Instant Hot Water vs Stored

[Deleted2797112]

Hi again,
Wonder if any experts could give me some advice please.

My elderly mother lives in a one bed retirement flat which I bought for her. Since she moved in at the end of last year, she's complained about very low hot water flow to the kitchen tap (kitchen taps are further away from water tanks). We've done the obvious of checking the stopcock. Hot and cold to the bathroom and cold to the kitchen are fine. All heating and water heating is electric (no gas in the building, I assume for safety of elderly residents) on a white meter. The flat is all on one level, the cold tank is directly above the hot water cylinder in a cupboard in the hall.

View media item 48487
I imagine this isn't a brilliant arrangement for water pressure but it's how they were built and there is nowhere else to locate the tanks to get them higher.

My mother's hot water requirements are modest. There is currently a bath but I am going to have that taken out and install a new suite with just a shower as she can't manage the bath any more. Other than bath/shower/personal she just needs hot water for washing up and cleaning. There is a separate laundry room in the building for residents so no washing machine to worry about.

An even more elderly neighbour has convinced her that what she (= I) needs to do is take out the hot and cold water tanks and install an instant hot water system which she says will be cheaper to run and solve the low water flow to the kitchen (not sure how?). She knows that it wouldn't produce enough water for a bath but as there will no longer be a bath that doesn't matter.

As I've got to have the bathroom done anyway, is this a sensible thing to do? If it's essential to get her a decent water supply then I'll do it but being hard-headed about it, retirement flats aren't terribly good investments and the money I'm going to spend on the bathroom (and a kitchen too) I'll likely never get back which will hit me financially in the longer-term. I want her to have everything she needs to be comfortable and safe but not to spend unnecessarily so I'd welcome any ideas on this.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JohnD]

I would not be at all surprised if the kitchen tap is a trendy fashionable Italian design, with tiny waterways and contricting tails the size of pencils.

If you replace it with a British design of tap with big internal waterways and half-inch tap connectors you will get much better flow. Bristan is a good make and if you go to their website and search "clearance" you wil often find some bargains.

If your mother is showing signs of age you might consider lever-operated taps, though traditional capstans are very easy to operate, better than knobs, in both bathroom and kitchen, and there are some high-quality modern taps of "traditional" appearance. For example these have an easy-clean shroud with no crevices, and are very easy to operate. The ball ends will not dig into your hand.

http://www.bristan.com/epages/Brist...ategories/Taps/Traditional/"Regency Bathroom" they do kitchen taps of similar style

Also look to see if there are ball-o-fix isolating valves under the sink or by the tank, they have a very small hole in the ball. replace with full-bore ones.

If there is room, comsider moving the cold tank higher, but allow space to get your head and shoulders in to change the float valve when necessary.

BTW if there is no gas, any electrical water heater will give poor flow and/or have a much smaller storage capacity than the HW cylinder and immersion heater which I presume is currently fitted. Insulate the cylinder and hot pipes well. It looks like a White meter so the existing cylinder will fill with hot water at cheap night rates.

 

[Deleted2797112]

Thanks JohnD!
The executors who sold the flat appear to have done a bit of a makeover on the cheap on what I suspect was a tired kitchen - they put new door fronts on the old cabinets and installed a new sink and tap and base unit so what you suggest fits. I've got an image of the tap but not the plumbing underneath:

View media item 48488

 

[JohnD]

p.s.

the pillar taps (not the monoblock mixer) do have better flow as there is more room for bigger pipes

http://www.bristan.com/epages/Bristan.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Bristan/Products/"RG HNK C"

 

[dormermike]

May not be relevant so apologies but i had a similar looking tap that showed slow hot flow at the kitchen, and it turned out to be air in the pipe work.. i blocked up the outlet, effectively connecting the cold to the hot and turned both on... this pushed cold mains pressure water into the hot circuit and blows any air out into the tank. Worked for me. Wouldn't leave the cold on too long.. 5 seconds was enough for mine.

 

[mysteryman]

We had exactly this situation with my late mother-in-law. Once her bath had gone the hot water was coming some distance at a poor flowrate. I think a small undersink heater may be the answer, maybe supplying the hand basin in the bathroom as well.