The Hot Water Systems As Fit in Watsons Bay.
We are not writing a theoretical dictionary of all the hot water systems that have ever been produced. The following is what literally exists in peninsula properties, in 1950s copper tanks of heritage cottages and modern heat pumps of new developments.
Electric Storage Tanks
Still in the majority at Watsons Bay.
Electric storage tanks prevail due to their simplicity, ability to fit in small spaces, and the fact that they do not need a supply of gas, which most heritage cottages do not have. The downside? They are costly to operate and when the element collapses, you are left without hot water.
- When the correct size is in stock then replacement of an element only takes 60-90 minutes.
- A failure of a thermostat leads to either lack of hot water or scalding hot.
- Tempering valves will not last more than 8-10 years and have to be changed legally.
- Tank corrosion is terminal after 12-15 years of service with or without maintenance.
- Units that are mounted on ceilings of the apartments require strata access coordination.
Gas Continuous Flow
Typical in the refurbished buildings.
Instant gas systems do not store water, but can heat it on-demand. They are small, they never run out in the middle of the shower, and they are less expensive to run than electric storage. Complexity is the tradeoff, the more components there are, the more there are potential points of failure.
- Ignition failures cause you to have no hot water and a flashing error code.
- Scale formation in heat exchanger due to moderately hard water in Sydney.
- Flow sensors fail and misreport water demand to the controller
- Flow sensors malfunction and falsely signal to the controller the water demand.
- Replacement of gas valves involve pressure and leak tests.
- A lot of Watsons Bay cottages are not properly sized with gas supply to be retrofitted.
Gas Storage Tanks
The intermediate position.
Gas storage systems are a combination of a tank and gas heating, quicker recovery compared to electric, less complicated compared to instantaneous. They are better fitted to bigger Watsons Bay homes with various showers running at the same time and recovery time is important.
- Pilot light failures need to be relit manually or replaced with thermocouples.
- Salt air corrosion of burner assembly in foreshore buildings.
- Electric storage Tank life (10-15 years typical)
- Checking of flues is necessary, risk of carbon monoxide when blocked or damaged.
- Problems in gas pressure influence the heating performance, and the problems do not show any noticeable symptoms.
Heat Pump Systems
Complex and energy efficient.
Heat pumps remove heat in ambient air to heat water, and is 300 percent efficient relative to resistive electric heating. They are fashionable among environmentally conscious owners and they do actually decrease running expenses. They are also complex and costly to maintain and when they malfunction.
- Out of warranty units cost $1,500 to $2,500 to repair the compressor.
- Leaks of refrigerant are to be diagnosed and evacuated/recharged by specialists.
- Failure of fan motors leaves you with the only heating backup which is through resistance.
- Control boards are non-reliable and parts might take time to locate.
- Neighbor complaint of noise in the overcrowded housing in Watsons Bay.
Solar Hot Water
Uncommon in Watsons Bay houses.
Solar systems integrate roof-mounted collectors with storage tanks and electric or gas boosting. They are not common in Watsons Bay because of heritage limitations, inaccessibility of roofs in compact residential areas, and due to the old tree cover on the peninsula which causes shading problems.
- Leaks of collector panels demand access to the roof in small lanes.
- Any failure of the circulation pumps leaves you with a backup element only.
- Inefficient operation is due to controller and sensor problems.
- Frost-protected systems should be replaced with glycol every 5 years.
- Approval of heritage overlay by Woollahra Council is required.
Ancient Copper Tanks
Continues to work in old cottages.
The Watsons Bay heritage cottages have some cottages with copper or galvanised steel tanks that were installed in the 1950s-1980s. These systems have gone past their design life by several decades, and are operating on borrowed time until they fail catastrophically.
- Parts that are no longer available as repair parts, alterations necessary.
- The internal corrosion produces rust-colored water and metallic taste.
- Failure of tank fabrics is suddenly catastrophic.
- Degradation of the insulation makes them costly to operate.
- Replacement usually exposes downsized systems regarding existing households.
What Actually Goes Awry (And Why)
Hot water systems break down in foreseeable manner. The awareness of the failure patterns can make you aware of the problems in a timely manner before the failure occurs to the full extent requiring costly emergency actions.
The Unaccountable Abrupt Collapse
- You had hot water yesterday, you have none to-day.
- Electric systems: burnout of element or tripping of circuit breaker.
- Gas systems: ignition malfunction or pilot light off.
- Tank failures: major leakage of corroded tank bottom.
- Power supply: RCD faulted because of earth leakage.
In the case of electric systems, confirm that your circuit breaker has not tripped, this solves 20% of no hot water calls immediately. In the case of gas systems, ensure that the pilot light can be seen through the inspection window. Such two-minute checks can spare you an unwarranted service call.
Exhausted Abnormally Fast
- Pattern of same usage but hot water depletes during shower.
- Sedimentation that decreases the useful tank capacity.
- Malfunctioning heating component in two-component electric systems.
- Thermostat drift that enables temperatures to fall below the set point.
- Failure of tempering valve excessive mixing of cold water.
A decreasing flow of hot water over months points to sediment build-up, or deteriorating parts. This does not correct itself, it progresses to the point of utter failure. Diagnosis at an early stage is cheaper compared to emergency repair when your Watsons Bay cottage has been flooded and is catastrophically damaged.
Water Temperature Problems
- The presence of scalding hot water, which is a sign of thermostat or tempering valve malfunctioning.
- Lukewarm maximal temperature indicating an element or gas problem.
- Single shower with temperature going crazy.
- There are those taps that provide hot water and those that do not (pipe issue not system issue).
- Hot water is turned off and on (continuous flow units) or cold and hot.
The Australian plumbing standards require that there should be no more than 50 C at tapware. For systems that store water at temperatures above this temperature (which are the norm in controlling Legionella), the systems must have competitive tempering valves. When your hot water turns scalding give that this is a safety failure that needs to be repaired immediately especially when this situation occurs in the home where the children or elderly people are living.
Leaking Relief Valve
- Leakage of water through overflow pipe outside the building.
- Signifies a broken valve, or over-pressure.
- Is also possible due to thermal expansion of closed systems.
- Not morning discharge normal, continuous flow.
- Do not plug or cap the overflow pipe in any way.
That is a valve that will not allow your hot water tank to blow like a bomb in case of excessive pressure. There are videos on YouTube demonstrating the consequences of turning off relief valves, it is frightening. In case your relief valve releases all the time, seek diagnosis. Never put a cap on it, never forget it and be sure not to be told by someone that you can just tighten it down.
Strange Noises
- Boeing or popping of the boiling sediment on the floor of tanks.
- Hissing means that there is steam or pressure trouble.
- Banging on pipes that could be indicating water hammer in supply pipes.
- Clicking through thermostat cycling or expansion/contraction.
- Constant fan sound of heat pump units.
All suggest annual tank flushing, hardly anyone does it. Sydney Water is a solution that has dissolved minerals that are deposited in tanks over a period of years. The layer of sediment later becomes so thick that it generates rumbling sounds and decreases the efficiency of heating. Flushing gets this out before it can become an issue, but it takes a plumber, a drain point and an hour of time that most people can ill afford to schedule.
Smelly Water or Rust-Colored.
- Hot water which is brown or rusty is a sign that the tank is corroded internally.
- Rotten egg smell indicates anaerobic bacteria in the tank.
- Sacrificial anode rod is degrading and gives a metallic taste.
- Turbid water can also be the sign of too much suspended sediment.
- Copper pipe corrosion (not tank) is blue-green.
The reason your tank is continuously rusting inside in hot water is that the lining is broken and the steel is rusting. Replacing the sacrificial anode may get you 2-3 years of service with an extremely early replacement but once you start seeing rust-colored water, the tank is 12-18 months off the end of the world. Begin strategizing on replacement instead of wishing it to outlive the city.
The difference between Watsons Bay Hot Water Work and other ones
The peculiarities of the peninsula form the hot water service issues that are not present in the inland suburbs. This is not marketing jargon, these are realities on the ground, that influence repair schedule, equipment selection, and prices.
The challenges of Heritage Cottage Installation
A lot of Watsons Bay property was constructed between 1890-1950 with little room being allocated to hot water systems. It is not uncommon to find that by replacing an old tank, the only feasible method of installation is to position a modern replacement in the same place, with significant structural adjustments.
Zero clearanceHot water tanks with absolutely no working clearance, squeezed between walls, underneath staircases, or in ceiling voids that can only be reached by a manhole of 50cm are a common occurrence. Replacement involves cutting access hatches, cutting away portions of wall or whole system relocation. This is not incompetence; it is a fact in heritage cottages whereby hot water was added to the premises decades after being built.
Limitations on Narrow Lane Access
The cottages of the original fishermen are on small pieces of land reached by lanes just wide enough to admit a modern automobile. It becomes a real challenge to have equipment in your house when we have to change a hot water system.
3-4 metresOld Watsons Bay typical lane width. An empty new hot water tank has a weight of 40-80kg. This is why having to carry it 50 metres down a small lane, to some extent dodging parked vehicles and walls of heritage gardens, and then climbing up the stairs to a cottage entrance, is why having hot water replaced in Watsons Bay is a more expensive task than the same exercise in a contemporary estate with access to the driveway via the garage.
Salt Air Corrosion Effects
Real estate in the proximity of the harbour (within 500 metres) is subjected to expedited corrosion of all metal parts. This is no fiction, you may see it on bare fittings after a few years of service.
2-3 yearsThe time taken by salt air to visibly corrode the fittings of brass, copper pipes, and the exterior of steel tanks around Camp Cove or foreshore. Those systems which would have a service life of 15 years inland have a failure of 10-12 years at sea. Marine grade fittings and routine protective maintenance will lengthen the service life but peninsula homes will continuously use hot water parts more quickly than those in inland homes.
Infrastructure Age Gas Supply Gas Supply.
The gas reticulation project in Watsons Bay was installed in several different periods and with different sizes and pressures of the pipes. There are also properties that do not have sufficient gas to operate continuous flow hot water systems although the owner may desire to have one.
15mm pipesMost of the heritage cottages contain 15mm gas supply lines which are marginal to support constant flow of hot water and cook top and oven. The conversion to 20mm or 25mm supply will involve excavation between the meter and the property, excavation in narrow lanes with heritage paving, liaising with Jemena, and obtaining approvals with the Woollahra Council. Then an easy gas upgrade to hot water turns into a 5000 gas line replacement project.
Strata Apartment Complexity
The apartments at Watsons Bay have a centralized hot water system or a restrictive bylaw on the replacement of individual systems. This establishes approval delays, which are not there in individual houses.
4-6 weeksAverage time taken to get approval of strata committee on the non-emergency replacement of hot water in larger apartment buildings. Should your system crash in a catastrophic way, then emergency replacement is granted instantly. When you are actively replacing an old system before it breaks down, you will have committee meetings, written bids, and red tape. This is the reason why we suggest having aging systems serviced before they break down to save the emergency call out charges as well as the strata urgency premium.
Limited Parts Availability
The peninsula location of Watsons Bay implies that we cannot easily get to our warehouse to take specialty parts. All the stuff we require in the job has to be on the first call or it is a case of booking a second trip in a few days.
40+ minutesTime taken to travel round trip between Watsons Bay and Bondi junction or Alexandria parts suppliers. In the case of normal repairs we have standard parts but odd brands or old systems will demand parts that we do not usually have. That is the reason we take time to diagnose properly before we quote to ensure that we get the correct parts the first time, and hence, we do not have to make numerous visits to you, at the time when you are still without hot water.
Honest Answers to Questions People Actually Ask
You require certain information, not general assurances, when your hot water fails. The following are what people would really like to know and the truthful answers are those that are not supposed to be said.
The grey zone is 7-10 years old with $600-1,000 repairs. We will answer what we would do to it, had it been our house, but it is really a matter of judgment. There are those who desire to get the most out of present equipment and there are those who desire the tranquility of a new warranted system.
Waiting is more in the weekend service as we are busier and charging a premium. When your system goes dead Friday night and you can take cold showers until Monday, you will save money by waiting until business hours instead of spending money to call out emergency workers over the weekend.
The repair of gas systems is a wilderness since it involves more parts. Replacement of control boards can reach 800-1,200. The cost of heat pump compressor replacement is in the vicinity of 2,000. We charge by diagnosis, not by the hour, which increases in an unpredictable manner.
This we are candid about when we first get diagnosed. When we can't do the repair because we do not have the parts, then we inform you straight away instead of finding out when you have already spent three hours waiting until we arrive. We can at least typically make short-term fixes to get service restored partially as we source final parts.
Example: Swapping a relief valve during repair of an element is not upselling, a relief valve has a service life and in case the one that you are using is 8 years old, it needs a replacement anyway. We might not bother, get our money back and stop in six months when it fails on its own. But that two, not one, callout fee, is dishonest, even in our best interests.
In case your broken hot water system has caused water damage, we will give you documentation that could be used in claims to an insurance company: photos of where it broke, description of cause in writing and extent of water damage as observed. This helps in your claim validity as the insurers begin to question you.
Watsons Bay Hot Water Repairs
Licensed in gas and electric services, inventory of common parts, familiar with difficulties of access to old properties. We do not re-install a hot water system the next week when we find time to do it.
