Immersion heater for washing?

[eybic]

Hello,

I've always had combi boilers but the place I've just moved into has a hot water tank with a couple of immersion heaters (one for the whole tank and another for a smaller amount of hot water)

Should I use the immersion heater (to heat the whole tank) before I use the washing machine or should the machine heat the water itself?

Thank you

[Laurel Green]

All new WM's are cold feed only. If yours has both, would suggest letting the WM heat the water as, will only be heating the water that is required.

[eybic]

Ahh, thank you. I'll not turn the immersion on and wait 1½ hours before turning the washer on next time then, d'oh

[cjs]

If your machine has a hot and cold feed, then you can get a 'Y' piece to feed both with cold water, that is what I did when I was in an all electric flat. Much more economical than heating up a tank of water.

http://www.screwfix.com/search.do?_dyncharset=UTF-...

[eybic]

Thanks cjs. Surely I could just not heat the water tank instead of messing about with pipework then the machine is getting water from the tank but it isn't heated?

[cjs]

eybic said:

Thanks cjs. Surely I could just not heat the water tank instead of messing about with pipework then the machine is getting water from the tank but it isn't heated?

You could, but that sounds like a load of aggravation when a £2 adaptor and 15 minutes work will fix the problem.

Surely your immersion heater is on a timer anyway? So you get HW in the morning and evening? If not it should be.

[eybic]

No, the immersion is on demand as such, I have 1 switch at the top to heat a small amount of water in about 30 mins and a switch at the bottom to heat the whole tank in about 1½ hrs.

[cjs]

eybic said:

No, the immersion is on demand as such, I have 1 switch at the top to heat a small amount of water in about 30 mins and a switch at the bottom to heat the whole tank in about 1½ hrs.

The idea is not to switch the immersion on & off so you always have a tank of HW available, the tank should be lagged to keep the water hot, the top immersion is there in case you run out, say after a bath is run.

For me it is crazy to keep heating a tank of water whilst you're out all day, hence I always had a timer fitted which would come on during the cheap rate (economy 7) time to heat the water & save money. Usually it would stay hot all day and then I would give it a boost in the evening.

[eybic]

The tank does retain the heat quite well (over 24 hours) Would you recommend heating the tank up for a couple of hours (main switch) then topping it up (other switch) when needed? I'm not on economy 7 afaik.

Thanks

[ShadownINja]

Wow. I'd never thought of that. Just assumed the washing machine that was left here would heat the water the first time I used it.

[Deva Link]

cjs said:

If your machine has a hot and cold feed, then you can get a 'Y' piece to feed both with cold water, that is what I did when I was in an all electric flat. Much more economical than heating up a tank of water.

You don't really need to do that - if the machine takes "hot" water which hasn't been heated then it'll heat it up. That water even when cold, is going to be warmer than mains cold water so will take less heating up.

Even if it's taking heated water from the hot water cylinder they only use a small amount anyway, and it can't make any significant difference to heat it using immersion heater in the cylinder or the immersion heater in the washing machine.