Cheap electrically heated tap / faucet teardown. (230V)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 มิ.ย. 2017
- I've had this sitting here for a while, so I thought it was time to take it apart for our amusement. I've not actually tested it working as there's no convenient point for attaching water that doesn't pose a risk of drenching an adjacent wall or carpet. Note that these units are generally only suited for 220 to 240V use. Using one on 120V would result in very little heating of the water.
It's been pointed out that the diaphragm is actually a differential pressure device, so if the outlet was blocked the internal pressure would equalise and the power to the element would cut off. It would still potentially be a lot of pressure in the chamber though.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Genuinely, nothing makes me happier these days then when Clive says "total destruction"
Your videos are pretty much the only ones I don't mind watching the screws come out, probably because you've always got something good to say while you're doing it.
Squarehead Syndicate yes he does! I like Clive's longer videos, love listening to him haha
Well, half the point of watching Clive videos is just listening to him talk, so editing that out is a bit pointless. I often just put the window in the background to just have the audio while doing something else, ignoring the actual video.
I could honestly listen to him ramble about anything for hours, haha.
He should really do a podcast or something.
Thankfully he doesn't go through "unboxing" like so many others... like we've never received a package in the mail ourselves.
The ceremony some TH-camrs do unboxing segments *_for every single video_* drives me nuts... if people are really into unboxing there are whole channels dedicated to *nothing but unboxing... **_in binaural audio !!!_*
He sets forth the Sacrificial Goodies I could never part with because of need.
I prefer you showing us the whole disassembly of whatever it is you are tinkering with. As you say, it gives us insight into how it is all put together, and besides, some of your best stories come from these moments! :)
Clive, as everyone is saying, don't jumpcut. You are very interesting to listen to and I like watching you dismatle stuff.
Hi Clive, the over temperature protection has to be either manually reset (too difficult to engineer in that small of a package), or fail safe, if it was a bimetal arrangement it would not isolate the element in case of a fault, it would simply hover between the set point and hysteresis points till the water boiled dry and the plastic body failed. That is a very a small thermal fuse to have 12-13 Amp rushing thru it, the self heating would have been nice to see with your FLIR camera, another great video, thaks
The pin and spring will be there to create a detent at the "water off" position, because if you're off to either side of that you will have water leaking out the tap. It's hard to tell if the tap is dripping because you just used it or because the lever isn't in the exact off position. The clicking sound is just a side effect of that.
I like watching the removal of screws, helps understand in how everything fits together.
It is also interesting to hear about the different water heating methods, living in a house with no gas for the first time, so only having an immersion heater tank, water heater unit attached to the wall by the sink and an electric shower. Its always interesting to find out more about how they work or other alternatives that may exist.
Those ceramic diverter type modules are quite common now, as someone that works in construction I've seen them gradually replace the typical brass screw valves inside taps. They work quite well for those single handle ones, and showers too.
I do enjoy how people have a knee jerk reaction to water and electricity when it's at the faucet or the shower head, but don't bat an eye at an electric water heater, even one that's just under the sink. Or even electric kettles, for that matter.
I'm using a good ol Propane water heater. Hank Hill hooked me up. He sells propane and propane accessories.
Loren Husky I still use lovely old coal/firewood to heat my water, it adds a nice smokey flavor.
You can probabily blame this one a combination of the false stuff you see in movies to create tension and peoples fear of confined spaces, like the shower.
Well, this one has insulated heating element, maybe that's why :)
Arguably, the water heater is more likely to have proper grounding than the faucet or especially the shower head. If nothing else, the pipework or sink is likely to be bonded to ground. On the other hand, in a plastic product like this, if the ground connection is lost, and there's a fault creating a current path to the water, the water is nominally at 230 V and could reasonably pass the 30 mA or so required to kill you, through the water.
But this product at least has an electrically insulated element that's grounded on the outside, so you would need a double fault to create a hazard. Don't get me started on the shower heads that are common on South America which have a direct contact element. Often the only thing protecting you is a small piece of solid copper ground wire placed through the waterstream to equalize the potential of the exiting water. If that wire corrodes away, you'll get a nice tingle through your body. Those are often two-in-one products which pose both an electrocution hazard and a fire hazard.
13:45 I got an under sink water heater last year and it is so very wonderful indeed. Everything you described says it's probably a similar design. I've got mine hooked up to the hot supply, so by the time the tank is drawn down to a lower temp, the main line is fully hot and it's pretty much limitless. I tell myself "it's a quality of life improvement, not a cost-savings benefit" because I heat the pipes in the walls on the short uses.
I'm a bit disappointed they didn't stick a "baby-cutor" electrode boiler setup in there. Would've been very exciting! :)
SigEpBlue me too, I was fully expecting/hoping for something more dangerous/fun!
This reminds me of my first Bigclive video...it was a heating element he uses to heat his tub while sitting in it.
I thought to myself - this guy's crazy. So I subbed. Two years later my opinion is that he is still crazy.....and that's a good thing. 😊
I don't care if the entire video is about unscrewing. The stories and narration are better than just visuals.
15:07 anyone else falling in love with Clive when he does these things.?
Oh,oh,Clive killed it! As a kid,I remember tearing many things apart that I wanted to see how they work. Usually they were already dead. Nowdays when something goes bad,its permanently dead. Unlike the old days when a simple chewing gum wrapper would work as a replacent for a fuse,lol. I miss those days.
Clive, until they can figure out a way to monetize it, TH-cam still offers a means to skip forward in videos.
My personal feeling is that if folks don't want to see the unscrewing part they can skip forward all by themselves. :p
screw them
I prefer the relaxed pace
Agreed. There is nothing worse that somebody saying "and here it is all in pieces" and you're non the wiser on how it was actually dismantled and anyway Clive's commentary is always interesting.
Michael Thompson you wanna skip? Then you must suffer finding the right bit of video ;p this will teach you patience.
Or, you can use the speed controls to move though the parts that aren't so interesting.
Would it be possible to reconfigure "The Bit that goes CLICK !" and use it on "The Machine that goes BING !" ?
Very good disassembly video of a generic instant water heater tap. I got two of these, one on the sink and the other in the shower, and both have been working okay for two years now.
Bahco sales meeting: "Sales of our screwdrivers have gone through the roof. Well done guys, your hard work is paying off!"
How many of your cheap gadgets do you reassemble after the video and what do you then do with them? Is your house made out of structural USB chargers and led lights?
I'd assume he'd just bin most of the stuff he takes apart.
Heh. I just imagined a house made out of pink plastic pieces put together in the Isle of Man. :o)
Matt Harrington i think if they are good quality then he will put them back together
Matt Harrington he will tell you in the video if he wants to keep it :D
He puts them in his tat room, recently expanded to a tat warehouse, he has considered opening it to the public as BigClive's tat emporium to supply the Isle of Man with all the potentially dangerous electrical tat they could ever need.
Clive, It amazes me how many things you've taken to bits with which with I am already familiar.
Except I'm US - 120 vac/60 cyc. - I'm very happy that you found YT as your proxy to reach the masses. Cheers.
Oh boy, water and electricity, always fun!
EpicLPer I am a big fan of his heating shower head of death with exposed heating element. Extra special tingling sensation is free 😺
When installed correctly there is nothing wrong with it.
You got no RCDs?
and it is not the fall that kills you.
epiclper ,almost all showers are electric powered ,so how is it dangerous or bad ?
Please keep not skipping bits when you take things apart. It's great. :)
Addressing the folks that DON'T want to watch you unscrew or the simple processes of things, some folks just have never done anything like this so I stand with CLIVE and show it, you can fast forward. beside I like the info he provides or story he fills the time with. I feel Clive produces a very well balanced vajyo"stolen from AvE".
The DEVISE of Knowledge ! What a Flipping Hoot. I actually need something like this living semi primitive in a minimalist Mobil home. 120VAC and or 24VDC is proving to be somewhat a Obstruction. Our 120 limited in Current to 20 Amps and our 24V limited to 60 Amps. for two hours. May end up building my own using a regular 24vdc heater element contained in a small bottle. Just looking for a WARM shower situation.
I am addicted to repairing electrical appliances😌
You call it "broken" after the thermal fuse was destroyed. I call it "Pre-configured for Photonicinduction's 'experiments'." ;)
"let's crank it up until it's pops"
I ain't havin' it!
iri10 wheres me AMMER!
I popped it!!
Alan Cordwell im loving this comment thread thats dedicated to photon :D LONG LIVE PHOTONIC ANDY!
"A relatively cheap chinese-"
This is gonna be good. *grabs bag of crisps*
Those who don't like to see you unscrew screws can always skip ahead. Don't encourage their laziness Bigclive :)
Keep in mind that at 120C the water in the heating/storage chamber would already be superheated past the boiling point and ready to instantaneously flash to steam upon release, which means a lot of internal pressure on the pressure relief plug and likely blowing out the plug well before reaching that temperature. Realistically it should only ever reach 120C if run dry since it is not designed to contain supercritical heated water.
I don't mind you taking out the screws, it's your channel do it your way, and like you said there are some that might actually benefit from it. I like your videos.
I use a tankless LP water heater, it's rated for 130k BTU and 4.4gph.
I personally enjoy the unscrewing part, it's very relaxing
when I was a child back in the day, I remember at school there was a wall mounted water heater, it wasn't instant however and had to be switched on to heat up a bit like a kettle. when it reached temperature it would blow steam through a accordion like structure making an accordion like noise. I'd never seen one like it before. occasionally you'd wonder if it would break out into some sort of parisien street music.. of course, it never did.
My first flat had one of those. You filled it with a push fit grey rubber hose.
Nice one Clive! The product certainly seems a much more electrically safe build compared to those electric shower heads you reviewed in another video. The ones where you can get an electrifying experience!I am sure you can effect a suitable substitution for this thermal overload unit. Let's see it please!
Love the videos. I was one of those kids that ripped everything apart just to see what they are made of.
Me too, my mum used to go mad.
Kind of glad we don't have these and electric shower heaters here in North America. They just seem like bad ideas. We have small "point of use" water heaters usually 5 to 10 gallon in 120v or 240v varieties. They work fairly well for low demand applications like bathroom / washroom sinks and such.
The instant heated water that you mention is why I have been considering picking up an under the sink water heater. I live in a state in the US where half of our year is freezing cold temperatures. Even during the summer it takes a noticeable amount of time for water to travel from the tank to the sink. The only house I have lived in where that wasn't a problem was the house I spent the first 14 years of my life. Combination of heated, insulated basement and good planning on my father's part.
Clive, good video. It reminded me of a miniature boiler to all intents and purposes which after some contemplation I decided I was silly as that is what it is. The first time I came across one of these was, 18 - 20 years ago in a hotel in Sacramento, California in the US while I was working over there. It was located in the bathroom but it was also safe to use in tea and coffee. I was so intrigued with it I took the information I could see, using a mirror and magnifying glass as the unit was mounted under the countertop with limited access. After 3-4 weeks I came back home and delved into the water heater seeing perhaps an opportunity for a UK outlet of an American product. However, that was not happening as the units were made in the UK.
I suppose, for 20 quid, you don't really expect much, but this device doesn't look like one of the ones that threaten to set your house on fire, which is a good thing. At least it won't cost a fortune to replace.
Absolutely agree on the point-of-use water heater. Had one here since about 1984 (Santon, or Sadia, not sure which, but companies did merge, so same thing really), and it was second hand from work. It has only ever needed a new pencil thermostat and a new bottom unit 'O' ring. It's given me 35 years good service so far, and was about 20 years old when I got it - 2 gallons of piping hot water only a few seconds away from the tap 24/7. Can't be bad!
As you say though, your 20 quid jobbie is plenty for the sink at the back of your garage etc.
I never thought about terminology before. Here in the US we tend to use faucet, but we'll refer to the water as "tap" water or water from "the tap". However, you wouldn't buy a "tap", you would buy a "faucet".
Proper English, tap water comes from the tap, you put your rubbish in the rubbish bin.
American English, tap water comes from the faucet, you put your garbage in the trash can.
Yep. On cars we have a hood over the engine and put our boots in the trunk.
Cars have different UK/US words for almost every single component... windshield/windscreen - gas/petrol - manual/stick - transmission/gearbox - dash/glove box - tyre/wheel - tailpipe/exhaust - etc
On the subject of taps though many of us Scots refer to them as 'wells', not sure if Clive's hometown does, but everyone in my area does. Does baffle folks to learn we have wells in our kitchen and bathroom until they find out that they are just little brass fellas like any American house would have and no buckets or ropes in sight.
In the mid 80's I visited friends in Brazil. They had electric heaters like this on the shower heads. Not liking the mixing of water and electricity I took a lot of cool showers😂
These are my favorite videos :D Cheap dubious unsafe (or rather, built to no safety standard) and obscure Chinese made items! The shower head, the baby bath water heater and tea heater, etc! Love them!
Also don't skip the taking apart parts :( Please. E: Or any parts you wouldn't normally cut really. People can skip it themselves if they want.
i know it is an entirely different thing but yesterday i replaced the string pull switch in my bathroom. luckily the bottom bit, that held the knackered switch mechanism was exactly the same size as the bottom of the new one i got off amazon. so i only had to replaced the broken bit. the thing is not so long ago i didn't dare touch _anything_ involving AC. it wasn't until i saw Clive stuff home-made full wave rectifiers and LEDs into a bulb arrangement that it was sufficiently de-mystified for me to get involved with. i started by winkling transformers from old things (NOT microwaves) and playing with them. i had a few 'tingles'. but now i have a working bathroom light cord! and get this, our bedroom light switch is iffy. i just ordered one of them too!
Interesting. The thermal fuse got me thinking: Who remembers shrinking crisp packets in the oven? Could that same shrinkage pull a connection apart? DIY Thermal fuse from crisp packets - seems worth a try.
It is a good idea that the power is controlled by the pressure, in that way you won't be able to turn on the power without waterpressure and melt down the unit or burn down the house. if all the other safety features fail.
Clive, re your comment about buying a used electric shower. You should ask your viewers for stuff like this. I have a couple of these in my shed, you could have had one with pleasure.
Love the vise of knowledge! lol I never get bored during disassembly because, quite frankly, I enjoy Clive's commentary!
Seems like it’s well built,living on a boat,heating and cooling is a big subject,,love your videos
I really enjoy your videos. I like seeing where the feet grow from, as they say.
That orange stuff inside the thermal fuse looks like solder rosin, probably to make sure the solder pulls away and doesn't blob around in the middle causing intermittent contact.
It works just like a fire damper fusible link, but great to see exactly what their plan was.. As usual great job.
Thanks for sharing. Interesting how simple and complex it is
I have had the idea to use an in-line water heater as a booster to go into a large tank-style heater, specifically for use at a camp that I work at in the summer, as just two massive tank heaters runs out rather quickly when there are about 30 of us showering within an hour or so. I'd be interested to see if that could be small-scale tested with an undersink and a unit like this...
A tip to improve the lifespan of you under sink heater. Bolt a piece of aluminium to the heating element in order to work as a galvanic anode. Like they use on the hul of a ship. You will sacrifice that aluminium and not your heating element.
Frank Heijkamp , the water flowing over the heating element if exposed to aluminum may work as you mentioned. However, the dissolved aluminum in the water, is toxic if the water is consumed.
Sacrificial anode?
zinc works too, but you don't want zinc in your drinking water
Should magnesium be used instead? What PPM count of aluminium is considered toxic? As said I'm not an expert on these matters.
both zinc and aluminum (oxide or elemental) are safe to ingest in small quantities, aluminum oxide is filler in many medications
I use something very similar to this for my kitchen sink - it isn't as bad as you might think. The sink is a long way from my combi boiler and it would waste loads of water and gas just to get a bit of hot water for the washing up so I put in a plug-in electric tap. Yes the water flow from it is slow for hot water, but actually it probably doesn't work out much different to the boiler for the amount of water needed for washing up (especially as you can start while its still filling and it heats up way faster) - but with the advantages that:
1. It doesn't use gas; c'mon everything that can be electrified needs to be, lower emissions etc.
2. It uses less than half the water I'd otherwise have to use.
3. Its a weird curiosity that makes visitors double-take if I say help yourself to a glass of water or whatever.
It isn't designed for drinking water, I guess just because of the type of plastic used, but I'm not bothered because I still have the normal cold tap in place.
Main advantage though - it looks like a Blue-LED Crazy Dalek!
Sorry if this has already been covered by somebody else -- I did not read ALL comments. It looks to me like the cut-out might be one with melting WAX. There did not seem to be a spring, but the two contacts could be assembled with a spring tension and just held together by the solid wax. They would separate when the wax melts, opening the electric path. The tripping temperature can be adjusted by appropriate selection of the wax composition. That principle has even recently been used in American thermal cut-outs for electric motor overload protection. There were and probably still are one-time units, but I have seen (a long time ago) units that could be heated again, pushing the contacts closed when the wax was again melted and then held closed until the wax had solidified. Crude manual reset, that is.
I like how you word things in your videos 😁
Thanks a lot for this video! Helped me understand this appliance better!
Something very similar is used inside pad-coffee-machines here in Germany. A small pump is pumping water from the tank through one of those heating chambers directly into the pads filled with a coffee-dust.
You should have run the exposed fuse under the heat gun to see its melting point reaction. And check the voltage if it fused back together. That would have been interesting.
8:21 Clive does his best MaximBady impression
Love to see the lithium burn marks again ... keep them coming.
I loved the vice gadget.
I have a 12V 25A power supply for an amateur radio and it has a fusible link in the transformer. Once blown you throw away the transformer. I think it’s just a lead (Pb) wire or maybe a low melting bismuth alloy.
You can get replacement thermal fuses. On a transformer it's usually just under the tape where the primary wires go on.
clive: back in the 80s we used to have one of those whole house instant water heater instead of the 40-80 gallon water heaters(in the .us) used to go through the heater bits fast too, was bad local water once when from village water to city water, problems solved. those units are nice.. as long as no "Extra" stuff in water :)
How are you supposed to get the power cord through the plastic piece on the bottom if you want to use that feature? Do you need to take it all apart and unscrew the ring terminals? That seems like an odd design to me.
John Hiesey cut off the connector, who need it an way? just jam bare wires into your outlet
it's gonna be during initial installation, usually people aren't expected to do this kind of plumbing themselves
That would be dangerous. No, stick the plug back on with Sellotape, do it properly....
its the wrong plug anyway cut it off
@@jostouw4366 Just install a European socket under your sink for the plug - It's going to be about as safe and approved as using this heater in the first place! :-/
Clive - I know how to skip ahead. I come for the accent and your character - like the 'vice of knowledge' and the 'X-Ray'. I no longer disassemble many things but you do it the same as I would. With commentary! Also, check out the Bosch brand electric mini tank water heaters. They have an easily replaceable anode and heater element.
Whew! It had a lot more bits that you think just looking at it. Quite complex but simple also.
4:23 - "...is this gonna ping?" --> "Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only please." Let's see how many people get that reference :)
Aleatha Vogel The Hunt for Red October reference. Love submarine movies
this is getting out of hand and we will be lucky to live through it.
I would like to have seen Montana.
+anononomous -> How sad that he didn't get to Montana to raise his rabbits and drive his pickup truck and recreational vehicle. :(
Shum thingsh in here don't react well to bulletsh!
Just to say I've been using this xact model in my basement workshop for about 2 years now with not a single issue. My only complaint is that it relies not warm enough when the tap is wide open due to the water flow rate but then its par for the course with this sorta design and much better than washing your hands, spork etc with freezing cold water in winter. For occasional use it's pretty perfect. On he top floor we have a vented undersink unit with a 3 or 6ltr tank. Thats super frustrating as it runs out pretty quick and then you have to wait an age for it to warm up.
I use a vented undersink heater here. You have to get used to not using huge amounts of hot water at once. Other than that it's very efficient and delivers hot water instantly at all times.
I'm looking forward to the 11kV version, I haven't got all day to wait around for boiling water out of a tap to scald me
The wonderfully thorough bigclive.:-)
We got one of these a few weeks ago and it works just like Clive said it would. Takes about 10 mins to fill the sink with hot water.
The unit i got is a little different in the handle but the rest looks the same.
Clive killed it. because Science!
I kinda both love and hate what you did there...
As always enjoyed the video but (of course there is a but) it would have been nice to see a
before destruction test of the product . temp output, power level, etc. so one could decide it the item was something they would buy .
6yr ago. The product has changed considerably and I bought it off eBay for under£20😅... It has an led display showing temperature and heats instantly probably up to 60degrees. I like it similar to quooker
You can just hold the button on the temperature setting on those hot air stations, after 1 second it keeps moving into that direction!
Interesting water heater. Shame the fuse could not be reset, but I suppose that in itself could be dangerous. However, for £20 I suppose it might be just as cheap to replace it if it goes faulty after a few years of constant use. I even like it. It looked like the solder that you can melt with a match that they were using as a fuse Clive.
23:28 is the sticky compound some sort of flux/tree sap stuff to ensure that the solder wicks into the power lines to ensure the fuse separates when the solder melts?
4:33 watch big Clive turn into a motor himself.
Good teardown as always :)
So Clive! You can pass the cable through the base, I'm guessing you cut the mounded plug off first??
Makes sense if fitting a U.K. 3pin, though.
Clive a question for you any idea how you would go about building an electrostatic spray gun . Needs to be about 50 to 80 Kv ,just curious .
3kw is also a common limit on heating devices in the US - it will be on a dedicated 30A/120V circuit. Pretty much the largest single leg 120v load you will find.
The diaphragm isn't operated by the back pressure from the spray nozzle, it uses the pressure drop across the hole where the water enters the heating chamber.
“I wouldn’t do this while it’s in place as there might be a fountain in your kitchen” in this heatwave it would be bad thing. Maybe videos on electronics that are meant to keep you cool? (If there is any)
How about another kit build video? The last LED Clock build was really absorbing, so maybe one of these next? ( DS1302 Digital Rotation LED CAD 5 Learning Board Electronic Clock Kit ) Same STL microcontroller, but with "rotating seconds" indication.
I usually use a shot glass for keeping small parts and screws from going all over the room when I disassemble things. Several glasses if I want to keep things sorted.
My parents have a Quooker instant boiling ( well near boiling ) hot tap. Its great for making tea and coffee. handy for cooking where you need to boil something.. Not sure if its an efficient way of getting boiling water ?? ( its turns on and off all night )
It's kind of weird that here in the US we call it a faucet, but we call the water that comes out of it tapwater,
In the U.S., we refer to the knob or lever that turns the water on and off as the "tap", and the entire assembly as the "faucet".
Before this video, TH-cam shown me a 4-minute long commercial, where the new factory hall of my favourite manufacturer of PVC windows was built, and it was whole narrated by my favourite actor.
Now I'm soooo happy! ^^ Thanks, Clive! (Although I know you don't choose commercials, it was anyways on your video, so it was kind of caused by you.)
Don't thank Clive, thank Skynet... sorry, i meant Google.
Just for the record, 70 watts will make water flowing at 1 litre per minute, 1 degree hotter. 3 kW will give you any combination of temperature rise and flow rate whose product is 42.86.
bluerizlagirl the answer to life, the universe and everything
Clive - the singer
"I've a horrible feeling I've killed the whole thinger"
LOL
As you unscrewed it I really hoped it would just have a bare coil of resistive wire in there, the heating element is quite neat and I wonder if it could be repurposed.
It's a common approach to heating water. Secretly I was hoping for a bare element too.
I know what you mean...but people with central water heaters could put in recirculation loops.
Me, I have a tankless gas water heater which has a 2 l buffer tank and an integral recirc pump. There is a valve inside which determines whether the pump recirculates just through the buffer tank or also through a recirc loop. (a Navien NR210A) I haven't (yet) plumbed in a recirc loop, so I'm still waiting for warm water at the faucets in the morning. It's one of those things I've been meaning to get to....someday :-)
Looks like a surprisingly decent product, actually. Especially surprising being Chinese. Here in the US there is an instant water heater by Chronomite, "Instant-Flow". They are ubiquitous in the commercial world, and seem to be very well made. They're made for all manner of different voltages and power ratings. Very surprisingly indeed is the fact that the heating element is unsheathed. It is presumably nichrome wire, in a coil, directly in contact with the water. As a result they begin delivering hot water VERY quickly!!
i think the yellow stuff in the thermal fuse in flux to keep off an oxide layer on the low temp solder to ensure that it doesn't glob and bridge (unlike the thermal protection in that giant MOV fuse from your previous video) but rather like hydrogen bonds in water, keep itself like droplets.
Another interesting video...good work :)
you can't please everyone ... people complain to Clive he shows the whole process; people complain to Eric O @ SouthMainAuto if he doesn't show the whole process. So it is best to do it how you want and enjoy what you do.
I get the feeling centralized water heaters aren't really a thing in Europe. Here in the US, usually we just have one centralized heater, usually its right next to the furnace or boiler (my friend's house has a hot water heat system and it has a heat exchanger for hot water, heater by the boiler.) The two types most people discuss here is tank or tankless. Tank water heaters are just larger versions of he non-vented type you mentioned, tankless just heat the water as it passes through, usually considered more efficient, because like this faucet thing, they only heat up when the water starts flowing. Tank heaters have to stay hot all the time. Naturally we have to let the hot water run for a minute for the water, which cooled as it sat in the pipes, to flush out and the hot water to get there all the way from the heater.
compactc9 . yeah, pretty sure Clive is well aware of water heater designs. but a lot of the industrialized world is going to tankless. Not just Europe.
compactc9 You're feeling is wrong from a UK perspective.
Older systems will use a tank but most new systems in the uk as far as I'm aware are combi boilers which provide heating and hot water as needed.
We primarily use natural gas, much cheaper to heat water with.
I've never come across an electrical water heater outside of maybe somewhere like a workplace where one has been retrofitted in.
I can't speak for continental Europe and the hotter countries where houses may not have the need for heating systems though. You might well be right there.
compactc9 I'm afraid that your feeling is wrong. We have tank and combi systems in the UK - homeowner choice.