Choosing A Boiler: Which Company Is A Storage Water Heater Better, Including An Electric One, How To Choose, Characteristics And Other Aspects

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Choosing a boiler for hot water preparation

Africans do not understand us: "Why heat the water?" They have other difficulties. And we have to figure out how to get a good boiler. The name "boiler" comes from the English "boiler". Our Russian "water heater" fully reveals the essence and main purpose of this unit - water heating, which in the language of plumbers means "hot water supply" or hot water supply. In order to choose the device that can combine the maximum of your requirements, let's put them on the shelves.

Content

• 1 Instantaneous and storage water heaters

  1.1 Video: instantaneous water heater or boiler, what to choose

• 2 Types of heaters by the method of heating water

  • 2.1 Electric boiler
  • 2.2 Gas water heater

  • 2.3 Indirect heating boiler

    2.3.1 Video: indirect heating boiler

  • 2.4 Alternative water heating schemes

• 3 Dimensions and volume of storage boilers

  3.1 Table: water heating time depending on the volume of the boiler and the power of heating elements

• 4 Main components of an electric boiler

• 5 Selecting a boiler for heating water

  • 5.1 Which brand to choose
  • 5.2 Video: 80 liter boiler review - the best stainless steel boiler

Instantaneous and storage water heaters

According to the heating method, water heaters are divided into flow and storage. The water in the flow heater heats up at the moment of flow, that is, only when you open the tap, and the rest of the time the boiler is resting. With the cumulative scheme of work, the water is heated like in a large kettle, more appropriately, in a samovar.

Advantages and disadvantages of a flow-through heating scheme:

• Lack of heat, and therefore, electrical losses that arise in any attempt to store a large amount of hot water. For each liter of heated water, you will pay 10–30% less compared to the cumulative scheme.
• Small size. A flow-through heater is smaller than a microwave, which, of course, pleases the eye of any housewife much more than a huge barrel the size of a refrigerator.

• With obvious advantages, flow-through heaters have a big drawback: high currents in the electrical circuit, that is, a high load on your power grid. While you are basking in bed, the storage boiler will slowly warm you up with one or two kilowatts of water for your morning shower, and what he did in a couple of hours, the flow boiler will have to complete in five minutes of your morning exercise. A flow-through heater with a capacity of 3-5 kW manages to increase the temperature by 10-15 degrees. In the summer, when the hot water was turned off in the apartment, and you came from the street to take a shower, this option is a nice thing. However, in all other cases, a more powerful device is required, and here a lot depends on the lack of technical possibilities for connecting such, especially in the case of a large family.

  

  Flow heaters are more economical and compact than storage heaters, but they impose much more serious requirements on the electrical network

Video: instantaneous water heater or boiler, what to choose

Types of heaters by the method of heating water

Depending on the energy used, water heaters are divided into several types.

Electric boiler

An electric boiler is easily guessed by the presence of a power cable with a plug at the end. This is the simplest device from the point of view of operation: I plugged it in, pressed the button, and after a while hot water appeared in the tap.

Gas water heater

A gas water heater, in the common people called a column, is a flow-through type heater. In the apartments of many cities, these devices with a half-century history still serve. A gas water heater is an excellent option for heating water, suitable for many cases.

Residents of many cities still receive hot water using a gas water heater.

Advantages and disadvantages of a gas water heater:

• excellent performance. Any column is capable of heating 10 or more liters of water per minute by 25 degrees, which is enough for taking a shower and washing dishes at the same time in the kitchen;
• low heating cost. The cost of a liter of water heated with bottled gas is approximately two times less than with electricity, and when connected to the mains, it is reduced by another three times;
• small dimensions. The dimensions of the gas column are comparable to the dimensions of a storage boiler for 30 liters with almost unlimited capacity;
• when used in an apartment building, there is one drawback - it is difficult to coordinate the installation of a column with firefighters if it has not been installed before.

The problem of installing a flow-through gas heater in a country house is solved in a complex with issues of a heating device. The ability to connect to the mains is an excellent reason to install a gas boiler with a DHW circuit.

Indirect heating boiler

Heating water in a water heater is obviously easier with electricity. Everyone understands this. But does everyone know that water can be heated with a heating system?

Such a system looks like a conventional boiler, inside which an additional spiral, called a heat exchanger, was placed. This spiral is connected as another radiator to the heating boiler, only this radiator heats not the air in the room, but the water in the boiler.

An indirect heating boiler is connected to the system as a radiator and supplies water heated from contact with a hot coolant through a heat exchanger

Of course, this DHW scheme is implemented in individual residential buildings, and, by definition, it works only when the heating boiler is running. Modern boilers of indirect heating are additionally equipped with electric heating elements, and during periods of time when the boiler is not working, they turn into ordinary storage water heaters.

Why complicate things so much? Electricity is an expensive energy source. And if you have made a choice in favor of heating on any other type of fuel - diesel fuel, coal, wood, pellets - it is worth transferring this savings to water heating.

Such units are sometimes two to three times more expensive than similar models of storage boilers, but in most cases these costs are justified, since during the heating season, which in most regions lasts 6–7 months, you get real savings in water heating.

All considered schemes are safe for the life and health of consumers, subject to the rules of operation. Materials that come into contact with water are extremely inert and do not emit harmful substances into the water.

Video: indirect heating boiler

Alternative water heating schemes

Heating water is expensive and people are looking for alternative energy sources. Let's mention a few words about the most advanced technologies.

• solar collectors. They are specially coated tubes that use the energy of the sun to heat water. Such collectors are usually located on sloping roofs of houses in the southern regions of our country;

  

  Solar collectors store energy from the sun and convert it into heating water

• water heaters with built-in heat pump. In them, the heat of the house leaving through ventilation is converted with the help of a heat pump (as in an air conditioner) and used to heat water in a boiler.

  

  Heat pump boilers are connected to the ventilation system and use the energy of the outgoing warm air to heat the water

Dimensions and volume of storage boilers

The dimensions of the boiler are directly dependent on the volume of water that it contains. A 15-liter storage water heater can fit under the sink, and a 150-liter one has a diameter of almost half a meter and a height of 1.4 meters. By shape and location, boilers are:

• flat (SLIM);
• horizontal;
• vertical.

Each consumer selects all these options for their specific conditions.

It is necessary to calculate the volume of the required boiler based on your peak needs. Of course, there are special formulas for this, but the question can be approached more simply.

1. If two students live in an apartment, whose wake-up and end-off times, accompanied by the use of a shower, rarely coincide, a 30-liter boiler is enough for them. This amount is enough to take a hot shower for 15 minutes, and by the time the hot water is next turned on, the boiler will have time to heat it up again, because the smaller the volume, the faster the water reaches the set temperature.
2. If the apartment is home to a family with three children who like to invite guests, you will need a boiler with a volume of 100-150 liters, depending on the available space for its placement.

Table: water heating time depending on the volume of the boiler and the power of heating elements

power of heating elements	Boiler volume in liters
	thirty	fifty	80	one hundred	150
1 kW	1.8	3.0	4.8	5.9	8.9
2 kW	0.9	1.5	2.4	3.0	4.5

The table indicates the time required to heat water from 15 to 65 ^o C, in hours.

The main components of an electric boiler

1. Tank. The "thinnest" point of the boiler. It fails most often and is not repairable. A stainless steel tank usually lasts longer than a coated one.

2. Heating element. There are basically two types of heating elements: "wet", which is in direct contact with water, and "dry", which does not have such contact. Most standard models use a wet heating element. In some models, two devices are installed, each of which has its own switch. This allows you to work in three heating modes.

   

   A wet heating element is in the water and heats it due to its own temperature, which rises when the device is connected to the network

3. Magnesium anode. Heating water by electricity creates a thermocouple. Without going deep into electrical engineering, let's say that the boiler tank is subject to severe corrosion because of this. To extend its service life, a magnesium anode is placed in the working environment, which takes over the function of a thermocouple, protecting the inner surface of the tank. By the way, this detail must not be forgotten in time to change.

   

   In some models of water heaters, the magnesium anode and the heating element are installed on the same base.

4. Water temperature sensor.

5. Control panel with power button and temperature controller.

   

   The control panel of modern heating devices has an intuitive interface and contains a power button and a temperature controller

Choosing a boiler for heating water

It's time to take stock. The choice of a water heater, as we already understood, strongly depends on the set of initial data and the number of consumers. You may need to consult a specialist, but we will offer you the following recommendations.

1. A person who lives alone in an apartment will more often choose a flow heater.
2. A family with three children living in a neighboring apartment will prefer a 100-liter storage boiler.
3. The owner of the cottage will first of all consider schemes with indirect heating or a combined version with a gas boiler.
4. For a dacha, where there is sometimes no electricity, it is possible - if, of course, the budget allows - to spend money on some alternative water heating system.

Which brand to choose

All leading manufacturers - ARISTON, BAXI, ELECTROLUX, GORENJE, THERMEX, BOSH and many others - vyingly claim their exclusivity. Here, as in many other areas, brand awareness increases reliability and naturally raises the price tag. It is also worth considering the proximity of service centers and the possibility of purchasing standard spare parts: anode, heating element, gaskets.

If you are willing to pay for reliability, choose expensive and well-known brands. If you are an adherent of the policy "two simple ones will still last longer than one expensive", choose economy class models.

Video: 80 liter boiler review - the best stainless steel boiler

We hope our review will help you choose and purchase a water heater that will give you comfort and joy, because a hot shower at the end of a working day is incomparable pleasure and the best way to relieve stress.