Z
ZaraM
Hello, I'd be grateful for any advice anyone can give me (I know very little about plumbing). Sorry this is a bit long, but I'm trying to give as much info as possible.
I only have electricity in my flat. I have an economy 7 immersion heater for hot water. I only have room for a very small cylinder - 1600 x 300.
Last week something went wrong, and the immersion heater stopped working. The plumber said the elements had blown, but he couldn't get them out. A week later, I have a new cylinder (same size) and new controller (Horstmann Economy 7 Quartz - manual boost). Cylinder's not currently insulated as the plumber had to cut off the jacket to get it through the cupboard door.
Everything is working fine - bottom element heats up water overnight on E7, top element heats up water when I press the boost button. The tank gets hot to the touch. But there's quite a difference between the hot water I get now vs. the old tank....
I always take a bath at night. So usually I: heat the water on E7 overnight, then boost it for an hour at 6pm (because by then the stored water is usually lukewarm, especially in the winter), in order to take a bath at 7pm. With the old tank, after a one hour boost, the water was very very very hot (almost scalding), and I could have a very hot bath. I only needed a tiny bit of hot water and a lot of cold. Result = hot bath and the hot water went a lot further.
But with the new tank, after I have boosted for an hour at 6pm, the water is hot - but I have to run the hot tap on full with only a bit of cold, and by about halfway through filling the bath the hot tap is only running warm. I haven't tried the power shower yet, but I imagine it will start to run warm then cold fairly quickly, as even the old tank wasn't brilliant.
My first thought was the thermostat - as the plumber suspected my old tank was very old / thermostat was set too high / might have contributed to it blowing. (NB I have lived here for 17 years, so it took quite some time for it to blow.) I've looked at the thermostats - they just have + and - (no temperature) and are turned all the way round to the +. So I guess I can't do anything about that?
My second thought was insulation - but the old tank wasn't insulated that well (it was so old a lot of it had fallen off).
Does anyone have any idea? Or do I have to resign myself to horrible warm baths forever?
Thanks!
I only have electricity in my flat. I have an economy 7 immersion heater for hot water. I only have room for a very small cylinder - 1600 x 300.
Last week something went wrong, and the immersion heater stopped working. The plumber said the elements had blown, but he couldn't get them out. A week later, I have a new cylinder (same size) and new controller (Horstmann Economy 7 Quartz - manual boost). Cylinder's not currently insulated as the plumber had to cut off the jacket to get it through the cupboard door.
Everything is working fine - bottom element heats up water overnight on E7, top element heats up water when I press the boost button. The tank gets hot to the touch. But there's quite a difference between the hot water I get now vs. the old tank....
I always take a bath at night. So usually I: heat the water on E7 overnight, then boost it for an hour at 6pm (because by then the stored water is usually lukewarm, especially in the winter), in order to take a bath at 7pm. With the old tank, after a one hour boost, the water was very very very hot (almost scalding), and I could have a very hot bath. I only needed a tiny bit of hot water and a lot of cold. Result = hot bath and the hot water went a lot further.
But with the new tank, after I have boosted for an hour at 6pm, the water is hot - but I have to run the hot tap on full with only a bit of cold, and by about halfway through filling the bath the hot tap is only running warm. I haven't tried the power shower yet, but I imagine it will start to run warm then cold fairly quickly, as even the old tank wasn't brilliant.
My first thought was the thermostat - as the plumber suspected my old tank was very old / thermostat was set too high / might have contributed to it blowing. (NB I have lived here for 17 years, so it took quite some time for it to blow.) I've looked at the thermostats - they just have + and - (no temperature) and are turned all the way round to the +. So I guess I can't do anything about that?
My second thought was insulation - but the old tank wasn't insulated that well (it was so old a lot of it had fallen off).
Does anyone have any idea? Or do I have to resign myself to horrible warm baths forever?
Thanks!