DHX 15-2 Plus

For a long time I have been an evangelist of sorts for what I call POUET - Point Of Use Electric Tankless. I have done it in three house. Basically, it means having an electric tankless at virtually every water source. That's between 4-6 units per house. I'm a believer in POUET's ability to save water and power. PIus I love-love not waiting for hot water. I published an article once on Green Building Advisor. Phew! Be ready for a firestorm anytime you speak out on anthing different. I have bought...I dunno... maybe 2 dozen different units in my quest. This one is by far and away the best. It works great - but most properly sized units do that. Besides the great graphical interface, what is amazing is that this unit actually controls (slows) water flow to achieve set temperature. Amazing! Finally! I have a very unusual floating house with long exposed water line. It's winter right now and the incoming water can be near freezing. I set the temp to 102 for a shower, then watch the screen as the unit slows the flow down and down and down, from a start of 3.5 GPM down to .9 GPM (last night). This is something I used to have to do manually and tediously. Truly amazing! There is one thing that I wish it did better: As I said, I have a long, exposed water line. In the summertime, the incoming water can be quite hot. This unit has a unique feature in that it has the ability to tell you that the incoming water is hotter than the set temperure. In other words, it has a inlet temp sensor, but it only comes on in "over temp" conditions. Why not tell the inlet temp all the time? Inlet temp is a useful piece of info for tankless. I hope that made sense, but it may be TMI.

I had my contractor install the unit. It required that 220 be run to the kitchen, where this unit is installed. I still have my propane water heater which feeds into this tankless unit. The purpose of this is to keep the unit efficient since it is electric and on grid after sunset when the solar panels aren't producing power. The existing hot water line (from the propane water heater) is a very long run and can take up to 7 minutes for hot water to arrive in the kitchen. This unit allows for this type of installation and by the time the propane heated hot water arrives to the kitchen this unit has been providing plenty of hot water which is preventing a lot of water waste, the unit automatically adjusts itself to accommodate the incoming hot water. We now have hot water within seconds vs. minutes. I have designed homes with several different brands of tankless water heaters but the clients wouldn't pay the amount extra that this brand costs. I decided to try in on my own project and glad to say this unit has been maintenance free and has had no issues, worth the extra money. This unit feeds my kitchen sink and dishwasher.

If you have the electrical capacity to have one of these its a must have. Instant hot water. I'm an electrician so I thought the hook up was fairly easy, as did my plumber. This is supplying water to a 1bdrm apartment with 2 sinks and one shower. All 3 can be running and there is no lack of hot water. I have a fairly light electrical load as all lighting is led, hvac is a mitsubishi mini split. The lights don't blink when this is in use nor does the ac bog down. While in use this actually draws 40 amps, with instantaneous jumps to 50 amps and immediately back down to 40amps. It is feed on #6 copper and is directly next to my panel so there is no voltage drop. Only had installed for 2 weeks but I'm highly impressed and hopefully it lasts a long time.

I installed it in our one bedroom bungalow that has one shower, one bathroom sink, one kitchen sink and a washing machine. It provides scalding hot water to all 4 receptacles. Needed to lower the temperatures as it was extremely hot. The furthest draw from the unit was 12 feet away with pipes that went from the unit across the exterior roof and down into the kitchen. Provided excellent on demand hot water. I purchased a backup unit for future use. I also hired a licensed electrician to accommodate the electrical requirements. I Highly recommend this unit.

I purchased this item on my plumber's recommendation and it works as it should. It is so efficient that I save $10 to $15 per month on my electric bill and never run out of hot water.

You will see that I gave this 4 stars, rather than FIVE. This is for three reasons, ONLY. 1) No Mounting template -- You must create your own mounting template or remove the cover and disconnect the wire from the cover to the unit to mount. It's ridiculous that a mounting template is not provided as other tankless water heaters do. 2) The display and controls are located inside the cover instead located on the main unit with holes through the cover to access. Having electronics in the cover means the cover is tethered via wire and plug to the main unit. This makes it virtually impossible to operate the unit with the cover removed for maintenance or testing. This flaw needs to be fixed on future models. Other tankless hot water heaters are not built with this flawed tethered design. 3) No strain relief clamp for power cable. You must purchase your own 3/4" strain relief clamp to secure the power cable. It would not have killed Stiebel to include this needed clamp. The previous described flaws notwithstanding, this is a truly awesome tankless hot water heater and in my opinion the best available for a single circuit 240v/60 amp unit. This water heater gives you very hot water using a single 60 amp 240v circuit (with 2-60 amp breakers). It delivers over 14000 watts of heating power. Similar water heaters deliver 8-11kw making the water heating potential WEAK. Another feature that as far as I know it exclusive to this brand and the DHX PLUS model is an electronic valve that automatically reduces water flow to maintain the set temperature. Other water heaters run cold when the flow rates exceeds the capacity of the water heater to heat all the water flowing through it. This water heater ALWAYS maintains the set temperature even if it must reduce flow to keep the water temperature at the set temperature. Until you have it in your home and operational you will not appreciate what a magical feature this can be!!! It also displays on the front panes the GPM or LPM flow rate. If demand exceeds capacity you can watch in real time as it dials back the flow to maintain temperature. It also has a bar graph on the display that tells you, in10% increments, the demand vs. capacity that is occuring Right NOW. As you turn on/off faucets and draw hot water, you can see the graph tick up and down to see how close to capacity the hot water heater is operating. The display is LCD (with a backlight) and NOT LED. This is important because you can see the set temperature without drawing any hot water. When the unit is idle and not heating water you can see the temperature so you can make adjustments without water running. OTHER tankless water heaters go dark when no hot water is being drawn. So for other hot water heaters you must turn on hot water to make temperature adjustments. Not so with the Stiebel...you can change water temperature and settings with no hot water running. In almost all respects, I LOVE this product. In my opinion, you cannot go wrong purchasing this unit. I rate it a MUST BUY !!!

My "handyman ain't got a clue what he's doing" water heater replacement project turned out pretty darn sweet kids! I'm very proud of myself for taking this project on as it had e-v-e-r-y-thing that intimidates me. Plumbing & electrical work are something I shy away from & put off as long as I can. I must admit that I never turned the main power off but felt safe while I did what I did inside the breaker box. Not proud but it's such a pain to have to reset everything once power is restored so I chanced it. I'd do it again as all connections were made outside the box. Once the connections were made I just snapped the flipped-to-off 60 amp circuit breaker back into place. Those heavy, black & white 6/2 wires on the right sure were a challenge to feed & loop the wire inside the box & then bend them into place like that though. Playing w/the temperature setting but right now it's set to 120* but I'm able to take it up to 140* if I'd like. Time will tell as to where we keep it set at. I thought it out, designed it on paper & then decided what & how much stuff we'd need to complete it. The last picture is of what I had left after completing the job. I'd call that an excellent idea of what was needed. No waste, that's how I roll. Those 3" long pieces of 6/2 wire is where I cut it a little long to get inside the water heater unit to wire it in. Those SharkBite fittings, pipe & connectors are a bit expensive but they're the whoop & make your plumbing a cinch. I mean look at how clean & professional looking that install is!!! I'm n-o-t a plumber & this was my 1st attempt at a project like this. Really looking forward to seeing what the savings will be as compared to a traditional tanked water heater that runs all the time. This is an on-demand type system & only heats the water when there's demand for hot water. It should be another 20-plus years before it needs any attention. Money back in our pocket is the way I look at it... #KillinThatKilowattUsage

I have two of these and both work as advertised . One unit quit and I did not hesitate to replace it with another unit. Very happy with their performance over the years .