Huh? $2000 to $3000 more? I bought mine for $1200 in 2019 and got a $300 rebate from the electric company. Today the newer version of the same one is $1699. With the rebates and credits available now it’s almost free. Plus I’ve been paying approximately $10 a month for hot water. Knock on wood I’ve had no issues with it. If the heat pump part of it breaks you can just switch it over to regular electric resistive as it’s a hybrid unit. Yes it does require a drain line. For the condensate. The same company sold a $600 electric resistive water heater in the same size. After the rebate mine was $300 more. I saved that amount in the first year. Even if it broke today and I decided to just replace it over the last 3 years since I made my money back it’s more than paid for itself. I put it in resisted mode and the electrical usage went up by 300 to 400%.

Huh? $2000 to $3000 more? I bought mine for $1200 in 2019 and got a $300 rebate from the electric company. Today the newer version of the same one is $1699. With the rebates and credits available now it’s almost free. Plus I’ve been paying approximately $10 a month for hot water. Knock on wood I’ve had no issues with it. If the heat pump part of it breaks you can just switch it over to regular electric resistive as it’s a hybrid unit. Yes it does require a drain line. For the condensate. The same company sold a $600 electric resistive water heater in the same size. After the rebate mine was $300 more. I saved that amount in the first year.

HPWH noise varies widely – pay close attention to decibels ratings and user / owner reports online. One major manufacturer unfortunately chose to let their most recent generation of HPWH be much louder than the previous generation, resulting in a boatload of backlash, especially since their being a typical large corporation, they figured it was cheaper to bob, weave, and gaslight their loyal users rather than own and fix the problem. Your mileage may vary.

Fuhgedabout doing anything with the clothes dryer exhaust…the lint and humidity load make that airstream problematic for anything other than exhausting outdoors – sorry to hear yours doesn’t go outside…for shame on whoever came up with that!

They do make noise which would be noticeable in a quiet environment. If it is not heating water you don’t get any cool air. So it might be equivalent to a small window unit that only comes on for 90 minutes after someone takes a long shower. Not at night when it is really humid. Probably would cost $2000-$3000 more than a straight electric water heater and requires an ac tech to fix instead of a trip to a hardware store to fix. Also are taller and require a drain nearby. Most are slow to recover when the hot water is used up, eg when your renters all return at once. The solution to that is additional straight resistance heat in the water heater which recovers quicker but without cooling. A 12,000 btu dual hose portable heat pump from Midea for under $500 that runs on 120v would be a better solution without a visible condenser outside.

If the HPWH is ducted theoretically you could conduct the dryer right to the intake but I would worry about a couple of things. First of all I would worry about lint clogging the filter on the water heater up frequently and also probably clogging up the coil and when the dryer wasn’t running if the dryer door is closed it’s going to basically turn into a vacuum situation. I would, if it’s in an open space, just let it cool air in from the room and exhaust it out to cool it down. I don’t know about other models but the Rheem model I have can also be run in regular resistive mode using the electric rods. That way if it got too cool you can switch it to that mode or if people were renting it out and you just wanted to get too cold for them. It’s a lot less efficient in that mode but it’ll work fine. And yes they are efficient and when it’s running it will help lower the humidity level

True, in an of itself, but the software could be configured to check for proper connection of backup resistance elements as a condition for general operation…in other words lock out the compressor if backup resistance element is not connected.

I have smart things and a Rheem 4th generation HPWH. I wish there was a way to control the function of the unit automatically. I don’t know if there’s a different home assistant that could do that. My condensation line runs through an exterior wall and drips into my landscape and then I’ve had a couple of times in the winter when it has frozen and backed up into the pan. I would love to set it up so that whenever the outside temperature dropped below a certain level it would switch to resistance mode. Either that or I’m going to have to run the condensate line in a way that it won’t cause this issue but there’s not a really easy way to do that

The software can’t turn the resistance heat on if the element is disconnected.