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Handy heater
Having instant hot water at the kitchen sink is wonderful. This was intended as exact replacement for unit that began leaking after about 2 and a half years. I have hard water (about 700 ppm) and did not follow the instructions about periodic dismantling and cleaning. The heating element accumulated a lot of scale and finally split apart and caused a leak at the base where the electrode mounts. The leak was very gradual and was not noticed until much absorbsion occured on flooring beneath the kitchen sink and mold appeared. Rather than attempting to clean the tank and replace the effected parts, I ordered a new unit. It turns out the new unit was slightly different in physical size. It was 1/2 inch wider and an inch higher requiring modifications to my under sink arrangement (R/O filter ect). I plan to clean the tank and replace the heating element in about a year, hopfully avoiding complications.
[Thursday, May 08, 2008]
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Installation ideas
Great little water heater. The outside plastic case doesn't even get warm on the highest setting; really well insultated. Some changes I made:
- Used a different 110v circuit to avoid overloading dishwasher or disposer circuit. The nearby disposer outlet was switched and not usable for this anyway.
- At first I plumbed the garage water heater as input to this little one, but realized that would just keep wasting the energy used to heat the long line of water that arrives cool anyway. So I plumbed the cold water to the input side of the 2.5 gal unit and it still works just fine. We just have to avoid running too much hot water unnecessarily like we did previously waiting for the hot water to arrive.
- (While doing this replumbing, I also moved my dishwasher line from the hot to the cold water side since it has it's own water heater element. This means the garage hot water heater no longer supplies any hot water to this sink location. I figure this somewhat offsets the added energy use of the little one.)
- I drilled holes in the covers of the Ariston to put a knob on the thermostat shaft. This allows us to dial in the lowest setting that will provide sufficient hot water for normal use. The highest setting is very hot, and can easily hurt your fingers unless you cut it with cold water.
- Might be a good idea to put a low metal tray under the unit which is a code requirement in my town for standard water heaters.
- I'm considering adding a timer to turn off overnight and when we are away; need a heavy duty one with high wattage capacity.
[Tuesday, May 06, 2008]
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Solving slow hot water retrieval
We have a long run from the hot water tank to the basement sink which gets a lot of use. After waiting for 45 seconds, or so, for hot water the furnace will start up to replace all the hot water being used to travel the long distance. The solution was the Ariston GL 2.5 gal.electric mini tank water heater. I installed it under the sink and the hook-up was simple using stainless, flexible water lines. I was fortunate to have an outlet on a dedicated circuit nearby. Hot water is instant and there is an indicator light on the "off/on" switch to let you know when it is heating. It works well and it's made in the USA.
[Sunday, February 17, 2008]
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