Upgrading the heating element in a HW cylinder to titanium?

[Adsibob]

I need to fit an unvented indirect HW cylinder in a restricted height area. Even with a horizontal one, I'm not sure I will have enough clearance to be able to remove the electrical heating element which I assume is removable because it needs to be serviced/replaced every so often. I emailed Telford technical support (I'm looking at their Tempest range) and they said: "The immersion heater is 14” in length so you will need around 14” to remove it. The immersion heater can be moved to help this though". I don't understand the second sentence. Aren't these huge tanks (i'm looking at a 300L or 400L one) very heavy to move? Or do they mean once empty?

 

I called Cylinders2go and asked if they could make a bespoke one which had the heating element at the end rather than on top. They said "not really" but suggested I pay an additional £80 or so to upgrade the heating element to titanium as apparently if I did that it would never need servicing, hence eliminating the problem.

 

Has anybody got experience of servicing unvented indirect tanks? How often does the heating element need to be removed and is it possible to move the cylinder to assist with this, or is that just madness. Thoughts on the titanium upgrade?

 

I should clarify that I will have a salt-based water softener system, so shouldn't really get any limescale.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Adsibob

[PeterW]

5 hours ago, Adsibob said:

The immersion heater can be moved to help this though".

it can be rotated so it is front facing not top facing is what they mean. 

[Adsibob]

3 hours ago, PeterW said:

it can be rotated so it is front facing not top facing is what they mean. 

Ah, I see. Thanks @PeterW. So presumably to do that one would need to drain the cylinder. How often would a cylinder's heating element need a service/inspecting?

 

I am currently torn between two cylinders:

1. Telford Tempest 400L like this: https://www.cylinders2go.co.uk/shop/stainless-steel-unvented-cylinders/unvented-horizontal-cylinders/telford-400-litre-horizontal-indirect-unvented-cylinder/
2. Telford Tempest 380L like this: https://www.cylinders2go.co.uk/shop/stainless-steel-unvented-cylinders/unvented-horizontal-cylinders/telford-380-litre-horizontal-indirect-unvented-cylinder/

The 380L is longer and less tall when mounted. It will probably fit more easily in my restricted head height area and might mean that rotating it isn't required when servicing the element.  I really don't need the extra 20L afforded by the 400L tank, but I wonder whether the fact that's it's ratio of surface area to volume is greater than the 400L one will mean that it will have greater heat loss. Can't see the heat loss specs for either the 380L or the 400L tanks on Telford's website: https://www.telford-group.com/uploads/shop/Storage Tank Fiche 2021.pdf