What was the cause of the lawsuit against Rheem?

What was the cause of the lawsuit against Rheem includes several class action lawsuits, but most well-known is evaporator coil leak lawsuit and water heater defect lawsuits. For HVAC, Rheem and Ruud faced class action lawsuits in 2010s alleging evaporator coils in AC and heat pumps including RA14 and RP14 leaked prematurely due to formicary corrosion and manufacturing defect where copper tubing was too thin and not properly coated, causing refrigerant leaks after 3 to 5 years, poor cooling, and costly repairs of 600 to 1,200 dollars for coil replacement, with plaintiffs claiming Rheem knew about defect but continued selling units. Lawsuit sought reimbursement for repairs. Another lawsuit involved Rheem gas furnaces with heat exchanger cracks. For water heaters, Rheem faced class action in 2020 alleging electric water heaters had defective heating elements that failed prematurely, and tankless water heater lawsuits alleging false advertising of efficiency. Rheem settled some lawsuits with extended warranties and reimbursement programs, offering free coil replacement for affected units within 5 years. In 2023, Rheem settled water heater lawsuit for 10 million dollars offering replacement. These lawsuits are similar to other HVAC manufacturers like Carrier and Lennox that also faced coil leak lawsuits, as formicary corrosion affects all brands using copper coils. Rheem improved coil design after 2018 with better coating and thicker copper. Most lawsuits did not find intentional wrongdoing but resulted in extended warranty programs.