50 Gallon GDV-50 40,000 BTU ProLine Direct Vent Residential Gas Water Heater - Tall (NG)

Nice having a sealed burner water heater that will work even with no electric power. Seems like a simple working water heater and it works great

Good product

Easy install, great customer service experience and delivery! Will definitely recommend to others.

Very good customer service and so far the water heater is wonderful

I bought this water heater to replace my old one 50 gallon direct-vent water heater. No complaints so far.

So far so good. AO Smith has an excellent reputation and only time will tell how long this unit lasts. My previous heaters were over 20 years old. I like the flex duct design as it allows for more flexibility than the rigid vent of my previous unit. I was trying to match an existing hole and the dimensions of the water heaters have changed due to higher tank insulation standards. Having the flex duct meant not needing to cut another 7" hole in my wall. The piezo valve is nice and it shows you that it is running with a blinking led (no electricity required). This type of water heater is one of the few that can be vented directly through a wall and requires no electricity to run. If you have outages, these heaters are a must. Please be advised that this unit has a plastic air tube that is exterior to the tank and runs up the back. This makes it quite challenging to strap the tank per code to the wall as you must shim it around the plastic tube. That's the hardest part of the install IMHO is figuring out how to shim it away from the wall to leave a gap for the tube and still have it snug enough to pass code in earthquake country. Pay attention to the instructions. I read one review by a person who was concerned about heat from the exhaust duct. My guess is that s/he failed to add the restrictor plate which is necessary for shorter vents. I found the portion of the duct which has the O-rings to be very difficult to seat. I put all of my weight on it and still could not get it to slide far enough for the spring clip to lock in the groove on the collar. I noticed it had a very slight amount of grease. I had some high temp silicone brake grease that I applied to the mating surfaces and it made them go together much easier. I have two quibbles with the manufacturer. First, as this is among the most expensive tank models of this type it should carry their longer 10 year warranty and not the miserly 6 year. Second, the packing leaves no space between the thin sheet metal and the box. Any slight impact to the box and the heater will arrive looking like scratch and dent merchandise. If you make a quality product, and undoubtedly AO Smith does, why not provide comparable packaging?

Runs without electricity. So far seems very efficient.

I bought this unit to replace a State Industries direct vent that was leaking after 12 years. Reviews seemed to indicate a relatively short life for the State WH, so I decided to try the AO Smith DV50. Delivery Delivery was to my driveway and was easy, accurate (they were there when they said) and the unit was in excellent condition. Installation (done by me) was straightforward and the manual was well written and the illustrations good. I reused the State wall penetration since it was still in excellent condition and changing the wall penetration is time consuming and complex. The pipes matched perfectly and the unit operates fine. Lighting was straightforward - a note urging patience (up to 90 seconds to purge air from the gas pipe) was very helpful as it did take 55-60 seconds. The outer exhaust pipe got quite warm during initial heating run but no problems was seen. Unit has been in and operating for a week now with no problems. In 15-20 years I'll know whether or not the unit's longevity matches the other reviews. If it does, I'll add the fifth star.