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How To Adjust The Temperature Of A Hot Water System – DIY Tips


Hot water is an essential thing in you're bathroom, it is amazing to be able to come home after a long day to sit and relax in the shower. BUT what many people don’t realise is that it brings dangerous hazards that need to be acknowledged to be avoided. Hot water systems are required by law to follow certain protocols to be even considered safe for installation and use.

Many people do not realise that the most common place to be scalded is in the bathroom.

When the temperature is too hot, and the water is being used for some time, scalding can occur. When people realise that the water is too hot, it is often too late, and scalding has occurred. At 60 degrees Celsius, it only takes two seconds to cause severe scalding, demonstrating just how dangerous hot water can be. This is escalated if there are young children that haven’t quite got the hang of using the shower taps.


Adjust hot water

At just 10 degrees lower at 50 degrees Celsius, it takes more than 5 minutes for scalding to occur with the taps at their hottest temperature. While this temperature difference seems quite minimal it shows the difference between a normal shower and something that can be life-changing. Therefore, it is clearly essential that hot water heater temperature is properly regulated and maintained.

The current regulation for hot water heaters state that the maximum temperature for delivery to bathrooms is 50 degrees Celsius or 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

All bathrooms in all homes must stick to this requirement. These regulations do allow for kitchen and laundry water to be hotter, but separating these pipes are not easy. Older homes and even newer homes whose piping systems were installed by a poor plumbing technician may not have this tempered piping.


Manage hot water

Call a local Plumbing business near you to get a qualified technician out today to check if your pipes are tempered or if they can be adjusted. By law, the internal temperature of your hot water system must be set to 70 degrees Celsius. This is because at this temperature it is hot enough to kill bacteria that can seriously harm you such as Legionnaires disease.

As hot water temperatures can pose such a danger to households if it is set too hot, particularly to households with young children, we do not recommend adjusting the heater yourself. It holds too big of a threat to be fine-tuned by anyone who is not qualified.

If you believe your water heater is set too hot or too cold, please get in touch with Jetset Plumbing today and we will send someone out ASAP.


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