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HAVING A BESPOKE HOT WATER CYLINDER MADE

How to order a hot water cylinder to your own specification

Index Page > Hot Water Cylinders > Custom and Bespoke hot water cylinder designs

Design or adapt a cylinder to your specification

Bespoke hot water tanks and cylinders

1.	Having a hot water cylinder or storage vessel made to your specification or design
2.	How to improve the performance of a hot water cylinder
3.	The benefits of improving the insulation on cylinders
4.	High performance heat exchangers in cylinder
5.	Adapting a standard cylinder to meet your specific requirement
6.	How to order a cylinder to your specification
7.	Grades of cylinder explained.

Click Here for Bespoke Cylinder Form (.pdf)

Having a hot water cylinder made to your specification

You may have an installation where an 'off-the-shelf' cylinder just won't fit. We can therefore offer a bespoke service whereby a cylinder can be manufactured to suit.

Cylinders can be manufactured with the connections (tappings) positioned just where you want them. This can make the task of retrofitting to existing pipework less of a problem.

If height is a problem maybe a Horizontal Pattern cylinder might be the answer.

Maybe a cylinder is not the answer. Hot water storage comes in many shapes and sizes - square, rectangular or even triangular! But be aware, water is more often than not stored in a cylindrical vessel for good reason. Please don't hesitate to call for advice.

We have had many cylinders manufactured to solve numerous requirements - both physical and operational.

Loft conversions
Hallways and landings
Restricted cupboard space
Irregular shaped storage
Farm and agricultural use
Vented storage with additional mains pressure hot water take off

Please don't hesitate to give us a call if you would like advice or wish to discuss your requirement.

Improving the performance of a cylinder

It is possible to improve the performance of a cylinder by upgrading the properties of the heat exchanger, adding a second heat exchanger and/or increasing the amount of insulation around the cylinder.

By putting a high performance heat exchanger into a cylinder you could greatly reduce the amount of time the cylinder takes to reheat from cold - the recovery time. This can be particularly useful if hot water usage is high but you cannot, or do not wish to have a huge amount of hot water stored. A smaller cylinder with a high recovery heat exchanger can often produce as much hot water per hour as a larger standard cylinder. A smaller cylinder with high recovery can solve a problem where space is premium. This is not always a solution, but is most certainly an option.

A high recovery heat exchanger can also prove economical to run. As more heat is imparted to the cylinder more effectively, a boiler can operate more efficiently and may need to cycle less often and for shorter periods.

The addition of a thicker cylinder insulation jacket

This has obvious benefits. By reducing heat loss your stored water remains hotter for longer - reducing the need for reheat and boiler activity. Whenever you consider additional insulation remember to check the overall cylinder dimensions (including insulation) if you intend to install into a confined space. Click here for more information on cylinder insulation

For more information on high performance heat exchangers see these sections:

British Standard

Improving the performance of a cylinder will add modest cost, but over the life of the unit should represent a significant saving on running costs.

Adapting a hot water cylinder to your design specification

You may require a standard size and shape of cylinder but need the tappings or bosses relocated to match as close as possible into existing pipe positions. This is a common requirement and often has no effect on the price or lead time.

Example: If you wish to run power showers, It is possible to incorporate dedicated shower take offs on a cylinder.

Should you need to order such adaptations it is important we all speak the same language when describing position and dimension. For this reason we use a system as illustrated below.

Please note: Whilst every effort is made to position tappings and bosses to the required positions it cannot be guaranteed that minor adjustment of existing pipework will not be necessary. It is for this reason important your measurements are accurate.

How to draw the bespoke hot water cylinder you require.

This can be faxed, posted or emailed to us and should look roughly as follows:

For a cylinder you should draw a side-on view marking the positions of each tapping and boss required, together with the floor to centre measurement (if this is important).	A combination cylinder should be shown like this. Once again marking the position and dimension from floor to centre of any tappings or bosses if essential.	You should also provide a top view of the cylinder or combination tank. Think of it as a clock face. Mark the position of each tapping or boss where 12 o'clock is the back, 6 o'clock is the front

So a typical sketch might look something like this

Drawing your design of custom hot water cylinder

Your order will pass through several processes once received so it is important that everything you require is clear to all concerned (instructions can be mis-interpreted, embellished or mis-understood if passed on by word of mouth). So make sure the details of your requirement are clear and easy to understand.

Your drawing need not be a work of art, just something understandable.

Indicate on your sketch what each marking represents together with it's position and height from floor to centre (if this is important). If you do not specify a 'height from floor' for any element the cylinder will be manufactured to a 'standard' pattern (often a good idea).

Diagram shows an indirect cylinder, the position of heat exchanger in relation to cold water inlet, immersion heater boss and two additional shower take offs.