Product
Rheem RETEX-13
Category
Home & Garden
Report number
20240531-C50A1-2147338886
Ownership age
About 36 months to failure (from purchase date when reported)
Failure type
Fire / ignition
Incident narrative
SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20240531-C50A1-2147338886. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Rheem RETEX-13 (Rheem electric water heater. Model RETEX-13. Serial Number G032101799 Rheem 240V Heating Chamber RTEX-13 Residential Tankless Water Heater, GRAY). Incident: Recently, my Rheem TEXRE-13 caught on fire. I was lucky to be at home at the time or the whole place would've gone up in ashes. I heard an unfamiliar buzzing sound and looked up to see bright flashes of light (sparks) coming from the hotwater heater. Then I saw smoke and more sparks. I immediately jumped up and switched off the breaker and hit it with a fire extinguisher. The plastic on the casing had already started to melt (high combusible material). Sitting below the water heater were also highly combusible items. There was no hot water being used at the time (actually no water at all was being used). The water heater was installed in June/July of 2021 by a profession electrician and my contractor. No hot water (or any water) was being used at the time.
Official report number: 20240531-C50A1-2147338886. Search that ID on SaferProducts.gov or match it in the CPSC public database export to verify this record.