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Help: Fitting immersion heater in your water tanks?

KatieDogGrooming

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I'll be honest I am not a window cleaner, myself and my partner fit out mobile dog grooming vans. I'm reaching out to you for help because we use very similar methods to get water supply in our vans. So my issue is; we have plastic water tanks like you do (ours are only 105 litres) using a shurflo pump to supply pressure to an electric unvented water heater (15litre) when our pumps freeze it is breaking the water heaters so our customers can't wash the dogs because the water heaters break every time we get some cold weather! As this is so unreliable and unprofessional for us we was thinking about installing 1.5 kw immersion heaters in to our tanks. My partner who fits out the conversions knows basic plumbing but not confident if this method will work for us. Has anybody every fitted their own immersion heaters to their water tanks, does it require special tanks or are the plastic ones ok, does anybody know how long it would take to heat up the 105 litres and finally do you think we should get external help from a plumber, would they even know how to do it!? Most plumbers weve contacted before get scared off when we tell we them fit plumbing bits in a van. Thanks in advance!

 
Need to drain the pump at end of day, you can put a tap between tank and pump then run pump briefly to empty water out of pump.  You should also drain water heater of water, usually a drain plug to screw out, also detach hoses to let water out.

 
I'll be honest I am not a window cleaner, myself and my partner fit out mobile dog grooming vans. I'm reaching out to you for help because we use very similar methods to get water supply in our vans. So my issue is; we have plastic water tanks like you do (ours are only 105 litres) using a shurflo pump to supply pressure to an electric unvented water heater (15litre) when our pumps freeze it is breaking the water heaters so our customers can't wash the dogs because the water heaters break every time we get some cold weather! As this is so unreliable and unprofessional for us we was thinking about installing 1.5 kw immersion heaters in to our tanks. My partner who fits out the conversions knows basic plumbing but not confident if this method will work for us. Has anybody every fitted their own immersion heaters to their water tanks, does it require special tanks or are the plastic ones ok, does anybody know how long it would take to heat up the 105 litres and finally do you think we should get external help from a plumber, would they even know how to do it!? Most plumbers weve contacted before get scared off when we tell we them fit plumbing bits in a van. Thanks in advance!


 
I'll be honest I am not a window cleaner, myself and my partner fit out mobile dog grooming vans. I'm reaching out to you for help because we use very similar methods to get water supply in our vans. So my issue is; we have plastic water tanks like you do (ours are only 105 litres) using a shurflo pump to supply pressure to an electric unvented water heater (15litre) when our pumps freeze it is breaking the water heaters so our customers can't wash the dogs because the water heaters break every time we get some cold weather! As this is so unreliable and unprofessional for us we was thinking about installing 1.5 kw immersion heaters in to our tanks. My partner who fits out the conversions knows basic plumbing but not confident if this method will work for us. Has anybody every fitted their own immersion heaters to their water tanks, does it require special tanks or are the plastic ones ok, does anybody know how long it would take to heat up the 105 litres and finally do you think we should get external help from a plumber, would they even know how to do it!? Most plumbers weve contacted before get scared off when we tell we them fit plumbing bits in a van. Thanks in advance!
hi katie,it seems that there is a few things going on,i am trying to be both nice and erm be constuctive with the reply so please bear with me,i am a dog lover and i am putting myself in your shoes so what may go for window cleaning some things i wouldn't dream of subjecting my dog to.

first things first,immersion heater, no,no,no,no,and even more no.

the tank you will have is like you say a wyedale tank like most window cleaners use,these do not take heat that well and will at some point in the future just collaspe (need to find the correct wording on that one)also there is a very real risk of legionala  unless you heat the water to 60c-i'm sure the dogs or the people who buy your fitted stystems won't like that too much

also your customers electric supply would need to be beefed up to cope with the power needed to heat the water.

in short,unless you want to lose your home just for the sake of an immersion heater and the insurance claims that will come in floods don't do it thats why plumbers will run a mile when mention this.

coming back to  the boilers you supply,surely there is a bleed valve?,this should be left open at the end of every day to drain the water,thats the most simplist solution to your problem,also configure the water stystem so it can all be drained down at the end of every day so there is no water left to freeze,that should already be in place if the plumbing stystem has been designed properly.

if you wanted to do this properly katie then i would suggest you chat to steve at aquafactors,the only reason i am saying this is because as a dog owner  i don't think you both are going about this the correct and safe way thats all-especially if you are fitting out vans to sell to potential customers.

sorry if i sound harsh,and its not really intended that way,more to open your eyes a bit more.

 

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