If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve gotten a few hints about our new hot water heater from Ecotone Products. We installed it in January, and now that we’ve had time to test it out, I wanted to report on what the process was like and how much we like our new Rheem Marathon Hot Water Heater!
Out With The Old, in With The New
This is our old hot water heater. Don’t let the name fool you – there was nothing energy efficient about this unit in 2014. This hot water heater was old when I moved into this house, which was almost 21 years ago – suffice to say, this thing was old. There had been quirks with this water heater for a long time (“Quirks” are homeowner-speak for “This isn’t working properly, but it’s not malfunctioning badly enough to repair just yet”), but it finally got to a point where it was unusable, randomly pumping out scaldingly hot water and then turning ice cold without warning. We were shopping for a replacement for this old piece of junk, so when I was contacted by local business Ecotone Products and offered a unit to review, it was one of those “Perfect timing” moments.
Introducing The Rheem Marathon Hot Water Heater
Based on our household size, Ecotone Products sent us a 40 Gallon Rheem Marathon Hot Water Heater, which retails for $889. This was smaller that our old 60 gallon hot water heater, so I was a bit concerned about not having enough hot water, but I also realized that this was about 100000000X times more energy efficient than my previous water heater, so I figured it would probably work just fine!
This unit is sleek and attractive – doesn’t it look a bit futuristic? And its design isn’t just about aesthetics – the Marathon is also super light weight, ranging between 89 and 100 pounds. It was night and day moving this into our laundry room versus trying to lug out our old behemoth of a hot water heater!
Installation
The unit came with a selection of accessories for installation, including earthquake straps, a large drain pan, and quick connects.
Jai also bought some needed accessories for installing the new water heater, which came to about $40. Many of these were items he bought because we wanted to update some of the plumbing surrounding the hot water heater, so what parts you buy will vary widely depending on the age of your home.
We knew this would be a big project, because anything that involves tearing up a room and revising plumbing is always involved. Happily, the project went as smoothly as possible and was finished in roughly 2 days – that’s Jai doing it all single-handedly, and updating some of our plumbing while he was at it. He recorded a video sharing his tips on how to drain a hot water heater, so you might want to check that out if this is a DIY project you are considering!
Adjusting The Settings
We weren’t sure what to expect with this project, since this was the first time we had ever installed a water heater, so there was a trial and error period where we adjusted our settings to get the preferred amount of hot water. There are two thermostats on the unit, so you’ll want to make sure to adjust both; Ecotone also sent us a new, more efficient Alsons WaterSaving Massage Showerhead. Now that we’ve made the adjustments and upgrades, I’m very happy with the hot water heater’s performance – maybe a little too much so, since I’ve been loving the fact that I can take long, hot showers to relax! 😉
Efficient
As the name suggests, Ecotone is concerned with providing products that are energy efficient and conserve water. Just about anything would have been better than my old hot water heater, and I’m especially pleased to have both an efficient hot water heater as well as a new, water-saving shower fixture, as all of these things will save on energy and water. Marathon heaters are insulated with “Envirofoam”, which purports to lose only 5% of the heat stored inside over 24 hours if you experience a power outage – which of course, we get in Seaside all the time! This unit is also designed to be durable, rust resistant, leak resistant, and comes with a lifetime warranty if it should spring a leak. Can’t argue with that!
Rheem Marathon Hot Water Heater: More Photos
Here’s a few more product shots provided by Ecotone, if you’d like to get a view of this hot water heater without my purple laundry room as a backdrop! 😉 Click on the thumbnails for a larger view:
Ecotone Products: A Local Business
Ecotone Products are based out of Fairview, Oregon, making them a great choice for us locals! In fact, PDX residents may have already experienced some of Ecotone’s products without realizing it, as you can find their showerheads at the Paramount Hotel and Marathon water heaters in every yacht at Christensen Yachts in Vancouver.
You can visit their online store at GPConservation.com – they have a number of Rheem Marathon water heaters available, as well as showerheads, heaters, and more. You can call them at (503) 907-2899 with questions or shoot them an email at sales@gpconservation.com.
I love how sleek this looks, very nice in case it can’t be concealed in a closet. I also love that it is light weight. This is a must for us as husband would be moving this himself. The store is in my parents neck of the woods, so me and the husband can check them out. Great review!!!
Shop with Me Mama – this is a great one for that – Jai moved it himself without a dolly. How convenient that this store is near your parents!
I really LOVE how attractive it is! Mine is so ugly! LOL
We recently invested in a new water heater as well. I love knowing that we are saving energy but having water ready and not constantly making our pump work.
We moved into our house a year and a half ago, and I can’t even remember if we looked at the water heater or not? In our old house we had to replace ours within a month of moving in!
I love the look of this one!
This is pretty nice looking, I have to admit. We just had ours replaced last year because it was 20 years old apparently and it died.
Wow this looks like a really nice hot water heater!!
Being energy efficient is so important with the cost of electricity and gas going up what seems like daily. I love the look of your new hot water heater. So much nicer than what we have and I love that it was easy for Jai to install.
We’re due for an upgrade too. I love the design of that one!
This is a nice looking water heater! I bet it’s very energy efficient too!
Being energy efficient will save you lots of $$$$. Smaller and better! Nice!
I’ve never seen a bullet shaped design like that. It’s cool. It should really help with energy costs now!
We just had to replace our furnace and know the water heater isn’t far behind. Great idea to contact someone about reviewing it. I would do that just for a discount because all these home repairs are killing me!
We are going to have to do this soon, so thanks for the info.
Perfect timing! I’m in the market for a new hot water heater right now! This sounds like a really good one that my husband can install easy enough. Thanks for sharing!
Your new hot water heater is so pretty (never thought that was something I’d say). If it works half as good as it looks, it’s a great hot water heater.
Love the looks of that and the energy saving .
You are so blessed to have gotten such a great water heater! The fact that it is energy star is even better!
I love the newer, sleeker look and yes very futuristic. The fact it takes less energy is even better. I love hot showers but here we lose hot water so fast that I just stick with a bath. That way I don’t suddenly freeze. I’d love a hot shower.
That’s the neatest looking water heater I have ever seen. Energy saving water heaters are great. Water heaters are such vampires.
Wow, it looks so hi-tech and fancy! I am dreading the day we have to replace ours.
Wow, that looks nice! It’s very trendy looking and I love that it’s energy efficient. Ours is like your old one, energy efficient…30 years ago.
we are going to be looking into a new hot water heater very soon. this one looks nice. big decision, you know?
oh wow, that is slick looking – we still have the old type and had it replaced not too long ago, I have never seen this style before, I wish I Knew about ti last year.
Awesome! Your old hot water heater looks a lot like mine, and mine is probably just as old, if not older! My motto… ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ isn’t very smart as far as energy savings goes!
I hate having to think about things like hot water heaters so I’m going to bookmark this to use next time we have to replace ours — which hopefully won’t be for a very very long time!
What a good looking Water heater! 🙂
I cannot believe how much smaller and compact water heaters have become! Mine is still the monstrous one, we really need to upgrade to a new one!
I never thought I would say this but that is one cute hot water heater. We had to replace ours about two years ago.
I am I am going to have to check this out, my husband and I are redoing our whole house and we were just talking about a new water heater since our home will be so much larger. GREAT REVEW!
I So Need A New One Sounds Like A Great Product Thanks For Sharing!!
Now that is one super sleek water heater! Love it 🙂
Fantastic review! This water heater is attractive compared to other water heaters I have seen.
Oh I love the look of that!! All of the one’s we’ve ever had have been such an eye sore.
I hope you love your new water heater!! It looks really pretty compared to the one we have lol.
Ours is ugly too. Kudos for them making a more attractive looking unit LOL
That is a great looking unit – looks much better than ours!
Our water heater is in a “cabinet.” I dread the day it will need to be changed out, but I hope to have something a little smaller next time. I love this one. It looks like a great design and I love that its more energy efficient!
I would love to try this hot water heater ours looks like the older one. I will keep this one in mind when we need a new one.