EcoNet

Review by eFreeware

EcoNet is not a general-purpose smart home hub. It is a control app built by Rheem Manufacturing for its own heating, cooling and water heating equipment, covering the Rheem family of brands: Rheem, Ruud, Friedrich, Richmond, Sure Comfort, Russell by Rheem and Durastar. If your furnace, air conditioner or water heater comes from one of those lines, this is the app the manufacturer intends you to use with it.

That narrowness is the point. Rather than trying to talk to everything in a house, EcoNet stays with the equipment it was made for, and the feature set follows from that. You get adjustment of heating and cooling settings, monitoring and control of a water heater, schedules, energy tracking, alerts and remote access from wherever you happen to be.

It is free, carries no advertising and offers no in-app purchases, which is unusual for a connected-home app and makes it an easy thing to try if you already own compatible hardware. The install base sits above 100,000, and the average rating is 4.1 from 11,597 ratings, figures that suggest a settled, widely used tool rather than a novelty.

Climate control without walking to the thermostat

The central job is straightforward: adjust your heating and cooling settings so the indoor climate stays where you want it. The developer describes this as smart control, and in practice it means the phone becomes the place you make changes instead of a wall unit or a panel in a hallway. For anyone who works from home and wants to nudge the temperature before a meeting, or who wants to cool a bedroom before going upstairs, that is the basic appeal.

Remote access extends the same idea beyond the house. The app is built so you can reach your systems from anywhere, which matters most in the hours before you return: a house can be brought back to a comfortable temperature without leaving equipment running all day while nobody is there. The developer frames this as comfort and peace of mind, and that is a fair description of what remote control of a heating or cooling system actually delivers.

What I would keep in mind is that this is control, not automation of the kind that learns your habits on its own. The scheduling tools are there for you to configure, and the value you get out of them depends on how much thought you put into setting them up. That is a reasonable trade for people who would rather decide than delegate.

Water heater monitoring in the same place

Water heating is treated as a first-class part of the app rather than an afterthought. The water heater's performance can be tracked and adjusted, which the developer links to comfort and efficiency. The practical use case is a household where hot water runs short at predictable times, or where someone wants to check that the heater is behaving as expected without going down to a basement or utility closet.

Having both climate and hot water in one app is the strongest argument for EcoNet over juggling separate tools. A homeowner dealing with a cold morning and a lukewarm shower is looking at one screen rather than two, and the same schedules and alerts cover both systems.

The limits here are the limits of the equipment itself. The app reflects and adjusts what a compatible water heater can do, and the manufacturer's own ecosystem is the boundary. That is worth understanding before you build expectations around it.

Schedules, energy tracking and utility programs

Custom schedules let you set different routines for the HVAC system and the water heater so both match how the household actually runs. A schedule that drops the temperature while everyone is out and brings it back before the first person returns is the obvious pattern, and the same logic applies to hot water if your usage has a predictable shape. This is where most of the energy savings in a connected setup tend to come from, and the app gives you the controls to pursue them.

Alongside scheduling, EcoNet tracks energy consumption and offers tips aimed at improving efficiency and lowering utility bills. Seeing consumption in one place is useful for spotting a change in behavior or a system that is working harder than it should. The tips are the developer's suggestions rather than measured outcomes, so treat them as a starting point for decisions rather than a promise about your next bill.

There is also enrollment in utility programs available in your area. These programs vary by region and by utility, and the app is the doorway to them rather than the program itself. If your provider runs one, this saves a separate sign-up process; if it does not, that part of the app simply has nothing to offer you.

Alerts, contractor handoffs and what the app needs

Alerts and notifications cover maintenance reminders, system updates and potential issues, which turns the app into a light early-warning system for equipment that is easy to ignore until it fails. The detail I find most useful is that alerts can be shared with your contractor when contact information is added during account creation. A technician arriving with the actual alert history rather than a vague description of a noise is a better starting position for everyone.

That sharing depends on adding contractor contact details at account creation, so it is a small piece of setup that pays off later. It also tells you something about how the app expects to be used: as a record of what your systems have been doing, not just a remote control.

The app is free and does not interrupt you with advertising or ask you to buy anything inside it. The most recent update is described as bug fixes and general improvements, which is the ordinary upkeep of a long-running app rather than a new direction.

Suited to owners of Rheem-family equipment

It is also a reasonable fit for someone who has just moved into a house with this equipment and wants to understand how it is running. Consumption tracking and the alert history give a new owner a way to learn the rhythms of the system before deciding what to change.

For everyone else, the app has little to work with. There is no broader device support to fall back on, and the utility program feature depends on a program existing where you live. That is not a flaw so much as the shape of a manufacturer's app, and it is better to know that before installing than after.

A straightforward pick for compatible households

EcoNet does a defined job well enough to be worth having if the job applies to you. The 4.1 average from more than 11,000 ratings points to an app that has settled into steady use since its release in 2014.

The trade-offs come from its focus. It controls Rheem-family equipment and nothing else, utility program enrollment depends on your area, and the value of the scheduling and energy features depends on how much you put into configuring them. None of that undercuts the app for the households it was built for.

My recommendation is simple. If you own compatible Rheem-family HVAC or water heating equipment, install it and spend a little time on schedules. If you do not, there is nothing here for you, and no amount of free is going to change that.

What's new in version 6.17.1-11128-2f7756a

Various bug fixes and improvements to provide the best user experience possible.