Hydronic Plinth Heater Stainless Effect & White

Product Information

Whether you’re looking for a high-efficiency hydronic plinth heater or a highly flexible and convenient electric one, there’s the perfect unit out there. You just need to be able to evaluate the various feature sets on offer–and hopefully you’re now better able to suss it all out! In terms of quality, Bidex’s Diamond 500 stands tall amongst the market’s very best hydronic plinth heaters. While it may have the smallest heat output of the three models we’re reviewing here, it lives a second life as a cooling fan during hot months, essentially doubling your value for money.

One issue with forced-air heating is that it can tend to produce cold spots in some parts of a room or home. The areas close to the supply vent where the hot air flows out will always be warm enough, but the places further away from the vents and near exterior walls, windows and doors will often stay cooler. This is another advantage of hydronic heating as it will distribute the heat around each room and the whole home more evenly and prevent cold spots from forming.Ironically though, the APH01SS gets some things right where other more advanced units fail. There’s a bright red illuminating power indicator so you never have to guess whether the darn thing’s on or not. And while there’s no fancy remote or thermostatic control unit, the APH01SS doesn’t rely on external electronics to function (or fail, for that matter). Electric plinth heaters are a little less convenient by default, as they’re designed for more occasional or intermittent usage. Thus, you have to be more active in controlling the usage of your heater. Follow manufacturers instructions to complete the set up. Now that the heater is in place, you will need to adjust the settings as required.

At the risk of repeating ourselves, the only reason we don’t give the Smith’s SS5 top billing is that it’s probably too much heat for smaller (aka UK-sized) kitchens. Otherwise, we have an excellent hydronic plinth heater made and designed in the UK, boasting fantastic performance all around. When it comes to routine maintenance tasks for a water heater, plan to flush the tank annually. This reduces sediment buildup. Tankless water heaters also require a flush each year, which helps to reduce sediment build-up in the heater exchange tubing. James reminds homeowners to take an important step: “Before performing work on a water heater, drain the tank by turning off the power at its circuit breaker and opening an exterior faucet or drain valve. This will allow any remaining water in the tank to be drained out.” For the most part, plinth heaters require relatively little input from their owners. Hydronic plinth heaters are especially easy to operate, as in most cases you just need to raise your central heating thermostat to a specific temperature (often around 70°F). The hot water from the boiler can also be pumped through the AC coil inside the home to create a hybrid hydronic/forced-air heating system. In this type of system, the heat from the hot water is directly released into the cooler air flowing through the AC air handler, and the blower then moves the heated air around the building and blows it out of the supply vents just like a standard forced-air heating system.

My Top Recommended Plinth Heaters

But generally, you don’t need to worry about all that too terribly much. Manufacturers provide average performance metrics, which should generally serve as an adequate indicator throughout the UK, regardless of the composition of your home. Here are a few ground rules to make sense of them: In homes, the water loop may be as simple as a single pipe that "loops" the flow through every radiator in a zone. In such a system, flow to the individual radiators cannot be modulated as all of the water is flowing through every radiator in the zone. Slightly more complicated systems use a "main" pipe that flows uninterrupted around the zone; the individual radiators tap off a small portion of the flow in the main pipe. In these systems, individual radiators can be modulated. Alternatively, a number of loops with several radiators can be installed, the flow in each loop or zone controlled by a zone valve connected to a thermostat. Unlike most plinth heaters, which limit you to on/high/off settings, you have full thermostatic control over the WWFH20E. Best of all, you don’t have to bend down on your knees to fiddle with knobs; instead you can use the included Bluetooth remote control to dial in the perfect amount of heat. Looking for the best overall utility and efficiency, go for dual-fuel (provided you don’t mind the larger upfront investment). The simple design of this popular electric water heater makes it very easy to install. While it has a short list of features that don't include newer innovations like Wi-Fi integration or the option to receive an alert on your smartphone if a leak is detected, it does have LED indicator lights to give you at-a-glance notice if one or both of the 5,500-watt elements are operational. The lower element, which is more likely to fail first, is made of stainless steel for durability. The glass-lined water tank has a self-cleaning design that helps to reduce sediment build-up, along with a long-lasting anode rod.