A. O. Smith 4+

Mostly Featureless and Unpredictable

First off, our family has used A.O.Smith products since I was growing up. I was always under the impression they made high quality equipment. Unfortunately when I bought a hybrid unit for the first time… This turns out not to be as expected… The app never seems to reconnect to the hot water heater after closing the app. I have to re-enter credentials every time I want to check on the status. It also won’t send an alert if the unit loses power which would be a simple monitor from the server end. It won’t give you the option to be alerted when it’s running or alert when it’s topped off… Speaking of servers, the one they are using to run this app is terrible and has been down for over a week with no access to the controller from the app.

Now hear me out, these are obviously all 1st world problems and in the grand scheme of things very tiny. However when you pay a PREMIUM for a product expecting to be able to use the features you paid for, and then turns out to be as flaky as it is… makes you question whether or not you want to purchase any other product from them.

And don’t get me started on the useless tech support phone number. I called 4 different times before I was able to land a decent technician. If you can read this before purchasing one of these hot water heaters, shop around. Hopefully there are more reliable brands out there.

Very limited use

I had high expectations of both the hot water heater product and the app. Neither have materialized. The app shows hot water usage with 3 bars. The hot water available is in orange and blue is used (essentially not hot). Very limited info therefore on how much used - how long to replenish - energy used etc. You can change the requested temp on the app and change from hybrid to electric and that’s it. Daily, weekly usage etc isn’t available. The electric hot water product doesn’t produce and store enough hot water for general use. Technician has come out 3x and determined it operates as specified but that means we run out of hot water very fast and takes a long time to replenish. Developer: let’s make this app actually useful with good and in depth data, vacation mode, more efficiency, better display of when hot water is available again, etc. I wish I would not have bought this electric hot water heater as it isn’t at all up to the task.

Needs Major Improvement

Maybe it’s because it’s so new, but this app is trash. Unless you have a rate plan with your electric company, you really can’t do much with the app. There’s a “schedule” feature, but all it does is “top your tank off with hot water” at whatever time you set it for. Dumb. Why not create a schedule feature where I can leave the temp at 95° all day when I’m not using it, and then set it to go up to a desired temp at a certain time for bath time, etc. To me, that’s what a schedule feature should do. I try to manually do this, but I’m updating several times a day, and sometimes I forget, then I have colder showers, or I’m paying extra to keep water hot all night when I’m not using it. And half the time, manually changing the temp on the app doesn’t work either. It will say “updating set point” and then when it updates, it’s the same temp I started with. This app definitely needs some hard work. For what I paid for the water heater I know y’all can afford to hire someone to work on this.

Developer Response ,

We appreciate your detailed feedback regarding the app's limitations and apologize for any frustration caused. Your suggestions for an improved schedule feature are valuable, and we'll certainly take them into consideration for future updates. We're actively working on enhancing the app's functionality to better meet your needs. Please ensure you have the latest app version, and if issues persist, contact our customer support at +800-527-1953. Thank you for your understanding and patience.