A few months back our hybrid electric water that came with our house was on the fritz…only 5 ½ years old!  The electrical boards were throwing codes and the company sent us replacements.  The truth was, we had never been totally happy with this water heater.  Since it was a hybrid, we did like how it cooled our garage in the summer months, but as a family of 5, our electric water heater was never able to keep up with baths, showers, dishes, and laundry.  We had discussed adding a mixing valve and even adding a secondary water heater.  Our house also has natural gas so I had yearned to have a tankless water heater to solve all of our problems.  This, of course, would mean running venting and connections.  Coincidentally that very day our water heater was giving us trouble, our local Ferguson rep mentioned the Essency EXR, a 55 gallon new technology water heater. He went on and on about how it has a 20 year leak-proof transferable warranty.  It works through the use of an oversized heat exchanger that they say is the equivalent capacity to a 230,000 BTU tankless water heater.   It works as an “on-demand” tank and might be perfect for our hot water loving family as it claims to have an 80 gallon first hour rating.

It’s intriguing looking and it meant we weren’t going to rush into a tankless install. I read some reviews we found online and we decided to give it a shot.  In person it is really interesting looking as it’s basically a big plastic looking box. 

Upon install, you learn that the tank is only filled once, water doesn’t actually flow through the tank meaning that it doesn’t pick up sediments and gunk from traditional water heaters.  Because it has a polymer insert, scale doesn’t build up inside the unit.  It also doesn't need a sacrificial anode rod or dip tube like other tanks (side note: please consider a yearly preventative maintenance on your traditional and tankless water heaters if you want them to last!!). 

Aaron took his time to do the install and we read the instructions front to back.  The initial fill sounds odd and setting up the app was a bit odd too. Both are the type of things that with repetition become second nature, but that first install leaves you questioning/testing. 

Once we got it set up, it didn’t take long at all for our water to heat up, and get that first bath in! We adjusted the water to a slightly warmer temperature and over the next few days kept checking in with each other, “Did you run out of water?” “Do you like it?” “There’s something different…the water feels cleaner?!”  We played around and used the Boost setting and yes, we are happy to say, we’ve had 3-4 baths/showers back to back or even simultaneously while doing dishes and laundry and we HAVEN’T HAD TO WAIT FOR HOT WATER!! It’s been pretty awesome! 

Cleaner water? We both felt the difference.  It felt like a bit of a mind trip at first… our water genuinely “feels” cleaner–which makes sense.  Traditional and Hybrid Water heaters develop sediment and gunk and some of that way inevitably makes its way out of our faucets and shower heads and onto our bodies as well as in our cooking and laundry. 

Other bonuses: 

• It also has a lithium-ion battery which provides power to the unit allowing for hot showers even during a power outage! 
• Low maintenance, some water will eventually evaporate from the tank and it’ll need to have water added, but we won’t have to take it apart and put it back together!

We are now happy to stand behind the Essency brand and see them as a great alternative to natural gas driven tankless water heaters, these are especially great for high consumption homes like ours!