The Stiebel Eltron 29 replaced a failed 40 gal tank heater in my attic. It supplies hot water to my master bath and my kitchen. The master bath faucets are about 20-30 feet from the Eltron one floor below the attic while the kitchen is 2 stories down. I had a plumber and an electrician install the Eltron in my attic. I kept it in my attic because that is where the existing plumbing connections are, but that meant running 3x 50amp conduits from outside my house through some dry wall and into the attic. I spent more on the electrician and parts than I did on the heater itself! Oh well. This unit was installed in July 2012 and this review is March 2013, so I've had a pretty cold winter's use out of it. By cold, I mean outside temps getting to upper 20's, low 30's (°F) overnight. I set the temperature at 125 F. For the master bath, I have hot water for a shower first thing in the morning in about 30 seconds. It stays pretty constant unless my wife runs the hot water at her sink or flushes the toilet. There is a noticeable dip in temperature when that happens but nothing that will shock your system if you know what I mean.

As for the kitchen, it takes seemingly forever for hot water to come out. Yes, I know, line losses and distance, but it seriously takes about a minute for hot water to come out of the spigot. Then, after I turn off the hot water and turn it back on again after a few minutes, it takes about the same amount of time to get hot water out. I didn't experience that lag with my tank heater. I liken it to heating up food in a conventional oven vs. a microwave. The conventional oven heated food stays hot longer than microwaved food. My old tank heater seemed to keep the water in the lines hotter longer. Don't know why. Anyway, this is my biggest complaint about this unit.

During the warmer months, there is a definite improvement in the time for hot water to come out of the faucets and not near the losses in between uses. But of course, the fact I don't run out of hot water and I don't have to worry about another flood more than offsets my one niggling complaint.

Obviously the waive of the future is tank less water heaters. GAS or ELECTRIC. They both seem to be very energy efficient. But not economically efficient. This is due to their initial expense. Important to realize, after the initial install, when it comes time to replace the old unit the next time won't be as bad as everything is already in place that you will need. For starters, since this unit is electric, I can just about guarantee even if your old unit was an electric 240 or 208 volt tank, that you do not have the wiring in place for one of these. This particular unit requires TWO, 240 volt (or 208 volt if you're 3 phase) two pole 60 amp circuits with a minimum of 6 AWG wire. When operating at full power at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, I measured up to 44 amperes with my Fluke clamp meter on each line. That's a total of 88 amperes at the panel or over 21,000 watts (Yes that's OVER TWENTY-ONE THOUSAND WATTS). This thing requires a minimum of a 200 amp load center to be installed at the property. The largest unit from this manufacturer's line-up requires THREE of these same circuits and a 300 amp load center. So as you can see, if you're not an electrician or at the very least well versed in the electrical field, the average home do it yourselfer is not going to be able to install one of these on his own. Therefore the cost, as I said before is not economical. The gas ones have similar issues in that they may require larger gas lines for volume than the average home is built with. Again, just things to consider. Lastly, don't take the writing on the box for how many simultaneous showers this thing will be able to deliver as gospel. That greatly depends upon water flow and ground temperatures. It actually does say that on the box in small print. During the summer in warmer southern climates, you'll find the water where you normally set your shower is way too hot. During the winter you may find that you have to turn the handle all the way up just to keep the water warm. (Notice I didn't say HOT) Now, add another simultaneous shower, and it may not be able to keep up. Again, just things to consider. My recommendation, buy bigger than you think you're going to need. No need to go overboard, just figure what you think you're going to need, and go one size up. Once your service is upgraded to support one of these, the actual installation of a tank less water heater is a breeze. Very easy. Last thing, for those of you doing the math, yes this things sucks electricity like you wouldn't believe. Go out and look at you're meter when it's on. Your AC won't make your meter spin like that. In lieu of all of this you must come to realize that this thing is only doing that when you're using maximum hot water. In other words, if you're just running the hot water faucet at the kitchen sink, its not running at maximum power. If every hot water faucet is on in the house or multiple showers are running (especially if the ground temperature is low) then you probably are running maximum power, or close to it. However, if you're not running any hot water at all, it's idle. There is no tank to keep hot, it doesn't cycle on and off throughout the day when no one's home. It only runs when a hot water faucet is opened. For that reason, if you have kids in the house, be sure they shut that water off at the sink; or you'll be unpleasantly surprised on bill day. This unit in particular is a very good and dependable unit. It has stood the test of time for me and I have already bought and installed another one at an alternate location. Have fun.......

We bought this 1 year ago and installed it in our house in mid-New Hampshire. Our house runs on a well, and I was concerned that the cold (40 F) ground water would create a challenge for this water heater. I was wrong.

I installed this Stiebel-Eltron Tempra 29 Plus to replace a propane powered water heater that the previous owner had used. Our home was wired for electric heat in the 1970's, so it has a 200a service, and I wanted to avoid fossil fuels.

We heat with 2 pellet stoves. We have back-up electric heat as well. I was concerned that the current draw for this unit would cause a problem with many electric appliances running at once. We didn't have a problem, even when we had guests and multiple showers running at once. Plus, the winter of 2013 was quite cold here with some mornings as low as -15F, and still no problems.

I would consider myself to have above average handyman skills. I installed this unit myself and had no problems at all. If you are comfortable replacing a circuit breaker, you can install the electrical portion of this, but I caution you, if you aren't 100% confident, then hire a professional, because working near the bus in the breaker box can be dangerous, and 200a could probably cook you like a hot dog if your screwdriver slips. I have several years of experience working for an electrical contractor during the summers when I was a teen, so I felt comfortable taking on this project.

I used shark bite fittings to plumb this unit. I got 2 valves to shut it off so it can be cleaned/flushed annually and I used 2 braided stainless steel connections to hook into the unit directly. I found these fittings on the shelf at Home depot. I also got the 8/2 wire at Home Depot. Total cost to install myself was ~$100 for wire (125 ft), ~$30 for 3 50a breakers, ~$60 for all sharkbite fittings. I had some other misc items on hand (screws, wire straps, tools, etc).

My impressions of this unit over the year we have had it are very positive. There are some quirks, because this is not the type of system most of us are accustomed to as Americans. Contrary to the experience of another reviewer, I notice a slight, but noticeable increase in the temperature of the water when I'm in the shower and another tap is opened. It is not enough to scald, but it is occasionally uncomfortable. There is also a minor dimming of the lights when the water heater comes on. It does draw a lot of current, but not 150 amps. We have it set at 106F, which is the temperature I prefer in the shower. I can have the electric oven and range on, the microwave on, lights on around the house, the stoves going, and fill a pot with hot water in the kitchen. You won't have problems hosting guests.

My inlaws were concerned that we weren't running the water hot enough to kill germs in the dishwasher and the clothes washer. I say hogwash. I haven't gotten sick more often or noticed dirtier dishes or clothes. The water at their house burns my hands straight out of the faucet.

My monthly electric bill with 2 people living in the house is somewhere around $100. It went as high as $150. last winter with stoves and humidifiers going, and as low as $80 this summer with no AC running. I don't have previous bills to compare to since we installed this water heater as soon as we moved in.

As always, YMMV, but I have been very pleased with this water heater. I probably could have gotten away with the unit one size down (tempra 24), but I like to do it once and do it right. The endless hot water and excellent efficiency are wonderful benefits, and we've had no significant drawbacks. If we ever move, I'll get one of these for our new house.

I am very happy with my decision to switch to an on-demand style water heater. This unit, SE Tempra 29 Plus, has performed very well during the first week of use. It is capable of running at 3.3 GPM with incoming water at 49 degrees F and output at 122F. This will fill my garden tub and run a shower at the same time, or run two showers and a faucet with the flow slightly reduced.

Different functionality/Limitations- Please remember when you switch to a on-demand style heater that the flow (or max number of points of use) will be limited by the power rating of the unit; however, you will not be limited by the amount of time you can use the heater. I found this ideal for the garden tub as a tank style heater can fill the tub, but is then out of commission for about an hour. The same goes for showers. Two showers and a washing machines could be ran with the tank, but after doing this the tank was down for an hour. This does not happen with the on-demand style and it will continue to put out hot water as long as you want to run it.

Minor temperature fluctuations with well water - I do notice small temperature fluctuations while using the unit. I believe these are associated with the pressure tank and cycling of the well pump. When the tank is charging (well pump is running), the water drops a couple of degrees (just noticeable enough to feel, not enough to adjust the water temp). I believe this is due to the water bypassing the pressure tank and coming directly to the heater. This incoming water is slightly colder than the water that has warmed up inside the pressure tank in the crawl space. This water then makes its way through the heater and reduces the output on the hot line side (because of the constant temperature control of the plus unit). The cold line side rises in pressure due to the pump pressurizing the tank and mixes slightly more cold water. I believe this could be eliminated by adding a buffer tank (5-20gal) between the pressure tank and house inlet that would allow the water to mix and acclimate, but this would only be added if someone was extremely sensitive to temperature variations.

Some other positives:
Easy installation. If you know plumbing and electricity this can be installed in an afternoon if your lucky with the placement of everything. It took me a weekend by myself to install. Most of the time was spent routing the power cables and mounting boxes.

Saves space, No Footprint! This unit was ideal for my house. I had a 50gal tank in my half-bath and it was an eyesore and a space hog. The SE 29 was wall mounted on the garage side of the wall without taking any floor space and minimal wall space that wasn't being utilized.

Others: Unlimited hot water, Better looking than a tank heater, and easily adjustable temp.

We've had this running for just over a month or so now and it's been great. We replaced another tankless with this one so we are used to having tankless and had the wiring and box in place already so it was just some adjustments in the piping and building a new mount for it. We replaced an old SETS unit that was at least 10 years old. The SETS unit may have never been what we should have had to begin with because it caused a large enough draw to flicker our lights when it was in use, would cut in and out of hot and cold when it wasn't happy and had to be used at a very reduced flow in order to fill the tub (shower was okay due to a flow reducing head). It may have been to early in the development of using these for residential use too. We were planning on replacing it or getting some point of use units because the cost has come down so much over the years for those too. It started to throw the breakers so we opened it up and saw there was a small leak inside and it was effecting the electronics. We did our research and ordered this one. It was Christmas time so we paid extra for the next day delivery ($14 something with Prime), it took a few extra days to come but we were refunded the extra shipping without even asking for it, so that was fine. We did reduce the main water flow coming into the house after installing this unit (we have great pressure) and probably would have done the SETS unit some good if we had done that before this. We don't even notice the difference after several weeks and hopefully it'll save some water too. We have the unit set for 130F, which seems high but the hot water is comfortable at all taps at this setting. I have not tested what the actual temperature at any tap actually is yet. No one is melting. We have over the past couple years replaced almost all of our lighting to LEDs so we didn't experience as much flicker as we used to anyway but there is no flicker or noticed draw on anything else when the unit is running. We did replace the breakers, my husband may have changed the loading on them too....I can check if anyone needs that info. The SETs unit had a lifetime warranty but they were bought out by another company and they did not honor any warranties so we did not feel the need to continue to give them our business. The Stiebels have great reviews all around. So far I am very happy with the purchase and recommend it.