I ended up putting a Stainless Steel one in at the previous house in 2000 and I believe its done another element, so at the attrition rate of them it does not say a lot for quality. We obviously have different opinions on DUX. The builders who built this house, stopped using them & I can understand why. Its a solar type with electric heater it sits outside under the verandah. I do not believe in them in the roof cavity without being bunded & up there is more expensive to deal with.

The coupling between the two panels has blown apart twice, its on its third frost valve & second module. In a place where water is scarce dumping water to cool itself can use a lot of water. Its 2013 vintage. In both cases having plumbers install it was a bad idea. I see a need to train some. One managed to flood out the linen press. One genius forgot the hydrostatic tester & was told just hook it up to supply (private system.) but no! had to be done with the machine. Hour & a half trip (one way) next day to test it and another a week later to come back & fix the leaks which would have appeared done my way.

Water here has actually managed to eat the tin in solder. I have a tap in the bottom of the HW tank to get sediment out. It also has a bung in it to ensure it cannot discharge water by accident. A lot of stuff here seems to be designed for looks not function.

Swampy aircons are a classic. Studio one is a wall type. Kills frogs, sucks in leaves & insects & regularly blocked the bleeder as it has ineffective filtering within as do most of them. It is on the list to be modified as I did to the rooftop one on the previous house. It can dump over a 130 litres in a 16Hr day. So that water is scavenged & sent to the garden watering system.

None of the brands are that great these days and I've seen both Rheem and Dux go to purgatory in a matter of a few years and I've also seen both last a bit longer. The reason I recommend Dux is because we use them where I work in a commercial setting and they last longer than equivalent Rheems in that particular situation - where the heaters supply a chlorinated warm water system for a hospital. We have only kept Rheem where the warm water system is running UV lighting in the pipes to kill legionella instead of chlorine dosers.

I agree that no modern HWS should be in a roof space. They pop without warning and the drain trays that are between the tank stand and the HWS often cannot handle the exodus of the water, usually due to birds blocking the drain with their nests. Where I work, most of the doctors' tenancies have 25 litre quick recovery units in their ceiling spaces. About four years ago, one went bang and flooded that tenancy plus the two either side of it and the neighbours were not happy, needless to say.

Following that saga, every tenancy opted to replace their HWS on a play-it-safe basis. It was a wise idea. All that were randomly inspected no longer had working anodes left in them and most were exhibiting signs that they weren't long for the world. Places like these should not be using quick recovery units but instantaneous ones. Granted, most of these require 3 phases and a total of 54 amps to operate but the amount of time they actually get used would make them cheaper to operate and they don't need an anode, nor do they have short lives. Brands include Wilson, Hocking, Zip and Stiebel Eltron. Zip makes a few single phase ones.

Gotta agree with Marc I dont agree with having water heaters in the ceiling or even inside for that matter. I insist on them being outside because when they blow ( and yes they do ) they cause much less damage and not as likely to kill someone.

Yes indeed, they can become a bomb.
The case below could have easily killed people.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/explosion-blows-water-heater-400m-20110405-1czv2.html

Such incidents are rare. When a thermostat jams on (in itself a rare occurrence - they usually jam off) the pressure relief valve should take over and the noise of the ejected steam should attract attention. In fact, it is far more likely for the tank itself to rupture and when this happens, the water leaks out but at the same time a complete failure is also rare.

Superheated steam is dangerous though and must be respected.

Yes, I've heard several stories of water heaters turning into missiles. However this is not as common as it once was.

In the early days of steam locomotives, boiler explosions could destroy the locomotive entirely and kill the engine crew. These were usually caused either by someone tampering with the pressure release valve, or rust eating through the metal. The explosions could cause significant damage to the general area too. It took a while for people to appreciate that a locomotive was more than just a big kettle.

It took a while for people to appreciate that a locomotive was more than just a big kettle.

This is where superheated steam comes into its own. It is just as dangerous as hydrogen on a bad day. Two things are at play - the pressure the steam is under plus the fact that it does its best when it is let go and just before condensing back into liquid water.

The thing that helps to stop a mains pressure water heater from going bang is the fact that there isn't much room inside for steam to be as 99% of the tank's capacity is taken up with liquid water. The small amount of steam inside should not be a problem for the pressure relief valve if it is working correctly. The same tank with 25% water and the remainder as steam and a blocked relief valve is a much more dangerous beast.

A smaller version of this is the old glass 2 litre soft drink bottles. Shake it and drop it. Fragments of glass will go in every direction.

When you do textile dyeing on an industrial scale one learns about boilers. And when your farm has been in the family since the 19th century there is a bit of knowledge on steam engines. At one point the textile factory ran the circa 1919 ex Spencer St power station boilers. The chem professor, on exchange from England where they had lots of boilers & steam engines, claimed that a boiler was one of the only things that could explode, demolish all around it ¬ have scratch on it.

He estimated that the 600 Steam HP could wreck things in the car yard a quarter of a mile away. One can easily under estimate steam power.
a 22HP Marshal engine commonly used on chaff cutters & such does not sound big until you multiply 22 by 13.1 = 288.2 Mechanical HP.

Fun thing on a stinking hot day with the solar DUX is deciding to have a shower, before going out. As soon as the HW is turned on and the pressure drops, you get the unmistakable sounds of water turning to gas.

Ah I have sent the imperia to a friend that is able to rewind the transformer if need be. It will be back to full health very soon.

Not that this would be a problem with a domestic hot water heater, but in power stations small super heated steam leaks can be hard to find; while they can be heard, they are invisible. The vapour cloud will appear some distance from the leak once it has cooled down. So how to find them, since they will cut to the bone, and maybe set fire to you. The solution years ago was a rag on a stick.

The steam in a power station is very high pressure and very high temperature, typically more than 200°C. At that temperature it is clear and very dry. Sometimes I think it is amazing that they hold together as well as they do.

Reading these interesting facts about super heated steam makes me think of the tremendous power contained within our planet.
Molten rock meets water sealed within massive rock chambers.
Unimaginable pressure and heat.

I met a retired seismologist many yeas ago at her home while repairing her television. While discussing radio physics in general, she told me
we simply do not know how electric charge carriers behave under such incredible pressure and heat. For all we know, conductors may turn
into insulators and visa-versa. We simply cannot recreate such an environment in a lab.

The chem factory ran its boiler at 120psi & some of the bigger steam locomotives were around 200 psi. The Americans had a bad habit of using thin wall boilers in the Mississippi River boats & they had a very bad habit of demolishing boats.

There's a few of those river boats on Sydney Harbour when the virus isn't around. Good thing they run on diesel engines.

Guys I have been reading a interesting article in the telegraph this week about Hydrogen. The CSIRO has discovered a way of isolating a element of hydrogen which makes it much easier to transport and according to the article this puts Australia in the box seat when it comes to production and export due to our abundance of land and sunlight .
It also means that over time we will be able to gradually replace natural gas in our pipelines which will make gas a very viable green resource.
I just hope our government doesnt squander it.
There is actually quite a lot of interesting reading this week in the telegraph on this subject. I suggest you pick it up and have a look.