I've had a lot of people asking how I'm getting on with my new tank, so thought I'd post this on forums/groups to hopefully answer everyone's questions at once. This will be a long post but think I've covered everything.
Short story time......
Stephen Scargill at Aquaeous plastic fabrications custom makes these tanks to spec. So for prices etc your best to ask Stephen directly ......(price wise he is extremely competitive but quality in my opinion is second to none) .....as it all depends on what you want from your tank, and what dimensions. Me personally I had made the following;
670 litre capacity,
Frameless design,
Screw thread for immersion fitting,
Fully insulated.
Fast fill outlet for backpack/trolley.
I'm absolutely in love with this tank (sad I know), and the main reason is the heat side of things. It is insulated so well that it's basically a tank within a tank. The tank is coated with 50mill insulation, and then that is sealed in place with another tank over the top of everything.
I did a test to monitor the hot water side of things so that I could give specific figures so here goes;
I have a 2kw (not 3kw) immersion heater fitted to the tank which is connected to my garage on a separate board and rcd using 16amp fittings right to the immersion. I used a timer and set it to run for about 7 hours, From 3pm in the afternoon to 10pm at night.
In that time it raised the temperature from 7 degrees to 25. I know that temperature isn't boiling hot but it's nice and warm, perfect in my book for window cleaning in winter. (If you wanted more heat you could just set the timer for longer) Pretty impressive I though considering that it only costs me 25p an hour to run on my current tariffs.
Then the bit that really impressed me.... I left the van alone from 10pm and in the morning I checked the temperature again at 9am...... It was reading 22 degrees! So in nearly twelve hours of sitting still on a cold day it only loses a few degrees c in heat.
After a few days of testing it now I can say that the heat is evenly spread throughout the tank, and consistently you will only lose a few degrees as your working.
So going forward I'm going set the timer for heating from 10pm till 6am, and that will give me 30degree water in my tank, that will never drop below 25 degrees in my working day, all for a total cost of £2 per day (tax deductible so real cost is less).
I know 30 degrees c doesn't sound like a lot, but today I hadn't warmed my tank up since the night before, so water was less than 20 degrees in my tank, and it was still steaming up on the glass as I was cleaning. Makes working in the winter so much easier now.
I wasn't paid to say all this either,
I'm just struggling to find anything negative to say about this tank. Only down side is with hot water you have to make sure your connections are spot on. Hot water will find leaks that cold water won't. I've switched to John guest speed fit and everything is fine now though. Also if you don't have access to parking and can't run a power cable to your van then it's no good, or if you use more than one tank of water a day then this would only work for your first fill. Apart from that it's all positives. Perfect hot water set up in my opinion.
Here is Stephen Scargills details if anyone wants more in depth info.
Stephen Scargill,
Aquaeous Plastic Fabrications,
07445 315910
steve@aquaeouspf.co.uk
