Category: UK Immersion Heater Installations

As a homeowner, the thought of your hot water boiler breaking down and becoming damaged and/or faulty probably fills you with feelings of dread and despair, and may even keep you up at night, causing you to break out into a cold sweat. Despite this however, the unfortunate reality is that things can, and will, go wrong with your boiler from time to time, and more often than not, your cylinder may be the culprit, meaning that you may need to have a new one installed. Unfortunately, in today’s world, there are a lot of people out there who are, shall we say, not as professional or as skilled as they would have us believe, and so it is imperative that you avoid these individuals and only hire people that possess the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications to work on your hot water boiler and cylinder. Cylinder installations aren’t necessarily simple jobs, and they certainly aren’t something that any old average Joe can do, as there are certain rules and regulations in place. When it comes to cylinder installations however, finding the right company/workers to perform the installations is absolutely essential, which is why we’ve compiled this handy list for you. Contained within, we’ll be taking a look at a few simple tips regarding cylinder installations, that will help you choose the right company for the task at hand. So, without any further hesitation, let’s get started.

Come up with several candidates – Using the internet, as well as Yellow Pages, and various other websites and magazines etc, you should take the time to come up with a list of several potential candidates to perform your cylinder repairs for you, as it is always nice to have other options. Find companies that are relatively local to you, find ones that are within your price range, and take a look at their websites and social media pages and see which services they can potentially provide for you. Although you will only be hiring the one company, it is always great to have other options and a plan B.

Read reviews and testimonials – A great way of getting a better idea of just how effective a cylinder installation company may be, is to take the time to browse the web and read reviews left by other people, about the company in general. Don’t necessarily read reviews on their website, as they could be biased and they could have the negative reviews removed. Look for reviews on independent sites, and see what other people have to say. Don’t be afraid of one or two negative reviews, because you can’t please everybody, but at the same time, if a company has a great deal of negative reviews and feedback, this may set alarm bells ringing and you may wish to avoid them and continue your search elsewhere. Don’t just look for a score or a rating either, actually read what other people have to say, as some people can be critical of the most trivial of matters.

Look at their experience – Although when it comes to cylinder repairs, all companies have to start somewhere, ideally you will want a company with a fair amount of skill and experience under their belts, so try to find companies that fit this criteria as well as possible. For example, if a company only just started trading a few months back, they probably won’t have that much experience and skill under their belts, because they haven’t been working for that long. The more experienced a company is, generally speaking at least, the better that will be for you.

Ask to read testimonials and see examples of their previous work – When contacting a company that you will potentially be hiring to work on your boiler for you and carry out various cylinder installations and repairs, don’t be afraid to speak to them and ask them to provide you with testimonials from previous clients, as well as samples of previous work they’ve carried out. If they’re reluctant to do this for you, you should ask yourself why that is, and it may be the fact that they have something to hide. On the flipside however, if they’re more than happy to provide you with what you need, this is a great sign of trust and honesty, which are two very admirable qualities, from both perspectives.

Ask for recommendations – Finally, if you are still struggling to find a company to perform your cylinder installations and repairs, simply take the time to ask for recommendations from friends and family members. Remember, every homeowner will have a boiler, and will probably have had to have some form of work carried out on it in the past, so you should take the time to ask friends and family members if they can recommend anybody. Ask them in person when you see them, and make use of social networking pages, and online forums and see what other people have to say.

Nowadays, the cost of living appears to be increasing on a near daily basis, whereas incomes sadly seem to be stuck firmly where they are. Because of this, getting our household bills down and making our homes more energy efficient is absolutely essential. As far as household energy bills are concerned, heating your water is considered one of the largest costs any homeowner will face, especially if your boiler is considered old and inefficient. Lately however, there has been a huge surge in the number of immersion heater installations taking place all across the globe, due largely to the fact that immersion heaters these days are now able to provide so many benefits and advantages. Now, immersion heaters in general, are considered to be more costly than combi boilers, and whilst it is true that having an immersion heater solely, would be more costly, if used as a backup, and used sensibly, immersion heaters can actually prove incredibly useful and energy efficient.

What exactly is an immersion heater? – An immersion heater is a form of water heater that uses electricity to heat the water, as opposed to gas. It is designed to fit snugly inside a cylindrical hot water vessel that uses heating elements to heat the water inside of the vessel. If you think of an immersion heater as a giant electric kettle, similar to the ones found in Europe, and you basically have the premise behind an immersion heater. They are plugged into a power supply at the mains, and the great thing about them is the fact that they can be switched on and off at your leisure. Obviously you don’t need hot water 24 hours a day, so you basically just switch the device on when you want hot water, and when you’re finished, the device can be switched off.

What are the main benefits of immersion heaters? – Some of the main benefits associated with immersion heaters include:

• Automatic shut off features – As immersion heaters are now so advanced, many of them are equipped with thermostats, which means that once the water reaches a certain pre-set temperature, it will automatically shut off, so there is no risk of you forgetting to switch it off, and there’s no need for you to constantly have to get up and down, switching it off and on again.
• Great as a backup supply – Let’s face it, if anything ever goes wrong with our boilers, having no heating or hot water can make life pretty miserable, especially during the colder months of the year. The great thing about immersion heaters is the fact that they act as great backup hot water supplies. They aren’t connected to your boiler, so if anything goes wrong with your boiler, your immersion heater won’t be affected, so you will still be able to get hot water.
• Keeps water hot for several hours – Another benefit of immersion heaters is the fact that they’re very well insulated nowadays, so they can keep water hot for several hours, even after the device has been switched off.
• Can be used during cheaper hours – Many immersion heaters are equipped with timers which allow users to set them to turn on and off during hours when electricity tariffs are cheaper, meaning that they will heat the water for cheaper, and then when you wake up the next morning, you can have a hot bath or shower, having heated the water for much cheaper than it would have cost to have used them during the day.
• Peace of mind – At the end of the day, one of main benefits associated with immersion heaters is their convenience. If you have one as a backup device for example, you don’t have to use it constantly, but it’s nice to know that, should anything happen to your combi boiler, you’ll still be able to get some hot water and heat your home etc.

Potential drawbacks – Now we’ll look at some of the less desirable characteristics of immersion heaters. These include:

• Can be more expensive – If your primary source of hot water is an immersion heater, heating water using electricity is much more expensive than by using gas, so an immersion heater as your sole heat source for water can get pretty pricey, although as mentioned, you can set them to heat the water during times when energy tariffs are cheaper.
• Doesn’t heat the water right away – The good thing about using gas combi boilers to heat your water is the fact that they heat the water up within a matter of seconds, so you can get hot water right away. With an immersion heater, once you switch the device on, it can take a couple of hours to heat the water up, so taking a hot bath or shower etc, can’t be a spur of the moment decision.