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How to connect a water heater

To provide a home with hot water, many methods are used: gas water heaters, flow and storage boilers. If for some reason it is impossible to use a gas water heater, then the choice of a boiler remains an alternative option. Moreover, it is not difficult to connect such a water heater with your own hands.

Before connecting the water heater, it should be noted that the units are divided into flow and storage. Powerful heating elements are installed in the flow-through design, which provide rapid heating of the liquid flowing past them.

Storage water heaters have capacities of different sizes. To keep the temperature in the tank, it has good thermal insulation. Storage boilers can be divided into types:

  • direct heating;
  • indirect heating;
  • combined.

Boiler direct heating

In devices of this type, heating elements are located inside the tank, which provide heating of the liquid. When the boiler has already been connected to the water supply, cold water is supplied from below, and the already heated one comes out through the top of the tank.

The liquid temperature is controlled by a temperature sensor. Units may be designed to vertical mounting, as well as horizontal.

Indirect heating boiler

Indirect heating devices are paired with some kind of coolant: a heating system or a solar system (solar panels). By design, the device resembles a direct heating device, but the only difference is that it has no heaters. The heating of the liquid occurs due to the hot water in the heating system circulating in the heat exchanger. How to connect an indirect heating boiler will be discussed further.

Combined devices

The device turns into a combined water heater when heating elements are inserted into it (holes for mounting heaters can be provided in the tank). It is convenient to use such a device in summer, when the heating is turned off or when there is not enough power produced by the heating circuit.

Connecting a storage boiler

For the supply and removal of liquid, at the bottom of the water heater (accumulative) are installed fittings. Red is for hot water, blue for cold. It is recommended to use polypropylene pipes, which provide a reliable connection.

The figure below shows the simplest and most reliable scheme for connecting a water heater to a water supply.

The following rules must be observed:

  • it should be possible to shut off the water supply to the dwelling using valves;
  • branches leading to the unit must have stopcocks;
  • if poor-quality water is supplied to the main, it is necessary to install a water filter after the stopcock;
  • between the inlet to the tank and the safety valve, it is necessary to install a drain valve that allows you to quickly drain the water from the tank if repair or maintenance of the device is required;
  • before connecting the storage water heater to the water supply, it is necessary to acquire in advance various types of fittings, T-bends (tees) of flexible and rigid connecting pipes.

In addition, the connection of a storage water heater requires the mandatory installation of a safety group of two valves. Safety mounted to protect the tank from overpressure. If it rises to a critical level, the valve opens and the liquid is discharged through the drain hose into the sewer or a special container. Back the valve prevents water from flowing out of the tank when the pressure in the line decreases or it is absent. Thus, it prevents the heating elements from drying out, overheating and burning out.

The connection diagram of the water heater (boiler) to the water supply is shown in the figure:

The set of parts for connecting the device to the water supply may vary depending on the material of the main water pipes.

For iron or steel pipes

How to properly connect the boiler to the water supply, if the main line is laid in the apartment (house) using standard iron pipes? You can use the modern connection method, without the use of welding (welding a threaded adapter). In this case, it is used adapter "vampire", which is a collar supplemented with a hole and a thread.

Adapter "vampire"

The installation of the clamp is very simple, and is carried out in this way:

  • the place on the riser must first be cleaned of paint and rust;
  • the clamp must be placed on the riser, using rubber gaskets, and tighten the bolts to fix it;
  • shut off the water supply and drain the rest by opening any mixer tap;
  • drill a pipe through a hole in the clamp using an electric drill;
  • further, by winding the tap, you can begin to connect the required elements.

With metal-plastic pipes

Connecting a water heater to such a conduit is the simplest. Metal-plastic bends easily, and various types are used to connect elements. compression fittings.

Connection steps:

  • cut the pipe of the required size;
  • then you will need to carefully select a place for the tie-in, while taking into account the size of the tee itself with the minus of the part of the pipe that will go into the connection;
  • to cut a small area, you can use special scissors;
  • it is necessary to remove the nuts from the tee and, together with the fixation rings, put on the 2 ends of the pipe;
  • flare the ends of the metal-plastic using a special calibrator or screwdriver;
  • insert the tee until it stops, after which you need to move the rings and tighten the nuts with a wrench.

There are also fittings for metal-plastic pipes, which require pressure testing (compression). In this case, you will need additional special tools.

For polypropylene pipes

Before connecting the boiler to the water supply using polypropylene pipes, you must prepare: soldering iron plastic conduits, scissors for cutting it, a pair of tees and adapters for the thread, which is located on the valves and the emergency valve, as well as the number of corners necessary for the design. Further:

  • the place of connection is selected;
  • a section equal to the width of the tee is cut out in the pipe, minus 2 centimeters (1 cm will go into the tee on each side);
  • using a soldering iron, it is necessary to heat the pipe and fitting to the desired state and connect them (during the connection, they cannot be turned, as this may violate the tightness);
  • using segments of the conduit of different lengths and corners, an eyeliner is made to the branch pipes of the unit;
  • a threaded coupling is soldered to the end of the conduit, after which the whole structure is securely connected.

Step by step connection of all elements

Regardless of which conduits will be used in an apartment or house, the connection diagram of the storage unit and the algorithm for connecting all elements will be the same.


The scheme for connecting the storage boiler to the water supply is shown in the figure:

Electrical connection

It is not recommended to plug the device into a regular socket. This option of connecting to the electrical network cannot be considered safe and can lead to a fire. And yet, how to connect the water heater? The connection of the boiler to the home electrical network must be carried out through a separately extended line from the shield. The line is equipped circuit breaker, while the power of the machine must be at least 16A. The factory wire is disconnected from the heater and a new one is connected three-core cable(copper), having a cross section of 2.5 mm.

Apparatus required must be grounded. Otherwise, when bathing in the shower, a slight tingling current and other troubles are possible, up to the failure of the wiring and a fire. Grounding is connected in the switchboard. If you don’t understand anything about this, invite an electrician.


Connecting an indirect heating boiler

The indirect heating device does not have its own heat source, but uses heat energy from other sources (central heating, gas or solid fuel boiler, etc.). Therefore, for each source, an individual scheme for connecting an indirect heating boiler is selected.

R heating system

The device with indirect heating has strapping, which is connected to the water supply and heating circuit. In this case, you must adhere to the following rules:

  • cold water must be supplied through the bottom of the tank;
  • the exit of the heated liquid is carried out through the top of the unit;
  • in the middle there should be a recirculation point;
  • the connection of the thermal energy carrier must be such that it starts moving through the top of the heat exchanger and exits through its lower branch pipe - thanks to this movement, the maximum efficiency of the device is achieved.

With 3 way valve

Such a connection of an indirect heating boiler is implemented if there is a circulation pump. As can be seen in the figure, the heating circuit and the unit are connected in parallel, and a three-way valve (controlled by a temperature sensor located in the unit body) is mounted after the pump.

The valve is connected to the unit by one of its outlets. A tee is cut into the return line in front of the boiler, to which the outlet pipe of the heat exchanger is connected. On this, the insert into the heating system can be considered complete.

The principle of operation of the circuit

When information is received from the temperature sensor that the liquid temperature in the tank is lower than the set one, the valve switches the coolant supply to the unit, and the heating system is turned off. Thus, the redirection of the entire heat carrier flow through the heat exchanger contributes to the rapid heating of the liquid. When the liquid is warm enough, the valve will again direct the flow to the heating circuit.

This boiler connection scheme can also be used for connecting to a double-circuit boiler.

R non-volatile system

With the existing scheme in which the boiler is non-volatile, it is recommended to place the device above the level of the radiators. With this arrangement, the circulation of the coolant will occur due to gravitational forces. Although, a pump can also be built into this circuit, but there will be no heated water during a power outage.

With this type of connection, it is necessary that the water conduit leading to the unit has a cross-sectional diameter of 1 step larger than that used for heating. This achieves priority.

With recirculation

The unit with recirculation allows instantaneous supply of hot water to the consumer. This is convenient because it does not require draining the cool liquid until the hot one starts to flow. This possibility is provided by the installed pump to maintain circulation in looped circuit. This system is called recirculation. This design often includes a towel dryer.

In the recirculation system in the piping of the apparatus, the following is used:

  • non-return valve that prevents mixing of hot and cold water flows;
  • air duct - its task is to prevent air from entering while the pump is turned on;
  • safety valve - relieves pressure in emergency situations;
  • expansion tank, is designed to compensate for the expansion of the heat carrier, while the pressure in the tank should not rise above the level of operation of the protective valve.

Thus, if you connect the water heater in accordance with all the rules, this will allow the units to operate in the correct mode and provide the consumer with hot water.