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Depend­ing on the prin­ci­ple of oper­a­tion, water heaters are divid­ed into two types — flow and stor­age.

Flow devices heat water dur­ing the peri­od when water pass­es through them, stor­age devices deliv­er pre-heat­ed water from the boil­er. When using a flow heater, the wait­ing time for hot water is min­i­mal, and in a stor­age heater it will pro­vide hot water only after an hour and a half from the moment it is turned on. And the instan­ta­neous water heater takes up less space than a vol­u­met­ric boil­er. The main char­ac­ter­is­tic of such devices is pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, mea­sured in liters per minute.

How­ev­er, some types of flow heaters require high pow­er when oper­at­ing from the mains, as they are equipped with two heat­ing ele­ments and have an accel­er­at­ed heat­ing mode. Their use in hous­es with weak wiring is impos­si­ble, and boil­ers (stor­age water heaters) oper­ate from a stan­dard 220V out­let. In addi­tion, a stor­age water heater is able to heat water up to 85 ̊С — 90 ̊С, while the max­i­mum liq­uid heat­ing tem­per­a­ture for a flow­ing water heater is 75 ̊С. If the pow­er of the device is more than 7 kW, then sep­a­rate wiring may be required for its oper­a­tion, most often three-phase. To pro­tect against cor­ro­sion, some devices are equipped with a mag­ne­sium anode (a met­al rod made from a spe­cial­ized mag­ne­sium alloy).

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	Instan­ta­neous water heaters	Stor­age water heaters
Water source	Mix­er	Tank
Water heat­ing time	If you use the device only to wash your hands, dish­es, a mod­el designed for 2 liters per minute is enough. For a show­er, the opti­mal rate is 4–8 l / min, for a bath­room — 8–10 l / min.	The aver­age heat­ing time depends on the vol­ume of the tank. It takes 70 to 100 min­utes to heat 50 liters of water.
Max­i­mum water tem­per­a­ture	50–75 degrees.	70–75 degrees.
Required net­work pow­er	220 V	220 V

A heat­ing ele­ment and a gas burn­er can serve as a source of water heat­ing. As a rule, elec­tric devices are cheap­er than gas ones, safer, eas­i­er to install and install. Gas elec­tric heaters are more expen­sive, but in gen­er­al their use is more eco­nom­i­cal than elec­tric ones. They are more pow­er­ful and pro­duc­tive, but their instal­la­tion is car­ried out only by pro­fes­sion­al plumbers with the per­mis­sion of the gas ser­vices.

Editor’s Choice

Gorenje GWH 10 NNBW

The gas wall-mount­ed instan­ta­neous water heater has a capac­i­ty of 10 l/min and a high heat out­put of 20 kW. It turns on even at low pres­sure, the max­i­mum heat­ing tem­per­a­ture is 75 ̊С. Due to its com­pact dimen­sions (590x327x180 mm) it does not take up much space. It has an open com­bus­tion cham­ber with elec­tric igni­tion, con­trolled by round ther­mostats on the front pan­el. There is an indi­ca­tor of inclu­sion and tem­per­a­ture.

Goren­je GWH 10 NNBW is equipped with a gas con­trol sys­tem (when the fire goes out, the gas sup­ply stops), over­heat­ing and freez­ing pro­tec­tion. The cop­per heat exchang­er is pro­tect­ed from burnout and cor­ro­sion, and the noz­zle is made of high car­bon stain­less steel. The device can work on sev­er­al water intake points. The instal­la­tion of this water heater is pro­vid­ed in a ver­ti­cal posi­tion.

Main characteristics

Pow­er con­sump­tion	2000 W
Net pow­er	20 kW
Com­bus­tion cham­ber type	open
Max­i­mum water tem­per­a­ture	75 °С
Dimen­sions (W*H*D)	327*590*180mm
Instal­la­tion	ver­ti­cal with bot­tom con­nec­tion
Con­trol	mechan­i­cal
Indi­ca­tion	switch­ing on, heat­ing

Pros and cons

Assem­bled in the EU, styl­ish design, trou­ble-free oper­a­tion, con­ve­nient switch­es

Water may have a high­er or low­er tem­per­a­ture than it was pre­vi­ous­ly at a cer­tain posi­tion of the mix­er), at low pres­sure, the water heats up worse, it is dif­fi­cult to clean the fil­ter

Rating of the top 8 best storage water heaters for an apartment

1. Ariston ABS BLU EVO RS 30

Com­pact water heater (447x447x389 mm) that can be installed direct­ly above the sink. The water heater is housed in a square plas­tic case, coat­ed with sil­ver on the inside to pro­tect against rust and puri­fy the water. The device has a stain­less steel met­al heat­ing ele­ment. The boil­er is pow­ered by elec­tric­i­ty.

The tank capac­i­ty is 30 liters. The pow­er of 1.5 kW pro­vides heat­ing of water up to 80 ̊С in 70 min­utes. The device is equipped with an over­heat­ing and elec­tric leak­age pro­tec­tion func­tion. Aris­ton ABS BLU EVO RS 30 is con­trolled mechan­i­cal­ly using a ther­mo­stat locat­ed on the front pan­el of the device. The water heater is sup­plied with a safe­ty valve.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

Stor­age water heaters

Spa­cious­ness, reli­a­bil­i­ty and ener­gy effi­cien­cy

2. Electrolux EWH 30 Major LZR 3

Stor­age water heater of small dimen­sions (435x550x257.50 mm) is suit­able for both ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal instal­la­tion. The vol­ume of the device is 30 liters, and thanks to the use­ful pow­er of 2 kW, it is able to heat the liq­uid up to 75 ̊С for 50 min­utes (when the accel­er­at­ed heat­ing func­tion is turned on). The device is con­trolled by a spe­cial ther­mo­stat, and the pow­er-on and tem­per­a­ture data are dis­played on the LED dis­play mount­ed on the front pan­el of the device.

The use of Elec­trolux EWH 30 Major LZR 3 pro­vides for eco­nom­i­cal con­sump­tion of elec­tric­i­ty: a two-cen­time­ter lay­er of insu­lat­ing mate­r­i­al helps to main­tain the water tem­per­a­ture for a long time.

Using the self-diag­no­sis func­tion, the device inde­pen­dent­ly deter­mines the health of all func­tions and sys­tems. In case of break­downs, infor­ma­tion is dis­played on the dis­play, and the water heater is turned off. There is also an emer­gency pres­sure relief valve, pro­tec­tion against short cir­cuit and elec­tric shock.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

3. Timberk SWH FSL2 30 HE

Small elec­tric water heater (435x550x257.50 mm) with tubu­lar stain­less steel heat sink. Pow­er — 2 kW, which allows you to heat the liq­uid up to 75 ̊С in 60–70 min­utes (in addi­tion, there is an accel­er­at­ed heat­ing func­tion). Inside the boil­er there is a mag­ne­sium anode and a safe­ty valve for the safe oper­a­tion of the device. Tank capac­i­ty — 30 liters.

On the for­ward pan­el the indi­ca­tor of inclu­sion and heat­ing is locat­ed. The device is con­trolled by a ther­mo­stat. The device is pro­tect­ed from excess pres­sure inside the tank, from leak­age of elec­tric cur­rent and an over­heat­ing pro­tec­tion sys­tem. Pre­cise over­flow sys­tem guar­an­tees uni­form mix­ing of cold and hot water and smooth heat­ing.

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Main characteristics

Pros and cons

4. Thermex Flat Plus Pro IF 50V (pro)

Bud­get water heater, char­ac­ter­ized by com­pact­ness (453x880x263 mm) and styl­ish design. The water heater is pow­ered by elec­tric­i­ty, has a vol­ume of 50 liters and, with a pow­er of 2 kW, heats water up to 75 ̊С in an aver­age of 78 min­utes. It has a flat design, which allows you to install a water heater even in a small bath­room or kitchen. The front pan­el has a touch screen with LED dis­play.

The water heater tank is made of stain­less steel, the mag­ne­sium anode addi­tion­al­ly pro­tects it from cor­ro­sion, the heat­ing ele­ment is made of cop­per. It is equipped with a mode that pre­vents freez­ing, an over­heat­ing pro­tec­tion func­tion (inter­rupt­ing the oper­a­tion of the device in case of over­heat­ing of any part of the device), pro­tec­tion against dry switch­ing. The Ther­mex Flat Plus Pro IF 50V (pro) self-diag­no­sis sys­tem reacts to the slight­est devi­a­tion from the stan­dard para­me­ters. There is a safe­ty valve.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

5. Ballu BWH/S 80 Smart WiFi

Water heater housed in a stain­less steel hous­ing. The dimen­sions of the water heater are 557x865x336 mm, the body is flat, thanks to which it is eas­i­ly mount­ed on the wall and con­nect­ed to the pipeline from below. Such a device can be eas­i­ly placed even in a small kitchen.

An 80 l tank heats up in an aver­age of 114 min­utes to a max­i­mum of 75 ̊C. The pow­er of the device is 2 kW, it is equipped with an LED dis­play, a ther­mome­ter, a fuse and a ther­mo­stat.

The mag­ne­sium anode pro­tects the device from cor­ro­sion. The pres­ence of two elec­tri­cal receivers allows you to choose the speed of heat­ing water.

The con­trol is car­ried out using a ther­mo­stat installed on the front pan­el. Bal­lu BWH/S 80 Smart Wi-Fi can be con­nect­ed to the Inter­net and con­trolled through a spe­cial mobile appli­ca­tion. The Wi-Fi mod­ule is pur­chased sep­a­rate­ly and is con­nect­ed to the heater via a USB con­nec­tor.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

6. Hyundai H‑SWS14-100V-UI557

The water heater, placed in a flat stain­less steel hous­ing, is mount­ed ver­ti­cal­ly on the wall. Device dimen­sions 516x1200x270 mm. The vol­ume is 100 l — the device is able to heat this amount of water to 75 ̊С in 140 min­utes at a pow­er of 1.5 kW, which is very eco­nom­i­cal. Inside it is cov­ered with stain­less steel, equipped with a mag­ne­sium anode — all this pro­tects the device from cor­ro­sion and harm­ful impu­ri­ties in the water. The heat sink is made of cop­per.

Hyundai H‑SWS14-100V-UI557 is equipped with an over­flow sys­tem, so the water is heat­ed even­ly. There is a 2 cm ther­mal insu­la­tion lay­er between the inner and out­er sur­faces of the tank, thanks to which the already heat­ed water does not cool for a very long time (judg­ing by the reviews, hot water becomes warm in a day). The out­er side of the tank does not heat up dur­ing oper­a­tion of the device. Mechan­i­cal­ly con­trolled by a ther­mo­stat. Pro­tect­ed from over­heat­ing and from switch­ing on with­out water.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

7.Edisson King 100V

A stor­age water heater mea­sur­ing 514x1203x270 mm with a pow­er of 2 kW, capa­ble of heat­ing 100 liters of water in 157 min­utes. The max­i­mum water tem­per­a­ture in the device is 65 ̊С. You can set the heat­ing lev­el your­self using the ther­mo­stat. Switch­ing on and off is car­ried out using the but­ton locat­ed at the bot­tom of the device.

The inter­nal sur­faces of the tank are coat­ed with anti-cor­ro­sion enam­el, a mag­ne­sium anode is pro­vid­ed to pro­tect against impu­ri­ties in water and rust. The device has a tubu­lar heat exchang­er. There is a safe­ty valve that pre­vents water from the water heater from enter­ing the water sup­ply net­work. There is pro­tec­tion against over­heat­ing.

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Pros and cons

8. Atlantic Steatite Cube Slim VM 50 S3 C

The stor­age water heater of the French brand with a vol­ume of 50 liters is placed in a styl­ish met­al case in the form of a prism. The dimen­sions of the device are 350x910x390 mm, and the pow­er of 1.5 kW allows you to heat the liq­uid up to 65 ̊С for 124 min­utes. The advan­tage of this mod­el is the pro­pri­etary dry stea­tine elec­tri­cal receiv­er, which can last up to 20 years because it does not come into con­tact with water and is locat­ed in a sep­a­rate pro­tec­tive case. In addi­tion, stea­tine elec­tri­cal receivers con­sume 10–15% less elec­tric­i­ty.

The inner sur­face of the device is coat­ed with zir­co­ni­um enam­el, which pre­vents cor­ro­sion of the device and pro­vides antibac­te­r­i­al water pro­tec­tion. The con­trol is car­ried out mechan­i­cal­ly by means of a ther­mo­stat. On the front pan­el there is a pow­er indi­ca­tor, pro­tec­tion against over­heat­ing and freez­ing is pro­vid­ed, there is a safe­ty valve.

Pros and cons

Rating of the top 6 best instantaneous water heaters for an apartment

1. Electrolux NPX 8 Flow Active 2.0

This water heater is a func­tion­al and com­pact mod­el, which also has a styl­ish design. This unit is per­fect for your apart­ment. The built-in indi­ca­tor will help at any time to con­trol the tem­per­a­ture to which the water has heat­ed up, and the pres­ence of a dis­play and an elec­tron­ic con­trol unit will make it pos­si­ble to set a com­fort­able mode.

The pow­er of the device allows you to heat more than four liters of water per minute. Accord­ing­ly, one of the most impor­tant advan­tages of the device is high per­for­mance. And adjust­ing the heat­ing lim­it will allow you to set the required water tem­per­a­ture.

In addi­tion, this water heater is equipped with a self-diag­nos­tic sys­tem, so you can iden­ti­fy the mal­func­tion your­self. And pro­tec­tion against over­heat­ing and scale allows you to extend the life of the device.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

Instan­ta­neous water heaters

Hot water at any time of the year and at any time

2. Bosch WR102P23

This flow­ing gas water heater is char­ac­ter­ized by com­pact dimen­sions (310x580x220 mm) and can fit into the inte­ri­or of even the small­est room. The water heater has a high per­for­mance — 10 l / min. Thanks to a ther­mal pow­er of 17.4 kW, it is able to heat water up to 60 ̊С in a few sec­onds. Equipped with an open-type com­bus­tion cham­ber with piezo igni­tion (using a spe­cial but­ton).

The con­trol is car­ried out mechan­i­cal­ly, but auto­mat­ic adjust­ment of the device is also pos­si­ble, which ensures oper­a­tion even with low water pres­sure in the main line. There is a sep­a­rate pow­er adjust­ment, which makes it pos­si­ble to set indi­vid­ual set­tings for the oper­a­tion of the device. There is a “gas-con­trol” sys­tem, a lim­iter and pro­tec­tion against over­heat­ing.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

3. Stiebel Eltron HDB‑E 12 Si

The water heater is housed in a hous­ing made of high-qual­i­ty plas­tic, resis­tant to impacts and mois­ture pen­e­tra­tion. The device with dimen­sions of 225x470x117mm has a capac­i­ty of 5.4 l / min and a use­ful pow­er of 11 kW. Pro­vides tem­per­a­ture heat­ing up to 60 ̊С in a few sec­onds accord­ing to the 2i sys­tem (two heat­ing ele­ments work simul­ta­ne­ous­ly).

Stiebel Eltron HDB‑E 12 Si is equipped with a spi­ral heat sink pro­tect­ed from cor­ro­sion and harm­ful impu­ri­ties in the water. The device pro­vides pro­tec­tion against over­heat­ing, there is a safe­ty valve. The kit includes a quick instal­la­tion sys­tem (a ready-made block that con­sists of a set of nec­es­sary ele­ments for con­nec­tion) — PROFI RAPID (a spe­cial mount­ing plate is sold with the device, which allows you to install the device in a few min­utes).

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

4. Zanussi GWH 10 Fonte Turbo

This gas instan­ta­neous water heater has an excel­lent per­for­mance of 10 l / min, and a pow­er of 20 kW pro­vides fast water heat­ing up to 65 ̊С. Due to its small dimen­sions (325x210x550 mm) it will fit into the inte­ri­or of even a small bath­room or kitchen. The built-in auto­mat­ic fan of the device inde­pen­dent­ly cre­ates draft and cools the device. There­fore, it can be used in hous­es with no chim­ney or draft in it.

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A dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of this mod­el is high-speed igni­tion and fast cool­ing. The device is con­trolled by two switch­es that reg­u­late pow­er and tem­per­a­ture. The indi­ca­tion of the para­me­ters is dis­played on the elec­tron­ic dis­play locat­ed on the front pan­el. The device uses a mul­ti-lev­el secu­ri­ty sys­tem, and it is also pos­si­ble to work at low pres­sure of water and gas. The burn­er and heat exchang­er are made of high qual­i­ty cop­per, which pre­vents their cor­ro­sion.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

5. Atmor Lotus 3.5

A flow­ing water heater of minia­ture dimen­sions (295x245x90 mm) with a bot­tom con­nec­tion, which is eas­i­ly mount­ed on the wall. The pow­er of 3.5 kW pro­vides water heat­ing at a rate of 2 l / min to a max­i­mum tem­per­a­ture of 50 ̊С. Con­trolled by keys locat­ed on the front pan­el of the device. With their help, you can turn on / off the water heater, as well as select one of three degrees of heat­ing.

The heat­ing ele­ment of the device is made of cop­per and is resis­tant to cor­ro­sion. The device is pro­tect­ed from over­heat­ing and dry switch­ing. The set comes with a show­er head, which allows you to save warm water (with a small pres­sure, the water heats up faster to an accept­able tem­per­a­ture).

Pros and cons

6. Neva 4511E

A flow­ing gas device of small dimen­sions (328x210x550 mm) is capa­ble of heat­ing a liq­uid with a capac­i­ty of 11 l / min. With a pow­er of 19 kW, it heats water up to 60 ̊С and can serve two water intake points. Neva 4511E is equipped with a two-row puri­fied oxy­gen-free cop­per heat exchang­er, which pro­tects it from cor­ro­sion, hard water, and also ensures the oper­a­tion of the device even dur­ing pow­er out­ages.

The device is con­trolled mechan­i­cal­ly using a ther­mo­stat, and the tem­per­a­ture read­ings are dis­played on an elec­tron­ic dis­play. The water heater has an open com­bus­tion cham­ber and is ignit­ed by bat­ter­ies. Using Neva 4511E is as safe as pos­si­ble: in the absence of draft in the chim­ney, when the flame is extin­guished and when the water over­heats, the gas sup­ply is imme­di­ate­ly turned off.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

How to choose a water heater

Choos­ing a water heater is not the most dif­fi­cult task, if you know in advance what para­me­ters to pay atten­tion to in the first place.

Capacity

It is worth pro­ceed­ing from your needs for the use of hot water. If the required vol­ume is small, then you can com­plete­ly get by with flow mod­els, in an apart­ment they are con­ve­nient for their dimen­sions.

If you spend a lot of water, then you need to think about stor­age mod­els. Basi­cal­ly, three types are cho­sen for an apart­ment, depend­ing on the vol­ume of the tank: up to 50 liters, from 50 to 80 liters and over 80 liters. The for­mer are fine if you live alone. The lat­ter quite calm­ly serve a fam­i­ly of 2–3 peo­ple. Still oth­ers are worth choos­ing if you have a large fam­i­ly.

Control

There are two types of water heater con­trol — mechan­i­cal and elec­tron­ic. The first are dis­tin­guished by their sim­plic­i­ty — they main­ly con­tain a cou­ple of but­tons and one or two ther­mostats for switch­ing modes.

The lat­ter are more con­ve­nient, as they allow not only to set the required water tem­per­a­ture, but also help to con­trol it thanks to the dis­play. In addi­tion, elec­tron­ics, as a rule, mon­i­tor the safe­ty of the device much more close­ly, and with the help of the men­tioned dis­play, self-diag­no­sis of the device can be car­ried out.

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True, it is worth con­sid­er­ing that in most cas­es you will have to pay extra for “smart” man­age­ment.

Additional features

Of the minor func­tions, the most use­ful, per­haps, will be the pres­ence of an econ­o­my mode. Many water heaters have the abil­i­ty to work in the “back­ground” mode, main­tain­ing a com­fort­able water tem­per­a­ture of about 30 degrees. At the same time, pow­er con­sump­tion in this case will be min­i­mal, depend­ing on the mod­el, it can vary from 3.5 to 6 kW, which is quite good for an elec­tric heater.

Kse­nia Lak­tiono­va, edi­tor of the “House”, “Repair” and “Dacha” sec­tions of Citylink mag­a­zine, rec­om­mends tak­ing into account addi­tion­al fac­tors.

Wiring options

A 220V out­let is enough for stor­age water heaters, and flow heaters, depend­ing on the pow­er, need a sep­a­rate cable and an auto­mat­ic switch in the shield, or a pow­er out­let from 16A.

Place for mounting

A com­pact boil­er with a top con­nec­tion will fit into the cab­i­net under the sink. In a small bath­room in the coun­try, you can hang a water heater with a hor­i­zon­tal instal­la­tion under the ceil­ing. A long, nar­row mod­el can fit in a nar­row niche in a bath­room or in a plumb­ing box: a 50-liter tank can be only 30 cm in diam­e­ter.

Expert review of water heaters for an apartment

Xenia Lak­tiono­vaedi­tor of the “House”, “Repair” and “Dacha” sec­tions of the Citylink mag­a­zine.

“In a city apart­ment, the main job of a water heater is to pro­vide you with a pleas­ant start to the day and a good evening: a hot show­er before leav­ing for work or after return­ing home. Or, for exam­ple, it is nec­es­sary that hot water be avail­able for the arrival of chil­dren from school. Such tasks are well solved by flow heaters, smart boil­ers with remote con­trol through the appli­ca­tion and those that learn from the habits of the own­ers.

If there are pow­er out­ages in a coun­try house, low and chang­ing water pres­sure, if you pump it from a well or the whole vil­lage waters gar­dens in the evenings, then the device should work at low water pres­sure with the func­tion of resum­ing the pro­gram after a pow­er out­age.