Ratings & Reviews for A.O. Smith Signature 900 80-Gallon Tall 10-year Warranty 240-volt Smart Hybrid Grid Capable Heat Pump Water Heater with Leak Detection and Automatic Shut-off

Failure after 2 years

I saw a lot of negative reviews before I bought this, thinking I may be lucky enough to not hit a failure. I was wrong. It indeed failed after 2 years. Called AO Smith, they gave me an RMA number for exchange of the identical unit. But they won’t cover the labor to uninstall and re-install. So to get a plumber to do that job it costs 2k in the Bay Area. More expensive than the unit itself. If this thing is saving me $340 per year this essentially eliminate 5 years of energy savings. The instal...

Heating Element bad after 15 months

The heating element on this water heater went out in less than 15 months. The extended warranty will cover this but I'm informed there are no service technicians in my area.

Worked 2 years

Purchased this water heater in October 2023, and in October 2025 here we are: the heat pump failed. Contacted a local plumber to have it fixed: the water heater is under warranty, but it will cost me almost $1000 to have the AO Smith defective product replaced !!! I've contacted AO Smith to know if they plan to help customers having issues with their products of particularly poor quality (lasting only a fraction of their expected lifespan), and the answer was clear: no. My 2 cents: expect a peri...

Worth the extra money

this is my second one -- works well

Thanks to Lowe's for giving me a 100% refund.

I returned it to Lowe's because of so many lousy product reviews from consumers who had purchased this water heater. There was not one single positive review.

Water heater fine but app doesn’t work

The water heater seems to work fine but the app to control the features does not work. After reading reviews, I can see that people have been having trouble with this products app for over two years. There seems to be no resolution. I would recommend you purchase the lower priced water heater because you will have to control the features manually anyway.

Working As Expected

I purchased with the expectation that it would use much less energy than my old existing electric water heater. I have an energy monitor that I use to track energy usage of various appliances. Over a few weeks this heat pump water heater has used on average 20% of the energy of my old water heater. My old one needed about 3500 Watthours per day while the new one only 700 watthours. I do live in Florida and the water heater is located in our garage, a relatively warm location. Nevertheless the en...

Garbage product, poor warrantee

Worked for less than 1.5 yrs and after jumping through a bunch of hoops to get customer service to honor the warranty ( took me almost 4 months), it was replaced. The replacement lasted 2 years with only the carry over warranty for the original tank. Plumbers who were required to come out and service said they see so many problems with this company and they were surprised I was able to get them to honor the warranty bc usually they do not. Will not buy AOSmith again.

Automatic shut off valve not in packaging.

The product worked well but all parts were not included. Had to contact AO Smith to get automatic shut off valve. Paid for installation but had to redo piping when valve arrived later.

hybrid water heater

Quiet

Heat pump defective

After replacing our electric water heater, the unit performed well through the summer, but come fall, one shower's worth of water was all it could heat. Many calls and several repair attempts later, the heat pump continued to be defective. AO Smith gave us an RMA for a new one, but after seeing numerous similar reviews, we chose not to replace it with another of the same unit.

10-2025 - Now on my 4th HW Htr since 12/2023

10-2025 My rating is for the A.O. Smith Signature 900 80-Gal HP HW Htr, NOT JR at Lexington, VA Lowes. JR has gone out of his way to ensure the 3-replacements were delivered ASAP. (JR gets 5 stars!) 1st Unit - Started leaking at the top nipples 18 mos after install. 2nd Unit - Replacement was installed 6/2025 and on install, immediately started leaking at the top nipples & was replaced by AO Smith. 3rd Unit - Unit ran as expected for 3 mos. until 10/2025 (installed 6/2025), then th...

Assembly issues....resolved??

My Geospring hybrid hot water heater gave it up after 10 years, but they are no longer available. I was familiar with the AOSmith hybrid, having one installed at another location and recommending another for my son. That said, I picked this one up to deliver to an island off the coast of Maine. I was surprised to find the control panel not attached to the tank....looks like someone forgot to put a screw in to hold it in place...and the hot water discharge pipe plastic ring was not properly in...

Poor reliability and frustrating customer support

I purchased the A.O. Smith Signature 900 Hybrid Water Heater with high expectations, but it turned into nothing but problems. Within the first year it started failing and throwing error codes. A.O. Smith sent out replacement parts multiple times — and on some occasions, they even sent the wrong parts. After all that, the unit still didn’t work properly. On my last call, the rep said they would issue a replacement “this one time” but also told me my file would be noted. She even tried to blame th...

Misstated extended warranty

According to the Lowe's Protection Plan terms and conditions: "if the manufacturer provides a labor warranty, the Plan Coverage Period begins after the manufacturer’s labor warranty ends" AO smith has a 1 year labor warranty so this warranty should start 1 year after the date of purchase making coverage for 6 total years. Not so. I called Lowes who said it starts on the purchase date. I pointed out the terms of their extended warranty and they said the terms are incorrect and they will fix it...

All the bad reviews are true!

Short Story: 5 years after purchase it started to leak. Contacted AO Smith to get warranty repair. No way to have a normal warranty with a new unit delivered and failed unit returned. Went through the process, see all the 1 star reviews. Picked up new unit had it installed, Display failed with no functions working and no hot water. Note: Lowe's local contractor wanted $1400 to install new unit..... had it done professionally for $600 and a very good job was done. Still don't have hot wate...

DO NOT BUY

We had to replace the unit within 6 months. The warranty is replacing the equipment and only $200 in labor. When the new unit was installed it leaked immediately and the plumber was able to find the leaking (at the top connectors). Within 3 months of the 2ND UNIT there was another leak (somewhere at the bottom). We are now looking to return for a full refund and get a different brand. Customer service was helpful when issuing returns with little hassle... just the un-install/install and physic...