Hi Folks,
Following on from my ‘boiler’ question - below is a photo of my water heater. It is pretty old and may date from the late 1980’s.
As I know nothing about these things - literally nothing - and as it doesn’t seem to have a simple on-off switch, I assume I need an electrician to get it working for me. The diagnostic says it was working properly before being switched off or whatever.
However, given its age, should I be looking at having it replaced? The budget is tight so does it make sense to keep this old one and get an electrician to put it back in service?
TIA.
I replaced one that we had installed in 1989, back in 2012. It was an Atlantic and I replaced with a Thermor which is a good make and got a plumber to do it, unfortunately they have changed the shape now to a more dumpy shape so had trouble fitting the door round it but to be honest, I was worried about the age and not knowing how long it would last or whether it would rust etc so bit the bullet and replaced it. It was also situated in a first floor bedroom so any leaks would damage the room below! I paid nearly €1000 back in 2012 for the best one I could get (Thermor) so that I would not have any problems for many years to come but you can get much cheaper makes and models. My son just replaced his old chauffe-eau on the garage wall with a floor standing pompe à chaleur type that he got in Leroy Merlin with €500 knocked off as the outer casing had some dents in it but cost normally over €1700 new. He fitted it himself (he is qualified in electricity in France) within a few hours and it has worked fine since February. Moral of my story, if it worries you and at the age it is, I would personally replace it for years of trouble-free hot water to come.
I’d switch it back on and if it works leave it alone until it doesn’t, then replace it.
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It’s a simple job to check if its working, but if you’re not confident get a plumber and/or electrician. If it works, then why not use it.
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ditto the boiler. maybe a service on the boiler - the neighbours may know who does / did them.
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Definitely worth opening it up and doing a “détartrage”. In the process you will discover if you need to change it or not.
If it needs changing, you’ve saved yourself from unpleasant surprises later. If it doesn’t need changing, at least it received the necessary maintenance that it likely desperately needed.
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We had a 100l thermor fitted about two years ago hoping for trouble-free hot water for years to come. But for some reason the hot water pressure has become very low. Do you do any regular maintenance and is there something simple I can do before I call out the plumber?
It’s worth checking if you have a pressure reducer that only serves the chauffe eau i.e. if your cold water is OK, then that could be a reason. If they’re both low then you might have a pressure reducer on the main feed.
Pressure reducers sometimes seize up & a simple tweak up & down of the setting can free them up. Failing that they’re not overly pricey to buy & fitting is straight forward as long as you buy one with identical dimensions & fittings.
As feedback is long overdue on my original enquiry, here’s what happened.
I contacted a local artisan whose advert said he dealt with heating and electric work and was qualified to do so.
He checked over the water heater, said it was fine and got it running. It has worked perfectly ever since.
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That is good news Mike. Just a thought that if you already have cheaper ‘night rate’ electricity available (Heures Creuses) you might wish to consider including a timer into the circuitry to take advantage of that.
Thanks for that tip. I’ll look into it 
The tank looks like it is amply large enough to supply all the hot water you are likely to need during a days usage from a night time heat up. I assume that you don’t have a rugby team who all wish to take a shower in sequence.
Rugby team? 
Not normally . . in fact, at most, it’s just me and by better half!
The cheap Chinese brico shed RDPs are junk. Get a decent one from a plumbing supply shop.
For just two of you it may well be possible to economise further by turning the thermostat down a bit. Just keep turning it down bit by bit every couple of days until you notice the hot water running a little cool at the end of the day and then turn it back up a bit. You may be pleasantly surprised about just how much you can turn it down before you notice any shortfall.
Isn’t that a recipe for getting legionella disease?
Most likely. All my taps and shower/bath taps have a degree mark whereby it must not be turned down lower unless you wish a complete cold supply. Don’t mess with hot water tank settings!
I sold that property 3.5 years ago now and the new owners were responsable after that. I have air/air heat pump water heating now, so much cheaper and a bigger cumulus too.
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You would want to be using around 40% of your electricity over night (and lunch time) to make it viable, you pay more for electricity during the remaining part of the day. Our cylinder heats up in a relatively short time so we saved money switching back to heures plain.
In my view the answer to that Jane is firmly ‘No’ for the following reasons;
Firstly, the domestic water system is both sealed and pressurised so there is no way that any contaminant can enter the system inside the house.
Secondly, in these modern times the quality of the mains water supplied by the water company is excellent, and is monitored and tested on a daily basis. The likelihood of being supplied with contaminated water is extremely remote.
Having said that, if, and only if, private well water is being used domestically, then I concede that you have a point.