Eccotemp

Will never order from this company, the product we bought was defective. Someone could have been hurt and they wont respond or get back to any of my messages. Buyer beware

I purchased a remanufactured FVI-12-NG water heater from "Eccotemp" (They reportedly fixed this one after it failed in another home?) from E-Bay in September of 2015. I had this same type of water heater FVI-12-NG in a guest house for about four (4) years prior to a freeze related incident making the unit unusable. I didn't install the water right away, (about 60 days) because we were remodeling the guest house. After proper installation, the unit actually exploded on the wall after the first time it was used! The ECCOTEMP Tech "Mike Extension 309" asked me to take the water heater apart and take photos of the internal area of the water heater for a warrantee return. (was suspicious that they wanted me to take it apart for photos after I had reported that it had exploded?) After taking apart, no one from the Company would call me back? The Company closed out my warrantee claim without explanation and refused to have this item returned. Eccotemp has refused to stand behind this dangerous water heater that actually exploded! (They simply don't care about the consumer!) How can a legitimate (?) Company not care or stand behind a dangerous water heater that exploded after the very first time it was used? This type of problem could possibly blow a home up or hurt or even kill people? I wonder how Eccotemp can stay in business when they sell a product that explodes and they don't even want to investigate it? Shame on ECCOTEMP, they really are a bad company who don't care about public safety.

Purchased a EL22i LP. It worked great until it didn't. Factory specs for this unit was that it was supposed to turn on at 1.5 gallons per minute, and then continue if the flow drifted down to.8 gallons per minute. The unit began to require the flow rate above 2 gallons per minute to engage. What that meant in the real world was to get a hot shower I had to turn on my bathroom faucet and my shower faucet to exceed the 2 gpm to work. And even if doing that, someone else turned on a different faucet and turned it off quickly the system would error anyway.
John (no last name given, but he identified himself as the senior most customer service rep.) insisted my issue as I described it was impossible, and that the real problem was some sort of restriction downstream from the hot water heater. It wasn't until I supplied them with the video you can see here https://youtu.be/jm0qTZOJhmQ?feature=shared
If you take a moment, you can see that there is only a total of about 3 feet of plumbing between the hot water heater and a bucket on the ground. Absolutely no bathroom fixtures or superfluous plumbing, almost a strait line.
After they receive this video, an RA was set. I paid out of pocket to ship from Alaska to South Carolina. Their service technician literally turned it on all the way without checking the noted issue window and parameters. Deemed it 100% functional and shipped it back to me still broken.
I recontacted them, And after much back-and-forth I was contacted by the general manager Tristina who said this of a hot water heater, not even attached to a faucet…
" After reading through your support ticket, it seems that the issue could be with your flow. The only reason a water heater would not work at that low of a flow/GPM would be that you have something restricting the flow. This could be as simple a fix as removing the aerators in your plumbing at your faucet/shower/etc"

They quit responding to my messages afterwards

This is regarding the ECCOTEMP FVi-12 water heater

"Stay away, the unit started having problems within a year, occasional explosions, then started leaking. ( you would think they would have demanded i send the unit back right away) I went back and forth with support and how they wanted to send me parts. It drug on until the unit went out of warranty, after complaining the unit was having issues since BEFORE it went out of warranty they offered to repair it. I had to pay for shipping and return shipping... $80 worth!. As soon as i put water to the "repaired" unit it started leaking AGAIN. They insist they repaired it at the factory and that the Pics i sent of the leak was "inclusive" and that they would send me a replacement part IF the leak was coming from the part they replaced, but would NOT honor it as a warranty issue, All they cared about is that it is NOW out of warranty. The Fact that there is an EMail trail that dates back to before the warranty expired did NOT matter to them. This company wants you to buy thier product and expect YOU to be the repair person... if the time to fix the unit goes beyond the warranty period,,,, they kick you to the curb! HORRIBLE!