You get into your new home, make repairs to the bathroom or the old boiler simply went out of order? What now?
The market offers all types and brands of equipment for “producing” hot water, so how should you find the best for them? Well, you can as your friends and neighbors for advice, you can trust the sales assistant at the store, you can just roam through websites and forums on the Internet, or you simply buy the model that impressed you with a flashy and glossy advertisement. However, what’s best is to make an informed choice by first learning a thing or two about bathroom boilers.
There is a vast array of water heaters – electric and on gas, volume and tankless, with electronics, with eco features, standing upright and for mounting on the wall, vertical and lying, white and colored, for the bathroom and for the kitchen, for installation under the sink or above. High-efficiency boilers, combined with a heat exchanger can be connected to alternative energy sources such as solar, gas or central (local) heating systems. There are small boilers with a capacity of 1 gallon and giants with a capacity of 250 gallons and more. The power of the heater can range from 2 to 6 kW for single-phase electric heaters and from 2 to 30 kW for those on gas.
- A volume boiler or a tankless one?
Volume (storage) heaters need more time to initially heat the water. After that they act as a thermos – once heated, the water retains its temperature for a long time because of the boiler’s good insulation. Desirable degrees are maintained by automatically switching on and off of the heater. The heating time depends on the capacity of the boiler, the heater’s power, and the initial water temperature.
Tankless water heaters on the other hand heat the water much faster. That’s why they are also known as instantaneous boilers. They are more compact than volume boilers and have more power. With tankless boilers, the water warms up as it passes through the heat exchanger.
Consumption of electricity tankless water heaters is higher. Therefore, upon purchase you must be certain that your electrical network can maintain the required power. Usually the power of tankless boilers is around 3.5 – 6 kW.
- Electrical boiler or on gas?
Gas water heaters are usually more economical than electric ones, although it depends on the price of the gas. Additionally, you can safely run the washing machine, dishwasher and take a bath without worrying that the hot water will end or that a fuse will blow up because of a circuit overload. Gas heaters also have a long life and their maintenance is easy and cheap. According to the way of heating, gas boilers are two types as well – tankless and volume. The flow-through ensure continuous production of hot water.
Generally, both with gas boilers and electrical ones, a tankless boiler is better for homes with one bathroom and fewer people because if the comfort and quick heating it provides, while a volume boiler works better for bigger households with more than one bathroom.
In order to choose the appropriate water heater for your home or office, you can see how much hot water it produces in 1 minute. That info can be found in the technical passport of the unit.
Additional advices:
- Experts advise that the valve of the tank should be periodically cleaned. This is done by lifting the lever until the stream of water comes out of the lateral opening of the valve and flows for 30-60 seconds. This operation must be carried out after the boiler’s connected to the conduit and is filled. This should be repeated at least every 14 days.
- When choosing a boiler pay special attention to the quality of the material of the tank – it’s best to be from an enameled or stainless steel. The service life of the entire boiler depends on the material of the tank. The devices also differ in the covering of the water container. Some containers are enameled with glass-ceramic coating, others – with stainless steel. Some advantages of the enamel boilers are that the coating is chemically neutral and does not react with water and its constituents (limestone, lime stone). Also, the quartz in the enamel ensures the preservation of the water’s cleanliness. The stainless steel water tank has other advantages – these boilers have a longer life and are more resistant to corrosion and deformation.
We hope we’ve once again given you useful and helpful information and eased your choices!