Many of us, having bought a boiler, are wondering: is it possible to install it with our own hands, and how difficult is this process? If you have little skills in plumbing and electrics, installing a boiler yourself should not cause you serious difficulties. In addition, installing a heating device yourself will help you save money that could be spent on paying for the services of specialists. However, the work will require strict adherence to safety regulations and, of course, the availability of the necessary tools.
What is a boiler and how it works
A boiler is a heating device that makes life much easier for people when they are faced with a preventive shutdown of hot water in city apartments, and provides comfort in the country, where the water heater works on an ongoing basis.
The water heater may have a storage or flow device. The advantages of flow-through boilers are considered to be small size and low weight, which allows them to be mounted even on not very strong bases, for example, drywall. On the other hand, to ensure the required rate of water heating, flow-through boilers are equipped with very powerful heating elements that weak electrical wiring cannot withstand.
For fast water heating, flow-through boilers are equipped with very powerful heating elements.
Storage devices are in the greatest demand because they have a larger volume, cost less and consume less electricity. In addition, during their installation, electrical wiring is not subject to such high requirements as when installing flow-type water heaters.
Storage devices are in high demand because they are more cost-effective and do not require powerful electrical wiring.
Storage water heater device
The device of the storage water heater is similar to the design of a household thermos. The inner tank is separated from the outer walls of the body by a rigid heat-insulating polyurethane layer to minimize heat loss. The water entering the tank is heated by a heating element (thermal electric heating element). To set the required water temperature, a thermostat integrated into the design is used.
The role of the magnesium anode in the water heater and the scheme of its operation
The internal tank of the water heater is the most vulnerable structural element, since it is constantly exposed to temperature changes and the negative effects of substances contained in the water. A magnesium anode helps protect this part from corrosion.
It is made in the form of a thin round rod with a diameter of 14–25 mm and a length of 140–660 mm with a magnesium alloy layer up to 15 mm thick applied to the surface. In the immediate vicinity of the heating element, the anode is fastened with a threaded stud located in the center of the rod. Sometimes the anode is placed on the top wall of the inner tank.
Magnesium anode helps protect the internal tank of the boiler from corrosion
In addition to magnesium anodes, electric, titanium and zinc analogues are used in water heaters. But the magnesium anode is the most economical, and therefore the most popular.
Most often, low-carbon steel is used for the manufacture of internal water heater tanks. Magnesium has a valence II and is a more active metal than iron, which has a valence III. When water is heated, oxygen is produced. Magnesium binds it, thereby preventing the formation of corrosion in the tank and on the steel shell of the heating element. This process is called sacrificial protection, which is why magnesium anodes are sometimes referred to as sacrificial anodes.
The magnesium anode also prevents the formation of scale on the heating element, which is a precipitate of heavy metal salts. Since magnesium is more reactive than the iron that the tank walls are made of, these substances react with it. As a result, dense scale becomes loose, easily separated from the heating element and the walls of the tank and settles to the bottom in the form of flakes, from where it is removed during the regular cleaning of the unit.
Thus, the anode-protector in the boiler performs the following functions:
- provides passive protection of the metal tank against corrosion;
- prevents the formation of scale on the thermoelectric heating element;
- softens the water.
Over time, the magnesium anode gradually breaks down and dissolves in water, without changing its chemical composition and, accordingly, without harming the health of users.
Over time, the magnesium anode gradually breaks down and dissolves in water.
And yet, the anode protector needs to be changed from time to time, without waiting for its complete destruction. The frequency of replacement of this part depends on the quality (chemical composition) of the water and the intensity of use of the water heater.
- If the heating device is rarely used and the water in it is rather soft, then the anode can be changed every seven years.
- Under less favorable operating conditions of the device, the replacement of the magnesium anode is required much more often - about once a year.
When choosing a replacement for a worn anode protector, give preference to a product from a well-known manufacturer. A poor-quality magnesium element gives the water a persistent rotten smell. To check the quality of the product, make a weak solution of food grade citric acid and place a magnesium rod in it. A protector made of cheap material, when reacting with an acid, will provoke an active release of hydrogen sulfide.
Of course, the boiler can be operated without a protector anode, but the absence of this part will significantly reduce the life of the water heater. Typically, anodes are supplied with water heaters. But for replacement, this item can be purchased separately.
Do I need permission to install a boiler in an apartment?
The need to obtain permits for the installation of a water heater in a city apartment depends on the type of device.
- If you want to connect an electric boiler that belongs to household appliances, then you do not need special permission for this. It is only necessary to make sure that the available free power of the electrical network is sufficient for it. For example, a 150-liter boiler that is switched on consumes 1.5–2.0 kW. It takes 3-5 hours to heat water, and it will cool down by no more than 0.5 degrees per hour. If there is not enough capacity, then you need to contact the energy company with a request for the allocation of additional resources. Naturally, you will have to pay for this.
To connect an electric boiler, no special permit is required if the electrical network can withstand the load it creates
- If you are going to install a gas water heater in the apartment, then you need to obtain permission for it at the gas service service center by presenting a document on the ownership of the housing. The specialists of the center will come to you to draw up a project. This service is paid. In addition, do not forget that the installation of a gas water heater should also be carried out by gas service specialists.
Installation and connection of the gas water heater must be carried out by specialists of the gas service service
But you will not be given permission to install a gas water heater if there is no ventilation duct in the immediate vicinity of the installation site through which exhaust gases will be removed. Most often, even in apartments with gas stoves, separate channels are not provided, and no one will allow you to bring the ventilation pipe to the outer wall of the house.
If you still managed to get permission to install a gas boiler, keep in mind that fuel consumption in your apartment will increase several times. Installation of gas equipment without permission threatens with a fine.
Art. 7.19 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation
Unauthorized connection to electric networks, heat networks, oil pipelines, oil product pipelines and gas pipelines, as well as unauthorized (unmetered) use of electrical, thermal energy, oil, gas or oil products, if these actions do not contain a criminally punishable act, entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of from ten thousand to fifteen thousand rubles; on officials - from thirty thousand to eighty thousand rubles or disqualification for a period of one to two years; for legal entities - from one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand roubles.
Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation
http://koapkodeksrf.ru/
Therefore, before purchasing such a device, consider whether you need it, or whether you should limit yourself to an electric water heater, which is much less troublesome in terms of installation and operation.
Is it possible to install a water heater under the sink
In a small apartment, the best place to place a boiler may be the space under the sink in the kitchen or in the combined bathroom. An electrical appliance hidden in this way will not spoil the interior design. However, not all types of boilers are suitable for installation under the sink.
The boiler hidden under the sink will not spoil the interior design
Due to the limited space under the sink, a storage or instantaneous water heater with a capacity of up to 25 liters can fit. The water in such a device is heated by a heating element or an open electric heater. The gas appliance, due to its high performance and, therefore, its considerable dimensions, is suitable for mounting exclusively on a wall or on a free space on the floor.
Another feature: in a water heater designed for installation under a sink, the pipe supply must be located at the top. You should definitely pay attention to this when buying a device. A boiler with a different location for the supply of hoses will also fit in size, but it will be inconvenient to install. In addition, such a device will not function correctly and will quickly fail.
Preparatory work before installing the boiler
Self-installation of an electric water heater will cost you less than the services of specialists. On average, the job will take about two hours. But in preparation for installation and directly in the process of performing work, you must follow the safety rules.
When installing a water heater, it is necessary to take into account the condition of the electrical wiring in the house, the bearing capacity of the wall on which the device will be mounted, as well as the risers and water supply pipes.
- First of all, you should decide on the model of the boiler: what system it should be - flow or storage, how many liters it is designed for, how it will be mounted - horizontally or vertically, on a wall or under a sink, etc.
Wall-mounted boilers are not only vertical, but also horizontal
- The next step is to create a device connection diagram on paper with the designation of hot and cold water tie-ins. Then you need to do the following:
- Before you start installing the boiler, you need to read the instructions to understand the features of the model, then turn off the electricity and shut off the pipes supplying hot water. It should be remembered that if you live in a multi-storey building, this will temporarily deprive residents of other apartments of hot water, so you need to carefully prepare for work in order to finish it faster.
You can check the strength of the wall in the following way: mount the fasteners that come with the boiler and hang two bags of cement on it. If the mount can cope with such a load, then it will be able to withstand a water heater, which weighs half as much.
Particular attention should be paid to checking the strength of the wall when installing a large 150-liter boiler. The fastening of such a unit is made on spacer metal anchor bolts or special strong hooks. Anchors are recommended to be used with a length of 100 mm and a diameter of 10 mm.
Be very serious about checking the wiring. If overloaded, it may start to melt, which will lead to a fire.
It should be borne in mind that the installation of a water heater will require the efforts of two people, since this process is quite laborious. Typically, the boiler is mounted in the bathroom or in the toilet room directly above the toilet. As a rule, this place is not used in any way. At the same time, a free approach should be provided to it.
In a small room, to save usable space, the boiler is usually placed horizontally. A small water heater is attached to the wall, and units with a volume of 200 liters or more are installed on the floor.
If the volume of the boiler exceeds 200 liters, it must be installed on the floor
Equipment and tools necessary for self-installation or replacement of a water heater
Before proceeding with the installation of the boiler, prepare the following tools, materials and equipment:
- plumbing linen or sealing tape;
- tow;
- paste "Unilac";
- roulette;
- safety valve with a valve with a diameter of 10 mm (supplied with the boiler);
- two flexible water hoses with a length of at least 2 m (the length of the hoses must correspond to the distance from the boiler to the point of insertion into the water supply system);
- metal-plastic pipes;
- three stopcocks;
- three tees;
- two dowel nails with hooks at the ends;
- cross and slotted screwdrivers;
- pliers;
- wire cutters;
- puncher or electric drill;
- drills with a winning tip (if the boiler is supposed to be fixed to a brick or concrete wall);
- wrench;
- wrench.
To connect a powerful instantaneous water heater, if the wiring does not provide for the connection of electric stoves, you will need a three-core PVA 3x8 copper cable, a meter that can withstand a current of at least 40 A, a socket block with grounding, a 40 A machine and an insulating tape.
Features of mounting the boiler on a thin wall
Ideally, the water heater should be mounted on solid brick, concrete or block walls, since the appliance, along with water, is quite heavy. But sometimes the device needs to be hung on a thin plasterboard, frame, wooden, aerated concrete or foam block base. In this case, it will be necessary to strengthen the wall and use special fasteners.
It is impossible to mount the water heater directly on a wooden wall for reasons of fire safety. To begin with, it must be well insulated from heat, for example, with profiled iron, which is used for roofing.
In other cases, special fasteners are used:
- spiral nylon dowels;
- metal fasteners for mounting boilers with a capacity of 100 liters.
If you plan to hang the water heater on a wall of foam concrete blocks, you will need metal dowels or special chemical (adhesive) anchors for foam concrete. A chemical anchor is a versatile fastener that can withstand high loads. It is environmentally friendly and resistant to low temperatures.
The expansion dowel is held in the wall due to friction forces in the expansion joint, and the chemical anchor is held in place due to the adhesion of a special adhesive composition.
Fastening to the adhesive anchor is carried out in the following way:
- A hole is drilled with the expansion of the channel by rotating the drill at an angle in different directions.
- Concrete dust is removed from the hole.
- The hole is filled with a quick-hardening mixture, into which a mounting sleeve or threaded stud is inserted.
The resulting cone-shaped plug provides a fairly high fastening strength.
For installation in hollow structures, an anchor sleeve is inserted into the hole, and a hairpin is already twisted into it
Video: how to hang a water heater on an aerated concrete wall
Water heater installation
Installation of a water heater of a flow and storage system is carried out in the same way. Before starting work, it is important to read the instructions that come with the device. If there is no such manual, it can be downloaded from the Internet.
Mounting the boiler on the wall
- Before mounting the boiler on the wall with chalk or a marker, draw on it the bottom line of the appliance. Then measure the distance from the mounting plate attached to the water heater body to the bottom line and mark this distance. When marking, pay attention to the height from the holes on the anchors to the top of the water heater. It must be less than the distance to the ceiling, otherwise the water heater will not pass in height.
When choosing a place for installing fasteners, it is necessary to control the position of the lower and upper edges of the boiler housing
- Drill two or four holes, depending on the number of fasteners supplied with the boiler. To make holes in a concrete or brick wall, you need to use an electric drill with a drill bit. For drilling holes in a wooden wall, a drill with a regular tip is suitable. Its diameter should be less than the diameter of the plastic dowel. Remember that there are no such holes on the mounting plate, and anchors with hooks at the ends will cling to its edge.
- Install the mounting hardware: drive the dowels into the holes with a mallet or hammer, screw the metal anchor to a depth of about 12 cm (it should stop turning). Then hang the boiler.
Anchors with metal hooks are inserted and screwed into the drilled holes, and then the boiler is hung on them.
Connection to water pipes
- Using flexible hoses or polypropylene pipes, connect the unit to the water supply. Keep in mind that connecting through plastic pipes will cost you more and take longer. If there are already connection points, then the work will not cause any particular difficulties.
- In the absence of pre-prepared bends, they will have to be made independently from metal-plastic or plastic pipes. This will take approximately half an hour. It will take more time to insert tees into a steel pipe - about two hours. This will require a die according to the size of the pipe. When connecting, pay attention to the color of the tube rings located at the bottom of the boiler: cold water will be supplied through the tube with a blue ring, hot water will be discharged through the tube with a red ring.
In the absence of pre-prepared bends, they will have to be made independently from metal-plastic or plastic pipes
- A safety valve should be installed on the cold water supply to relieve excess pressure. It is done automatically. This helps prevent damage to the water heater. If this part is not included with the water heater, then it will have to be purchased separately. When installing the valve, it is important to consider the direction of water flow. To facilitate maintenance, an additional tee can be inserted in front of the valve and a tap connected to it.
Through the safety valve, excess water pressure is released during operation
- Screw a sealant onto the thread, which can be used as tow, plumbing linen or FUM tape, and connect the safety valve. Screw one end of the flexible hose to it. Here you can do without a sealant, since there is a sealed rubber gasket in the hose nut. Screw the end of the second flexible hose to the hot water pipe also without using a seal.
A rubber gasket is installed in the fastening nut of the flexible hose, so it can be screwed onto the pipe without an intermediate seal (flax, FUM tape, sealing cord, etc.)
- Connect the end through which cold water will flow to the water pipe through a valve or faucet. This is necessary so that the water supply can be shut off, for example, in the event of replacing boiler parts. Connect the free end of the second hose to the pipe going to the mixer.
The pipe through which cold water will flow into the boiler is connected through a ball valve
- If you need a flow-type unit only for the time the hot water supply is turned off, connect it through a shower hose. To do this, only cold water is connected to the boiler:
- Connect the hot water outlet to the hot water faucet using a metal-plastic pipe or flexible hoses without the use of additional elements. To check the tightness of the connections, run water, fill the container and leave for about an hour. In the absence of leaks during this time, feel free to turn on the unit in the mains.
Before installing a water heater in the bathroom, make sure you have a hot water circulation system. This will help to minimize energy losses with the constant presence of hot water in the pipes.
Video: connection diagram of the boiler to the water supply
Connecting the boiler to the electrical network
Some boilers come with a cable with a plug connected to the unit. If these elements are not available, then they are purchased separately.
Always follow safety precautions when working with electricity to avoid accidents.
Video: how to connect the boiler to electricity
Boiler connection via time relay
In order to save electricity, the boiler can be connected via a time relay. This will allow you to turn off the water heating late at night or during the day when it is not needed. If a heat accumulator is connected to the water heater, it can, on the contrary, be turned on at night, when the tariff for electricity consumption is lower than during the day. During the day, it will automatically turn off.
Consider the option of connecting the boiler through the time relay ABB AT1-R. It can be either with a battery inside or without it. The battery inside the mechanism allows you to work offline for 200 hours.
The relay allows you to turn on the power of an electrical device only at certain periods of time
The line supplying the water heater will go from the shield located in the furnace room directly to the device. The time relay of this model is equipped with one contact for closing. Depending on the type of boiler, it has the ability to switch a resistive load up to 16 A.
The device has a scale indicating the values of time intervals. Four divisions indicate intervals of 15 minutes. Thus, the time intervals can be set equal to 15, 30 and 45 minutes.
Initially, when voltage is applied to the time relay, the connected load will be in the on state. This means that with the help of the levers we will set the load off time.
To independently disconnect the load, you must move the red lever located next to the time scale to position 1.
After that, you need to set the response time. Try to choose an even hour for this, for example, 18:00 or a multiple of 15 minutes: 18:15, 18:30, 18:45. To set the time, you need to turn the drum until the desired reading on the scale matches the white lever next to the “1-0” mark.
Video: installation and connection of a water heater (boiler)
In order for the boiler to retain heat better, it must be wrapped with polypropylene foam, polyurethane foam or isolon. The insulating material is fixed with glue or wire. Thermal insulation of the entire surface of the boiler not only helps to retain heat, but also reduces the heating time of water by increasing the efficiency of the coolant. High-quality insulation will not allow the water to cool quickly.
High-quality insulation will not allow the water to cool quickly
The second way to insulate the boiler is to place a smaller container inside a large tank. The resulting space acts as a heater.
The space between the walls of the tanks acts as a heater
And yet, if you realize that you are unable to install the boiler yourself, or there is a need to replace the pipes due to wear and tear, contact the specialists. Their services will not cost you too much: dismantling an old water heater - about 500 rubles, installing and connecting a new device - about 7,000 rubles. In this case, you will be sure that the equipment is connected correctly and you will not have an accident or explosion. There is one more important point: when installing the boiler yourself, as a rule, the manufacturer's warranty is canceled.
Loading...