Eemax EX280T2T Series Three, Whole House Electric Tankless Water Heater

***See Update Below***The unit works well. Was easily installed. Water heat is fine for our small-demand house (2bed/2bath/1500SF). The only thing that takes some getting used to is the minimum flow requirement. There's no way to get any hot water without turning a given fauct on at over 50% capacity. And single-knob showers can get a little tricky to balance.NOTEZ BIEN:Before installing, verify that your grid tie-in is sufficient. My panel is 200A, but the utility company tied in with a wire only capable of carrying 100A. This was fine for my house until this unit was installed. It requires 3@40A breakers, which was no problem...plenty of room on the board. But now, whenever the hot water flows, the lights throughout the house start a pulsing. I've called my retail provider, my utilities service provider, and the service director several times over the last 2 weeks, and can't get anyone to get out here and run thicker copper. It's not too annoying, but I'm concerned that the wire's going to fry if they don't get their act together and figure out whose job it is to fix this.****Update****Even with the electrical issues taken care of, the unit I bought, which worked well for several months, started acting up on me. Intermittent hot/lukewarm was a major issue. No flow problems: was running a shower alone. After some time, I opened the box and noticed that the unit had a leak in one of the 3 "coils" (tubes, really). I called the manufacturer, they verified the warranty info, and sent me a new unit. The new unit worked for about 6 months before it also stopped providing hot water. Not sure how I ended up with 2 dogs, but that was enough. No leaking the second time around, but I gave up and went with a regular tank, as the house was by then a rental.I'd drop it to one star if it wasn't for the great customer service I received.

After the item arrived we paid a plumber to install. The item's relay was bad, and it took 2 trips from a plumber and a visit from an electrician to fix it. It cost over $900 for install due to the multiple visits and issues. We needed it installed right away, so could not go through a return process, but I would not buy this product again.

LAST ONE OF THESE I WILL PROBABLY BUY. THIS IS MY THIRD ONE. NONE OF THEM LASTED MORE THAN TWO YEARS WITHOUT HAVING TO BE REPAIRED. CUSTOMER SERVICE AT EEMAX LESS THAN STELLAR. ONLY REASON I BOUGHT ANOTHER ONE IS THAT IT FITS THE SPACE IT WAS BUILT INTO. WHEN IT WORKS, IT DOES A GOOD JOB.

I Ordered an EX280T2T and got SP3512. How anyone could confuse the 2 is beyond me? The part that sucks is I am without hot water and have to wait for you to make this right. Thanks to "Global Warming" it's only 34 degrees right now...

My review is one of over 10 years of living with this water heater.They are tricky, but once you understand and work thru the technology things can improve. I can say I stuck it out and now am happy. I haven't always been pleased with this thoughI purchased so long ago it just ran out of it's 10 year warranty. I did not purchase it thru Amazon.Unit one failedunit 2 (redesigned) failedunit 3 (redesigned again)failed after replacing partsunit 4(yup, another redesign) leaked then failedso far, this unit ( updated plastic) replaced over 3 years ago has performed flawlessly. Our main shower runs 2 unrestricted shower heads, we never , I repeat never run out of hot water. Now, here are the cons.Before going on I recommend you read the installation instructions to see if you think you are capable.The main thing to remember is "No air allowed thru this heater!!!"You should be able to connect and or replace this thing yourself. It really is not rocket science. if you have ever changed a typical water heater it is only slightly more involved. Once you switch off the main breaker to the unit, it is a pretty simple and straightforward install. even if you do not have the tools, the required ones can be purchased for well under 30.00 including the cpvc glue you will need.This unit requires a main 220v 120 AMP service line run to a sub panel with 3-220v 40AMP circuit breakers providing 3 protected 220v legs.Each leg has it's own connection points, color coded, and the provided instructions are very clear. This must have 2 valves, one on inlet and one on the outlet of the unit.THE OUTLET VALVE MUST BE SLIGHTLY RESTRICTED!! ( turned closed-just enough to begin to slow the water flow.) This helps to prevent any back flow which might include an air pocket."No air allowed through heater!"Do not turn on the power to the unit until you have let the glue dry for few hours minimum, and allowed water to flow through every hot water outlet for at least 2 minutes. You need to be absolutely sure there is no air at all in the heater. The heating elements inside this unit require quite a bit of power to heat water at these flow rates. One air bubble and they will burn up instantly, before you can react.Once you are sure there is no air in the water lines, switch the breaker on. ( leave cover off looking for leaks-but do not touch anything of course)Turn on hot water and watch the unit work. pay attention to how it looks, sounds etc. Have someone turn the hot water on and off while you watch what happens. Notice the time delay between water on and heater on.Now, I hate to say it but turn the breaker back off so you can put the cover on without doing a dance. You can save the rave for the shower.Speaking of shower, you probably need one so turn on the breaker and enjoy. If they are still shipping this particular heater, you will like it. Normal routines may change. Shaving for instance. you want hot water, with this unit you must keep water flowing as there is a 5-6 second delay between water flow and heating. Therefore, if you turn the hot water off and on, there will be a short cold water burst coming, followed by hot water. Best to just leave it flow and get the job done. Also, the time delay does seem to effect our new and improved green water saving tree hugging washing machine. it meters ( by pulsing flow) the hot water to the point the water heater barely switches on when attempting a hot water wash. For this reason I would say the ideal use for this would be as a backup to a smaller 20 gallon heater. Used as a backup this would only switch on when it's inlet temp dropped below 126 degrees. Recently I removed the cover to reset the 3rd element breaker for the first time. I hope this isn't a bad sign, might need to be cleaned. I am not sure. But knock on wood, this unit with the newer plastic is still leak free and working good.3 stars only because it has let us down leaving us cold . 3 stars yay! because it now delivers as promised. I feel this is a fair review, knowing a product like this has it's install and development hurdles. Update 1-29-2017 unit #7 just installed under warranty again. This time, on unit #6, a pressure relief valve was venting, and a small piece of sediment was holding it open. However, there was no way to access this for cleaning so EEMAX provided a whole new unit . Other than that unit #6 performed flawlessly for over 4 years. The customer service is beyond stellar. They do their best to keep us in hot water, which is appreciated.

I have had one of these for about 6 years, and I have to finally admit defeat. The control boards and heater cores burn out with startling regularity. I've replaced them so many times I can practically do it in my sleep. They have improved somewhat since I first got the thing (there have been design changes for each part over time), but reliability is still awful. And once you are out of your warranty period (2 years, I think) then all of those parts get expensive.Even when it is working, performance is disappointing. First, get used to all the lights in your house flickering madly whenever it is running. It turns out that flashing three 240V circuits on and off really quickly affects the rest of your house, too (and BTW, installing those circuits can be really expensive). Second, getting the right temperature can be very finicky. We eventually settled on a system in which we used a higher volume of not-as-hot water or you ran the risk of falling below the minimum gallons per minute flow to trip the heater.So the question is, do you secretly hate your family and you just don't know how to tell them? If so, the Eemax water heater is a great way to clue them in. It's even better if you hate yourself a little bit. But if you just want reliable, reasonably-priced hot water I would look somewhere else.