the performance to maintain usability and utmost efficiency.
This last screen shows us any alerts and relays the status of the heating elements.
We’re excited about how upgrading to Rheem’s Gladiator water heater will make our lives more convenient! And we’re pumped about more smart features to come, here at Daydream Manor! Stay tuned, and let us know if you decide to purchase a Gladiator of your own!
Nick
Michael Harrison says
I’ve been trying to find out what the different color bars mean on the hot water availability screen. I think the green bars indicate the best availability and I would assume the red bar means very low. What does a blue bar indicate?
Jeff Grantham says
Just installed one too, replacing a 15+ year old electric unit. Playing with Econet app and temperature settings and it’s like programming a thermostat. Looking forward to the energy savings and wife already loves the hot water delivery and replenishment. Only concern is the stated annual energy usage is greater than our old unit. Hopefully Enrrgy Star certificate can be updated soon for download.
JG, Petoskey Michigan
Erin says
Wow If I didn’t live in a new home I would be running out to get it just based on your post lol. Very informative and I felt like I did not need to go anywhere else to learn more! I saved this post to my home improvements file for the future thanks!!’