Geyser buying guide - India

Geyser is also refereed as Geyser water heater as well. Geyser is very uses electricity to heat the water. First how does the geyser works? What are geyser water heater components? Knowing these terms will help us to understand more about decision factors.

How does Electric Geyser water heater work?

Geyser has three main components Heating element, Water tank and Thermostat. The explanation of each component is explained below.

Geyser heating element

The heating element is the most important component of the geyser, apart from the inner tank or container. Therefore, you must consider how good the geyser heating element is. Exceptionally hard and very soft water affect heating elements, just like the inner tank.The heating elements in geysers are coated with glass lining that is very efficient for preventing scaling. It also prolongate the life of geysers.

Geyser tank

Geyser tanks hold the hot water. So the tank should corrosion resistant and strong enough. There are two types of Geyser water tanks.

• Stainless steel water tanks are the old models. They are getting outdated now. The main problem with such water tanks is corrosion and hard water scaling.
• Vitreous Enamel glass coated geyser water tanks are the new and advanced models in geyser technology. Basically take the stainless steel water tank and coated it with advanced polymers which makes the tank corrosion resistant. This combination is know as Vitreous Enamel glass coated geyser water tank. They are not only corrosion resistants but also avoid hard water scaling as well. Vitreous Enamel water tanks usually have 5-7 years of warranty as well. Vitreous Enamel is also pretty much similar to Glasslined Coating.

Geyser thermostat

Geyser thermostat is like operating system of Geyser which decides when to start and stop the heating of the water. A bimetallic strip is used to convert a temperature change into mechanical displacement. Thebimetallic strip made of steel and copper. Thermostat is a wrapper on this strip which takes the action based on the bimetallic strip response. A good thermostat makes sure to protect from the over heating of the water. Thermostat also help in saving power consumption up to some extent, but not completely. It is misconception that having a thermostat is license to forgetting to switch off the geyser. Thermostat has temperature ranges like heat the water between 30 Celsius to 60 Celsius. The steps are as follows.

• You switch on the geyser. Say temperature of the water is at 25 Celsius. Thermostat asks heating element to start heating the water.
• When the water temperature reaches 60 Celsius, thermostat asks heating element to stop heating the water.
• Say you forget to switch off the heater. Slowly after couple of hours due to heat loss the water temperature drops to 29 Celsius.
• Thermostat knows that water is below 30 Celsius and asks heating element to start heating the water. The loop continuous till you switch off the Geyser.

Strictly avoid gas geysers

Gas geysers were considered economical in water heating cost. But we do not recommend Gas Geysers considering its significant safety risk. Electric geysers costs 80 paisa to heat water whereas gas geysers cost 40 paisa with Aadhar subsidy LPG and without subsidy 80 paisa. Read more at Hindu and Times newspaper. Because of this reason very few brands manufacture gas geysers. Read more at Which is Better, a Gas Geyser or an Electric Geyser?

Buy branded electric geyser water heaters only

One important guide on how to select best geyser is to always look for the branded geysers. This is because branded geysers will offer you safety, guarantee and good customer service or support, whereas buying unbranded geyser is like putting your hard earned cash on falling stocks.

When looking at unbranded geyser from the price point of view, it may look profitable but will not meet the required standard and will not be safe for use. Buy geyser that discloses what their inner tank is made of because this is the core of a geyser. In addition, avoid geysers that will use up more power than necessary.

Look for geyser with ISI mark, if you want lower geyser maintenance costs. According to the laid down standards in India, any product without ISI mark will definitely increase the cost of spares such as the geyser thermostat, geyser heating element and service costs, depending on brand and availability.

Electric geyser water heater types

The Geyser size

How to select best geyser needs consideration of the geyser size. As a matter of fact, the best geyser size should be close to the hot water volume needed at once. Ideal geyser sizes produce an adequate amount of heat good for utmost immediate use. Please read How to Calculate Water Heater Size for more information about geyser size.

Geyser wattage

Another important factor affecting how to select best geyser is geyser wattage. The wattage of a geyser makes it faster or slower. The water will heat faster if you by an immediate geyser of 4.5 kW instantaneous geyser, unlike geyser of 2 kW. In some cases, 4.5 kW instantaneous geysers can save electricity and heat the water needed for bathing by putting a stop to wastage of more hot water.

Geyser for hard water

Hard water damages the lifespan of the geyser. The best solution for this to take corrosion resistant water tank like Vitreous Enamel water tank geyser. To Avoid damage of the other elements like water heating element take water softener. The water input goes to water softener and the softener output goes as input to Geyser. As the softener converts the hard water to soft water - there won't be any problem to Geyser. Read more at Best geysers for hard water.

Geyser water heater for high rise buildings

Depending on the capacity of the floors of the building, a geyser with strong tank is your best bet if you reside in a high rise building. Geyser for high rise building must have at-least rated pressure more than 6 bars and must have geyser pressure control valve. Geyser pressure control valve releases over pressured water in case of getting much water pressure on geyser tank in order to avoid geyser tank breakage. Glass-lined coated inner tank are more suitable as they will resist high pressure. Read more at Geyser for high rise building.

Kitchen geysers

Electric instant geysers of capacity 1 liter to 3 liter are only suitable for kitchens. Because you need instant hot water for cleaning. You cannot wait for 5 minutes for just cleaning a cup if it is storage geyser. Finally, make sure you have sufficient wall space to mount the instant geyser.

Horizontal geysers

Traditionally geyser water heaters are vertically mounted. Horizontally mounted geysers new to the market. Vertical geyser water heaters requires at least two feet of vertical length on the wall. If your bathroom ceiling is low, you have decorated with false ceiling, or have attic then you won't have enough vertical space on the wall to mount the geyser vertically. In this case horizontal geysers make sense. Read more at Difference between vertical and horizontal geyser.

Solar geysers

A solar geyser is your best choice if you are living in an independent house with your family. With this choice, you will not pay a dime on electricity and able to provide hot water to total home. The initial investment is very high but it will payoff in longterm. But it will take some time to solar geysers become economical to use. Solar geysers are not suitable for large apartments.

Best geyser water heater brands

Another way to select best geyser is to look for best geyser manufacturers that have good reputation and high service levels. Bajaj, Havells, Racold, V-Guard, AO smith, Kenstar, Crompton are well known brands with varying capacity like 10 ltr, 15 ltr and 25 ltr. Apart from that know whether the manufacturer provides installation. Even if the installation is paid, it is better to proceed as it will be better than local plumber. You can buy these geysers online from Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.

Geyser installation

Most important point is to avoid local plumber for installation as they do not follow best practise and safety guidelines. Install the Geyser with the help of Authorized service center. Many manufacturers provides the installation service. You need few additional things like two steel ribbed pipes, one angle valve brass, one connection nipple and other stuff. Read more at Fast track guide on Geyser installation

Best geysers

• AO Smith HSE-VAS 15-Litre Storage Water Heater
• AO Smith HSE-VAS-X-025 Storage 25 Litre Water Heater
• Crompton Arno Neo 25-L 5 Star Rated Storage Water Heater
• AO Smith 25 L Storage Water Horizontal Geyser (White, HAS-25)
• AO Smith HSE-HAS 15-Litre Horizontal Storage Water Heater
• Havells Instanio 3-Litre Instant Geyser
• AO Smith SGS-GREEN-006 Storage 6 Litre Vertical Water Heater (Geyser)
• Crompton Arno Neo 6-L 5 Star Rated Storage Water Heater
• Bajaj Flora 3L-3KW Instant Water Heater 3 L Instant Water Geyser
• Racold 1 L Instant Water Geyser (Pronto Neo SS 1V 3KW, White)

How to make your geyser smart?

Do you want to get the water hot as soon as you wake up from your bed in the morning? It is possible with the advent of IOT - home automation startups. Now you can control your geyser from the smart phone. All you need to do is plug the room heater into the Wipro Wi-Fi Smart Plug and set daily schedules to turn room heater ON/OFF automatically.For example, you wake up at morning 7:00 AM, then you can configure in the Oakter app to turn on the Geyser at 6:30 and turn it off at 7:30 AM. That's it, you can get hot water as soon as you wake up and you can never forget to switch off the geyser after the bath.

How to reduce geyser electricity consumption?

Best thing is while purchasing the geyser look for BEE star ratings and take the best rated geysers. Follow the below geyser usage guidelines.

• Standing Losses
  These are heat lost through the surface of the geyser. Of course, geysers lose heat which is worked out as standing losses.
• Volume of utilized Hot Water
  This is the major motivating factor of geyser electricity usage. The more hot water you utilize, the more power you will use.
• The Temperature of the Geyser Thermostat
  This is determined by default set to around 60oC for most of the available geysers. However, a number of geysers come with external control to modify this setting.
• Temperature of water used for bathing
  Your geyser electricity consumption is also determined by the temperature of the water you used for bathing and this is quite different from temperature of the thermostat.
• Input water temperature
  This is determined by location. In other words, areas and locations with colder weathers require more electricity than places that have warmer weathers.

How to increase geyser water pressure?

If you have high water pressure in all faucets but the geyser, this can be a sign that the geyser isn't working properly. Fluoride or sediment deposits, which look as white coatings on the geyser's heating rods, may have accumulated over time. This would restrict water flow. It is best to contact a nearby electrician who can take care of clearing the sediments from the geyser in order to fix this. However, if you're having low water pressure in all bathroom taps, a Pressure Pump may be a potential remedy. This electric pump can automatically turn on and off anytime you open or close the geyser tap.

What happen when geyser on with no water?

Allow me to provide you with a straightforward answer. The thermostat, also known as the thermal cut-off switch, detects the temperature of the inner tank and will cut off the electricity supply in the event of overheating. Therefore, there is a possibility of nothing goes wrong, but it is not always the case. If the thermostat is malfunctioning or not working correctly, the inner tank of the geyser may overheat, and this increases the possibility of a blast occurring. Know more about What will happen in an electric geyser if there is no water in the geyser tank? in our other post.

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