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.
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.
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.
When this works it is great. Problem now is that the app apparently did an update, or just decided to forget my data info, and now does not recognize my water heater anymore, so it wants me to re-register my water heater. Problem is that it is in our vacation condo and we turn the heater on the day we are heading there and turn off the vacation mode. So now we will have to get to the condo to turn on the hot water! And wait for hot water. Kind of defeats the point of controlling by Wi-Fi if the app cannot keep your info, especially for an update. Please fix the bugs! When this works it is very convenient but when it doesn’t the water heater is just another water heater that you manually have to operate.
I was back and forth on deciding on a Rheem Hybrid or A.O. Smith. I went with the A.O. Smith because I have prior experience with them, they are supposed to be quieter, and more energy efficient. I should have looked at the app ratings too…This app is useless. Not even worth downloading. You’ll be changing everything at the water heater. This app doesn’t stay connected to the water heater. The couple features it has are pointless even when they do work. How about something that tells me it is operating? How about something that tells me what functions or functions are currently operating? Are the elements being used or is it just the heat pump? The schedule makes no sense. You set a schedule for the water heater to be “topped off”. What does that even mean!? It’s set to 120 deg. It should be 120 deg. What does topping it off mean? Very disappointing app for the premium you pay for the water heater. Makes you wonder if the water heater control unit is any good. It and the app are made by the same people….
The AO Smith app has a nice appearance, fairly easy to navigate, register water heater, change temp, heating mode, etc. My biggest complaint is there is a button to click that is labeled “Energy Usage” that is useless. It always says “Unable to load energy usage data”. Competitors have a functioning app that displays actual energy usage data. A big reason people spend 2-4x of a typical electric water heater is to save energy and lower their electric bill. A great way to confirm this purchase and have folks like myself recommend them is to show me the data. AO Smith please remedy this.
Bought water heater over a year ago and works great! One of the reasons I paid so much for the tank is so that I could view the tank information and adjust to vacation mode when we are not at home using my phone. The App however is terrible. The app doesn’t save my sign in information. It signs me out every other month and I have to look up all of my information to sign back in. Several times I have had to delete the app and reload it since it keeps saying unavailable information or I need to reverify my email address which does nothing. The water heater is great, but app is extremely frustrating!!!
Logged in, registered water heater through app and it worked great. Next day I had to logon again!? 2 hours later app couldn’t see water heater through WiFi. 3 hours later it’s working fine and I did nothing. Next day, opened as expected and all worked, 6 hrs later app is totally reset, no water heater, no profile?!? A.O. Smith you need to fix this buggy app or stop selling smart water heaters because it’s just another water heater without the app.
Works but cannot add a time use rate plan manually
My electric company’s time use rate plan was not able to be found automatically. I when I tried to enter the rate plan manually, there is a bug that prevents me from entering the cost per KWH entering any number in the cost field automatically adds a dollar sign in decimal point leaving the digits to the left of the decimal point always at zero. Only the digits to the right of the decimal point can be edited.
The graph of your usage: what’s labeled as today is actually yesterday. Swap lifetime usage in kilowatt hours to monthly usage. That would be useful. or just add monthly usage. Put a number to average daily usage in kilowatt hours. Add indications in the app for what the three segments of the round graph mean. I’ve had lukewarm water with only one segment blue. App constantly in a vegetable state. Just shows full hot water even though there’s no hot water. Or just lukewarm. You have to change the setpoint and then change it back before it updates. No way to know whether it’s updated unless you change the temperature and change it back.
I wasn’t getting any readings for temperature just said null I was able to register the water heater I think. Was hooked up to WiFi. Now I have been kicked off the app asking me to sign in but won’t let me tried creating the account again won’t let me what a joke. This is one of the features that sold me on the water heater you would think they would figure this out I sure hope this isn’t a sign of the quality of the water heater. If they can’t figure out an app maybe they shouldn’t be making water heater’s.
Upon first install, the app retained my use name and password and seemed to be always monitoring my hot water heater. Within the last few days, I would need to renter my password to check the unit. Now, the app continues to also loose my user name. What has happened to this app ? Do you folks even test the app after an update ?? Further, if I have to log in every time it is used, what are my assurances that the app is even monitoring the water heater /or/ better yet, what are my assurances that the app will alert me of a leak ???
The hot water availability ring always shows red without regard to how much hot water is available. Once you add a rate plan it cannot be removed, only changed and not all plans are available. I though it would be good to an app connected Hester but it turns out my needs are to have hot water 24x7 and it looks like this isn’t going to be possible with this set up. The app won’t allow it. I should have gotten a more basic heater. The app doesn’t do what I need and the “hot water availability” icon does nothing.
I was an avid Bradley White customer due to the quality of the product. I switched to AO Smith as it was the only smart water heater available. The app platform was down for over a week and just recovered. As a traditional manufacturer , AO may be challenged on keeping their digital “product “ like this app up and running. I am pulling for them to make sure app is important just like the hardware.
While the water softener connects to WiFi and it emails warning messages, the product as presented causes the consumer to believe the product works via an app. A more effective and robust app would make this a much better product, especially given the price. On a side note, product instructions need to be more clearly written.
this app was seriously written by someone with the development skills of an intro to programming high school class. This product is a lot of money. They should put some of that money into app development. It's almost criminal making this app available at all. one real basic thing is all that we ask: - current temperature of water in the tank There are certainly other things, but just that one basic thing would go along way.
I purchased the Softener (450T) seeing a mobile device , indicating WiFi salt alerts. No option for mobile devices for the softener on the app. It’s a simple task to build the platform for water softener, like the water heaters. Please develop this technology or remove the mobile device picture from the advertising labels.
WiFi / Bluetooth a pain, energy usage display useless
Had to power cycle the heater a couple of times. Energy usage display chart seems broken, I just see a flat line and a lifetime energy usage. I want to see how much energy it consumes per day, when it heats and when it is idle and confirm that it works in sync with my utility plan.
When it works, it’s great. It keeps track of how much hot water is left and how much electricity it has consumed. Semi regularly, you get an error message stating AO’s server is down and there are investigating. It’s annoying enough to rate a 2 star reviews.
Very difficult to get my new water heater added. Thought the extra money would be nice for the added WiFi features however it’s a terrible app. Wish I would have found the reviews for this function before spending the extra money. Also, the first water heater was faulty the day of installation and cost me several hundred more to replace. Overall a bad experience from the start.
I downloaded this app and iCOMM as our new HPWH is Wi-Fi enabled. ICOMM could not connect but this app did on first try. Not showing energy usage yet but we’ve only had it running for about 16 hours. Will update if it crashes or otherwise loses functionality.
I bought a water softener from the local Lowe’s store. Your apps are only for water heaters which is not right. You have other products as well. The 450t water softener I bought has WiFi option but there are no apps through your company. Please fix so those of us with water softener units will have the same option to check the softener menu and details from our phones too.
My water heater was replaced under warranty and I can not connect to the new water heater. Have reset Wi-Fi on heater, deleted and reinstalled the app, both, numerous times. Have called customer service several times. Once I was told the app was down. Once I was told that they had not heard the app was down. No one in customer service seems to know what is going on with the app. Pure garbage.
Good luck in using the app. The basics work ok but when trying to auto import or manually import your utility plans and costs, it errors out. Multiple calls to app tech support over many days, yields nothing. Many transfers, promised call backs never happen, even when given a case number. Use at your own risk. They don’t seem to value their customers
This app is very buggy. Registration required resetting the app multiple times. Some of the settings will just lock up the app. Also I have no idea what the 3 lines around the water heater indicate. Is red hood or bad? What does blue mean? Also there is no way to know the actual water temp, just the high temp setting. If the water isn’t that hot how do you know what you have?
App has limited features. Feels like an afterthought or cheap way to make product seem “advanced” I’ve been trying for weeks and it will NOT save my electric company info. It finds the company, but when you save, it just loads and loads. The app says “up to 25 seconds” to save, and I keep trying for several minutes. Good water heater, trash app.
Changed email address and now can’t access the account or start a new one. It sends a message to my old email, that I no longer have access to, for admin permission. I’ve tried several times to reset to factory default with power connected and not connected to no avail. App is now worthless
I tried to connect and could not, Tec support basically told me that there is nothing they can do it’s probably an app issue and gave up, horrible service on. 2 water heaters that were 10 k each commercial units, that have been buggy since install, not what it used to be very unhappy and won’t buy ao smith product ever again
Had a gas sensor go out on my Water Heater. They claimed it wasn’t covered under the warranty anymore. 6 year warranty and my 6 years isn’t up. Currently buying a new water heater from someone else. Avoid their products at all costs. You’ll notice no way to leave a review for them on Facebook. Now you know why they set it up that way.
I’ve called multiple times and even emailed their hot water email support. Zero response and cannot register the device. Apparently it is stuck in setup mode. Whoever you have coding this app needs to be fired. I’m about to file a charge back on my credit card.
Unreliable company/app where you will lose your water heater when you update the app. Not a big deal when you’re at home but it’s a big deal when you’re on vacation and want to put you water heater on vacation mode to save energy.
I just bought this water heater and paid the extra money mainly for the Wi-Fi connectivity feature…. The app cannot confirm the serial number on my model so the app is useless but besides that manually works fine…. Get your dev team to fix the app or at least keep it up to date
Might be able to actually rate the app higher if I could get into it. Had to go through the hoops of creating an account ( not too hard honestly), but when I get to the sign on page, my keyboard isn’t popping up to enter my password.
Wish that I had read these reviews before paying extra money for the Wi-Fi connected version. I must agree with many of the other reviews on this thread. The app does not connect with the water heater and the telephone helpline is unable to resolve the problem. Buyer beware!
The “hot water availability “ feature doesn’t work, at all. The reliability of the app/connection is iffy at best. Without fail every time I’ve tried to switch vacation mode from the app it gives an error message. I emailed support twice, with zero response.
I’m very disappointed by the features it claims to have, absolutely none are true. It’s buggy and I can’t even change anything without an error message. This app is completely performative just to get people to buy
Can control temperature and mode from the app but that’s about it. Not able to create a schedule to automatically control temperature by time and day of week. Tried both ICOMM and A.O. Smith apps. Not able to apply time of use rate plan even though my rate plan is listed.
Previously it wouldn’t recognize my serial number. Now it does but when I enter my DSN, it says it is already in use. Yes, I used it once when I was able to access the system. Needs to be fixed by giving the option to reset that DSN.
This app is terrible. Won’t recognize my DSN number and then kicks you out and you have to start all over. What’s the point of having WiFi enabled when you can’t even register it.
Won’t take the serial number, won’t give options to contact someone to alleviate the issue. Absolutely worthless product and now a completely useless upgrade. Don’t waste your money on a water heater with this technology.
App fails to connect to new water heater. Usually cant see the heater’s wifi. When it sees it it wont finish the connect. Looong hold on customer service line yo be told app is broken. If you ask for a callback from the 877 # it rarely occurs.
You can set your desired temp, and change modes from standard to vacation. As noted above , useless. You would think it could tell you: 1. The actual temperature of the water in the tank 2. Are the heaters on and if so, which ones.
The last several times I’ve tried to use the app it says there’s a “temporary error on our side” that they’re working on fixing but it keeps happening.
It’s saying that my serial number is invalid when I enter manually and it also isn’t recognizing the QR. This is nuts. I would have spent the 35 dollars less on one without an app had I known that the app wouldn’t even work.
Won’t let me login to app. Can log in on the website but the app won’t let me or let me create a new account because my email is already tied to an account. This app has become useless
I spent 1 day trying to connnect the app to my water heater. It keeps loading. Once it was finished loading a message on the screeen said that it was unable to connect. DONT DOWNLOAD THIS AND GET INTO THIS PROBLEM!!!! Wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.
With constant remote monitoring and helpful tools designed just for professionals, the A. O. Smith Mobile App features the iCOMM™ connectivity platform, the latest technology for remote water heater management. Through an easy setup process, connect all your iCOMM™ enabled water heaters to the app. Once connected, you’ll gain access to diagnostic fault notifications, settings for your water heaters and much more. Whether for your home or your business, the iCOMM platform offers you peace of mind. Designed for Professionals XPERT Water Heater Selection Tool Provides personalized recommendations to help you identify the best options for your customers. iCOMM™ Connectivity Platform Stay connected to the water heaters you install to monitor your water heaters remotely and adjust temperatures and settings. Warranty Check & Product Cross-Reference Find the warranty status for an A. O. Smith water heater and get replacement suggestions based on the current brand and model. Designed for Homeowners iCOMM™ Connectivity Platform Stay connected to your water heater by monitoring temperature, schedules and more. Operation Mode Choose your ideal operating mode depending on how you use your water heater. Demand Response and Time-of-Use Alignment Align your water heater to your utility company’s Demand Response or Time-of-Use programs rate plans through the app to save energy.
