How do Rheem and AO Smith really compare? Here’s a side-by-side look at where each brand comes from, who owns it, where its products are made, and who each is best for — drawn from our full brand-guideline breakdowns.
| Rheem | AO Smith | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1925, by the Rheem brothers (Richmond, California) | 1874, by Charles Jeremiah Smith (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) |
| Ownership | Privately held — a subsidiary of Japan’s Paloma Industries since 1988 | Publicly traded (NYSE: AOS), an S&P 500 company |
| Owns | Ruud, Richmond, Raypak, Eemax | State, Lochinvar, Takagi, American Water Heaters |
| Made in | US plants plus Australia, Netherlands, Mexico | Ashland City, TN (world’s largest water-heater factory) + China, India |
| Range | Tank, tankless, heat-pump + full HVAC | Tank, tankless, boilers + water treatment |
The verdict
Both are American water-heater heavyweights, but the ownership story is the real difference. Rheem carries a classic American heritage yet has been Japanese-owned (by Paloma Industries) since 1988, and it spans water heating and full HVAC. AO Smith is a genuinely American, publicly traded company built around water heating and water treatment, running the world’s largest water-heater factory. If a US-listed owner matters to you, that’s AO Smith; if breadth across heating and cooling matters, Rheem’s HVAC reach is wider.
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