Rheem vs. Lochinvar water heater

Ken_8

our favored supplier is so annoyed at delivery problems, he's switching to Lochnivar.

Everything I know and hear about Lochinvar is sub-standard quality with good pricing. When I propose a Rheem or A.O.Smith water heater to my customers, brand name recognition is NOT an issue.

Lochinvar will change all that.

What are my choices - and what do you think; and what are your experiences?

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Robert O'Connor_7

Ken..

I think Rheem & AO Smith are getting a little too big for their briches and forget that WE are the buying force to be reckoned with. Unfortunatly the only experiences I've had with Lochnivar was on there boilers and they were a real hop in the a@@s to deal with, however I don't have all that much to pull from so maybe it was our in-experience that cause the frustration but again I'm kinda rating them by the support I was given (which wasn't much). I'd be curious to know how You make out with them..Good Luck........Robert O'Connor/NJ

BobbyG

Lochinvar manufacturer support is to be desired. I won't sell unless customer demands it. Our company stocks water heaters and boilers (as well as other brands). Of course, the rep has a lot to do with it. You may have a very supportive one. Beware of the courtship phase of the relationship (they'll say or do anything to get your business; once you've invested in inventory your like a forgotten pet)

BobbyG

Are you talking about residential water heaters? Lochinvar has a larger commercial offering, but the residential water heaters are actually made by Bradford-White. The technical support people at Lochinvar probably don't know as much as they should about the residential stuff IMHO.

Ken_8

Yup.

Plain jane residential 40-gallon gas type. Probably Thee most common form of water heater on planet earth.

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Ken D.

Lochinvar

We have used a number of Lochinvar residential water heaters in the past 6 or 7 years and have had a high tank failure rate after only 2 to 4 years. We have used Rheem and have had better results. We also have used State heaters successfully. I prefer State as of this writing.

Boilerpro_3

Have had bad experience with them too

As You may know I used thier boilers for a while, but when problems came up they didn't know how to fix them. I and my wholesaler have had calls into their tech support for nearly a year now regarding a potential burn through problem on thier burners, and have never been given an answer. Timmie M. ended up giving me the knowledge to solve my initial problems.
I also called on them for support on a larger commercial boiler and they were useless, not even knowing that replacement parts were available for thier own boilers.

Lochinvar and all the various companies of Meztek....Hydrotherm, RBI, etc. I steer clear of. No or very poor factry backing...often leaving very good local reps and wholesalers holding the bag along with contractors.

Boilerpro

Glenn Harrison_2

The big problem I see with Lochinvar/Bradford White...

is their gas burners never lite smoothly. They lite about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way around, pause for a few seconds, and then the rest lites with a poof. We put inLochinvar a few years ago and had a few that were so rough they would put out a puff of fumes and customers were complaining of smelling it. This led to a few units being replaced with a different brand, to satisfy the customer. I also have a couple of subdivisions with B.W. units that the tanks have leaked at 5 to 8 years.

We use State, and every time we have switched, something happens and we wind up coming back to State, although alot of that probaly has to do with our distributor being very strong, knowledgable and helpfull with the State line.