We get many phone calls and emails from people asking, “What is the best hot water cylinder”?

The quick answer is, there is no quick answer.

This blog could end up being thousands of pages long

In principle, this answer is not brand-driven but rather situation driven.

These situations consist of

• Residential applications
• Commercial applications
• Efficiency applications
• How many people are in your household?

 

Let’s explain.

 

Residential applications

If you only have two people in your household, sure you can get a “standard” 180L hot water cylinder. But this would be wasteful as you would never truly use all the hot water that cylinder provides and beyond that, you will be spending a lot more on energy costs heating up more hot water that you won’t use!

You would be much better off with a gas instantaneous unit instead, this unit is designed to only heat hot water when you use it. Because you only have 2 showers a day and run the kitchen and bathroom occasionally, you will only use gas when you need it.

These units as you can imagine are ideal for holiday homes. You visit the Bach a couple of times a year, normally when you arrive you’ve got to wait a couple of hours for the water to heat up. With an instantaneous unit, just hook up the gas bottle and turn on the electrical switch. Instant hot water straight away.

A 3–4-person household:

If you have 3-4 people in your household, your standard-size hot water cylinder of 180 litres such as a Rheem 180 would be your ideal solution as you would use most of the hot water of that cylinder and you wouldn’t be heating water that you don’t use.

 

However, if you have 5 or more people in your household, you’ll need more hot water. A gas hot water cylinder such as a Rheem Stellar would be most beneficial for your situation for energy consumption. Gas has the power to produce a great amount of energy in a short amount of time. Instead of 160 litres that the cylinder holds, it produces 300 litres in the first hour.

 

Commercial applications

 

Commercial properties undeniably require a lot of hot water and for this, you need a stronger unit. A Rinnai HD250 is designed for higher hot water demand such as hotels, nail salons and restaurants. These units are excellent for producing great amounts of hot water for busy business applications and again, it only uses hot water when you need it.

Efficiency applications

 

There are options to get more efficiency out of hot water. There are solar options that harness the power from the sun to heat up your hot water – at no cost.

You can get cylinder blankets that are wrapped around the cylinder to keep in as much heat within the cylinder as possible.

Insulating the hot water pipework is also an option to efficiently keep more heat from escaping away into the atmosphere. Much like the cylinder blanket, it’s wrapped around the pipework and acts the same way as a heat barrier.