EemaxTankBuddy Water Heater Booster Blue

The media could not be loaded.  I really wanted this to work out. With a new second child, we've had twice as many baths and (seemingly) twice as many visitors and our water heater was getting pushed to the limit. We have a gas water heater with existing wiring for electric so this seemed like a great way to get both the gas heat AND electric auxiliary heating power when needed.Pros:-It works. The picture is when running the laundry sink at 1.5 GPM and, as you can see, it raises the temperature from lukewarm to blazing hot. At higher flows (like a 5 GPM tub) it's less effective but you can deal with that by turning down the flow at the spigot. Combined with the fast recovery power of a gas water heater that can make lukewarm water forever, this device gives me endless showers and other low-flow usage.-Software is simple and effective. It's about as easy as you could possibly expect with a surprising amount of control and information provided.Cons:-The noise. It's silent as can be at lower flows but groans VERY loudly at higher flows (see the video below). It's located near my kids' rooms and would absolutely wake them up if I ran the tub or clothes washer while they're sleeping. The result is that my wife and I can't run our tub after they go to sleep which a deal-breaker. It takes a lot of willpower to send this back after investing a bunch of time and effort installing it (along with a lot of trips to the hardware store) and seeing how well it works.-Installation is not as easy as it could be. The 3/4 pipe adapter for the bottom is great but why not a 3/4 pipe adapter for the top? The sharkbite top forces you to go get some pex or copper (and the tools to do so) when you could just use the 3/4 flexi hose that you probably already have. You'll want to find a plumber (or at least go to a real plumbing store that will use their own tools to help you) because the folks at the Big Box store won't be able to put together the part you'll need without selling you a tool.-1/2 inch connections constrain flow. I notice it on the tub and you'll definitely notice if you have multiple devices (like showers) going at once. As others have noted, it's just silly that this isn't a 3/4 inch device.It's really a shame about the noise. The flow constraint and the pain to install it would have been forgotten after getting to enjoy endless hot water. With a 3/4 inch throughput and connection and no noise, this is a 5-star product.Update: 2+ years in and it's working fine. The noise problem has magically (and gradually) fixed itself over time. Eemax did send me a new impeller kit to try but I never got around to installing it. This review has been bumped up from 2 to 3 stars to reflect their good responsiveness and service. It's worth mentioning that I've now installed a mixing valve downstream of the TankBuddy to take that blazing hot water and regulate it to a consistent 120 degrees. Being able to jack up both the tank and TankBuddy temperatures has really made the hot water last indefinitely.

It's such a relief to have enough hot water again, but my husband had a hell of a time installing this thing. Apparently this is designed for water heaters that have just a straight copper pipe running from the top of the water heater into the ceiling. We have a flex pipe, which I guess was a different diameter, and required multiple adapters and several trips to the hardware store before he had it installed without leaks. We spent two days without hot water while he figured it out. E-mails and phone calls to the manufacturer's customer service were never responded to (I'm writing this 3 months later, so they've had time). Apparently the company does make a tank buddy designed for flex pipe, but it's hard to find and costs about a hundred dollars more. Unless you are an experienced home improvement handyperson, I would suggest hiring a plumber to install this, if you can afford to. If you're new to the homeowner game, you can figure this out but it may take a lot of work.Once it's installed, you will feel your water run tepid for a minute or two before the tank buddy kicks in and the water becomes hot again. We set the temperature gauge at its maximum setting so it kicks in pretty early and the water never gets really cool. Our water heater is in our garage, so the noise mentioned by others doesn't really bother us, but I guess if your water heater was in, say, a bedroom closet, I could see how the noise could be bothersome.

If you don't have a perfect scenario, where you have over 14" free space above your tank and a rigid copper pipe going to your tank, installation becomes nontrivial. The two provided adapters only work in this perfect scenario. Why they didn't make the unit with standard 3/4" connectors is beyond me. Then it would have been a simple install for nearly every scenario. I spent 3 trips to the hardware store before coming up with the proper set of adapters/connectors/thread patterns to hook it up. When it was finally installed, it clicked, flashed, and did nothing. After a lengthy phone call the following Monday (they aren't available on the weekend when you are most likely to be doing the installation), I was told I had a faulty circuit board and a new one would be shipped to me. During my phone conversation with their tech support, I was initially told that I had connected the power cable up backwards. It wasn't until I read the supplied instructions over the phone to the technician that he finally admitted he was wrong. This was rather unsettling (we are dealing with 240 volts after all!), but in the end I did receive a replacement circuit board which I installed and it now appears to work properly. I recently installed a 90 gallon jacuzzi soaker tub and my 50 gallon water heater couldn't fill it. Now, with this booster, I can fill the tub to the desired temperature without resorting to using the tea kettle.

If I could give this negative 100 stars, I would. We have a 50 gallon gas water heater and 6 kids. So bath time gets crazy. Normally we can have 2 kids showering, fill a bathtub and bathe 4 children before the water gets cold. My wife has rheumatoid arthritis and if she showers immediately after all this she ends up with a cold shower which is really painful on her joints. So I thought the perfect birthday present was this tank buddy that CLAIMS to increase your hot water capacity by 25-50%. Not only did this do the opposite but in order to install the thing I had to pay an additional $500 for a plumber and electrician.We just did our normal routine and we had EVEN LESS hot water. The older kids ran out of hot water at the end of their shower and while filling up the bath it ran out of hot water there as well.I don’t know if I have the settings set incorrectly or what. The water intake temp is about 118F. I set the activate temperature to 120 and told it to heat the water up to 120. When I was told that we ran out of hot water, I checked the intake and outflow and intake was 87F and outflow was 95F.I am so beyond angry at this purchase.