Well, it definitely says what it does (or what they claim it does, at least). The real question is: Will it do what they say? I have my doubts about the potential for meaningful savings with any modern hot water heaters.
Also, the non-pre-order price tag of $199 seems a bit steep for what appears to be something that could be put together from commodity parts bought for dirt cheap off eBay. Yeah, I know…all the other development costs involved…but it still seems high compared with other similar technology products.
And…a new WiFi based gadget that won’t be shipping until Q3-Q4 2016, and it’s limited to operating in the already crowded 2.4 GHz band, with no support for 5 GHz?
STEAM will probably also violate The existing water heater warranty, and may invalidate your homeowners insurance, unless they’re going to get a lot of safety certifications that they haven’t mentioned on their website. There’s also no indication that steam will ever be compatible with SmartThings. They have no API as yet.
I know it’s nice to think about a potential retrofit solution, and that’s often the major selling point for some of these preorder devices, but if you are interested in wi-Fi control of the water heater I would look instead at some of the existing offerings which do have full safety certifications and are out there now in the marketplace. The Wi-Fi modules themselves are generally right around $49, a quarter of the price of steam. The downside, of course, is that they typically only work with specific models, but that’s usually the safest way anyway. To be honest Wi-Fi control of the water heater sounds pretty scary to me if it’s not an integrated solution with the original manufacturer.
Rheem offers WiFi modules for their Econet line, btw.
Well I’m not the techie in the house but my husband seems to think it will offer genuine savings. We turn our water on and just leave it on. To be able to schedule and control our water heating on the phone without buying a new tank is reason enough for us to buy. Leak detection pretty neat too. As regards 2.4GHz, I have no clue what that means but I better check which band we are on, thanks
Yes we saw that but we don’t want to buy a new Rheem water heater, not the cheapest and the one in the house works fine. They assured us when we inquired that it is undergoing full safety certification and be fully certified before delivery.
The only zwave bulb I know rated indoor/outdoor know is the new Aeon one. It looks like A19, but it’s actually A21, quite a bit bigger. Not a flood light, though.
I’d be genuinely curious to see the figures that assessment is based on, if it’s not too much trouble. I did a little back-of-the-envelope math using my own power use as an example, and found that assuming their marketing claim that “Up to 20% of your energy bill is spent heating water” is true, and I had an electric water heater (I have a gas one, which is very cheap to run compared with electric)…even if the device magically made heating water completely free I’d still be looking at anywhere from 2-4 months (depending whether I paid the pre-order or full price) before that saved me enough money to recoup my initial investment in the device (7-14 months in the case of my gas heater). When you consider that, in reality, it’s not going to cut your water heating costs by anywhere near 100% it becomes obvious that you’re probably looking at one or more years before you break even on the initial cost of the device. And that’s assuming the cloud-based service remains running that long, and without significant interruption.
By that I assume you mean that you just don’t manipulate your hot water heater’s settings in any way…correct?
Also, note this from their FAQ:
What happens if my Wi-Fi network is down?
“When the Wi-Fi network is down, the Steam system will work in a standalone mode in which it will emulate the behaviour or a regular water heater tank.”
In other words, this is a cloud-based solution (let the recent/current meltdown with ST be a warning regarding that), and if you lose internet access you lose the functionality you’re paying for.
Older Wi-Fi standards (there are several versions) all operate exclusively in the 2.4 GHz band of the radio frequency spectrum, along with Bluetooth devices, many wireless telephones, Zigbee devices…even microwave ovens emit radio noise in that band. The result is that the frequency range has become increasingly “crowded”, resulting in performance and/or reliability issues due to interference between the devices using those frequencies. To address that some newer Wi-Fi standards allow (or mandate) operation in the 5 GHz band, which is used far less than the 2.4 GHz one. Most new Wi-Fi devices should provide support for those standards. STEAM doesn’t…which I’m betting is due to their reliance on a Wi-Fi component that was chosen for lower cost or ease of development (or both) rather than providing the customer with flexibility in that area.
Thanks for the detailed reply! Our own research online did show anywhere between 15-20% of your bill goes on water heating. We are electric anyway. The website says it pays for itself in around a year at the $199 retail price and be honest that is completely fine by us. We see it as a long term investment and those savings sound good enough. We’ll see how it goes when set up, time will tell
If there’s one thing my wife won’t let me add anything electronic to, it’s the water heater. Ours is natural gas, which means we still have hot water when we have a power outage (which we do about twice a year due to trees taking down power lines in the snow). Anything that might risk that is a no-go.
Rheem Tankless on demand plugged into UPS or have back up generator ( for the electronics/ignition) will fix that problem. My gas bill runs $12-$15 a month 8 months a year I am not using the furnace. I can fill the 600+ gallon hot tub with hot water and not run the heater for 2 days after filling it to bring it up to temperature. 120* at 8GPM = plenty for dishwasher, clothes washer and a shower at the same time.
No big deal. Not calling ANYONE out (including myself for violating with this post). Not complaining, just checking in, and offering a reminder about how we’re trying to use these two deals threads (one for ONLY posting deals, and the other for discussing them)…
If at all possible (and I see many where it’s definitely possible lol ), please use the DISCUSS thread for discussing things like what zip code to use, or which store you got em at, or what kind of shipping is available, or whatever.
Obviously, there are many things that are not directly DEALS that still seem relevant and beneficial to post in here from time to time, and that’s fine. Nobody is getting pissy about it.
Again, no big deal, but we’re attempting to keep this DEAL-POSTING thread for posting deals ONLY, as much as reasonably possible.
It seems like it’s been working fairly well, actually.
So, thanks to everyone for being willing to play along.
I think posting what Zip Code to use should be a part of this thread, especially since that’s the only way to get the deal in the first place in many of these Lowes cases. I don’t want to have to hunt through the other thread in order to find what zip to use on a lowes deal posted on this thread. Just my 2 cents…
Is it possible to add the topic before starting your reply. It is rare that a topic is continuous and all subsequent reply are still talking about the same topic.
suggested reply format (SUBJECT: reply )
Iris outdoor camera: my zip xxxxx has tons on sale.
also – So, thanks to everyone for being willing to play along.
but my husband seems to think it will offer genuine savings. We turn our water on and just leave it on. To be able to schedule and control our water heating on the phone without buying a new tank is reason enough for us to buy. Leak detection pretty neat too. As regards 2.4GHz, I have no clue what that means but I better check which band we are on, thanks