I couldn't open the Apple News link, so I went by the reporting on the product it most likely points to: Heatbit's Bitwater, a $899 replacement element with 20 bitcoin mining chips that heats the tank while it mines. Its own figures are 34 TH/s at up to 600 W, shipping in Q1 2027 and sold on refundable preorder. If that's the one you saw, here's the math.
The revenue claim: Bitcoin.com (published Oct 25, 2026) cites estimated mining earnings of about $455 a year. That is an estimate, not a measured result, and it depends on the bitcoin price and network difficulty at the time, both of which move constantly.
Payback on the hardware alone: $899 / $455 = 1.98 years, before pool fees, downtime or any change in difficulty. Heatbit's later batches cost up to $1,299, which pushes payback to about 2.9 years at the same revenue ($1,299 / $455 = 2.85).
The electricity side is where profit depends on you. At 600 W running around the clock, the unit uses 0.600 × 24 × 365 = 5,256 kWh a year. $455 of revenue on that power works out to about $0.09 per kWh. If your electric rate is higher than that, the miner only pays off when its heat replaces heat your tank would have made anyway. If the water heater's thermostat doesn't need that heat, you pay for the extra power and the case gets weaker. Check your own rate on your bill.
In short: the case rests on one estimate, one new product with no independent customer reviews, and a volatile coin price. It isn't a sure profit. Heatbit's own app shows hashrate and earnings once it's running, which would give real numbers to test against.
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🕒 As of October 2026
