The Great Geyser Swindle

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Smiggles

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The Great Geyser Swindle | News24

A great swindle is taking place above our heads and it is making your plumber very rich!
www.news24.com www.news24.com
A great swindle is taking place above our heads and it is making your plumber very rich!

Have you ever wonder why in this modern age your geyser seems to burst every few years?

Well the answer is quite interesting. Up to the 90’s the bulk of geysers installed in South Africa
was copper. The average lifespan of a copper geyser was around 15 years. In that time only the
a pressure reducing value needed to replaced to depending on how many particles was in your
water supply. It was not uncommon for geysers to last much longer than 15 years.

In the 90’s we see the widespread use by plumbers of the high pressure galvanized geyser.
Why switch? The reason will soon become clear.

Technically the galvanized geyser is a superior product to the copper one because it delivers
hot water with the same speed as the cold. It operates at the same pressure as Municipal water
pressure. And it has the potential lifespan of 15 years but it never does! Why?

The reason is it requires regular maintenance. Every two years the sacrificial anode needs to
be replaced.
Click to expand...
 
Yes, you need to change the anode often. If you don't know that it's ignorance, not a swindle.

I just had to replace a geyser that I fitted in 2008, and it was a second-hand unit then already. In the time it went through maybe three elements and a six or seven sacrificial anodes.
 
No swindle...
What really happened
Let's go back to 1982 shall we.

KWIKOT introduced the square box shaped geyser, that began to replace the old Westvaal EVERHOT copper geyser designed for low pressure with the riser tube seen on most homes in the 70s and early 80s, and required things like a LATCO valve.

The KWIKOT model is made from 8mm thick steel, and coated with glass epoxy resin internally. It is designed for high pressure.
This model has a flange that has the element screwed into it, the same element style as the Westvaal copper geysers.

These also contained the sacrificial anode but they were built like a tank, and many achieved 10-15 years.

Then came democracy to ZA in 1994 and with it, the American way of doing business.
KWIKOT then began to make the cylindrical DUAL 600 model, the cylinder wall thickness went down to 4mm and the box shape was discontinued, because... cost.. and shareholders to feed.

By the early 2000s they already had been refined to last no more than 5 years, even if you replaced the anode, because the seams fail, and when replacing the element, that cheapened, cost-cutting flange leaked.

Last geyser I cut open, the wall thickness was about 3mm... about 1mm thicker than a cheap steel drum
 
Koos Custodiet said:
Yes, you need to change the anode often. If you don't know that it's ignorance, not a swindle.

I just had to replace a geyser that I fitted in 2008, and it was a second-hand unit then already. In the time it went through maybe three elements and a six or seven sacrificial anodes.
Click to expand...
Still a swindle. How many people are going to climb up on their ceiling to replace it?
 
I am more curious how this now unlabeled opinion piece was dug up on News24? AFAIK News24 closed the user opinion columns, and only publishes curated pieces. Those aligned with the editorial /cough. At least it is not archived.

March 2016... @Smiggles how many geysers have you replaced since? 10?
 
Fulcrum29 said:
I am more curious how this now unlabeled opinion piece was dug up on News24? AFAIK News24 closed the user opinion columns, and only publishes curated pieces. Those aligned with the editorial /cough. At least it is not archived.

March 2016... @Smiggles how many geysers have you replaced since? 10?
Click to expand...
Replacing one now and my mom had to replace hers and then there's here on the forum even as well. What does that have to do with the fact it's a swindle?
 
Smiggles said:
Replacing one now and my mom had to replace hers and then there's here on the forum even as well. What does that have to do with the fact it's a swindle?
Click to expand...

Threads like these are only posted when there is a motive. Yes, there is truth to it all.

During the last 16 years I had three replacements. The second replacement, uhm yeah, didn't last long and the plumber danced around the warranty blaming it on Chinese imports and he used the word, "Chinesium". The materials used to assemble the geysers. According to that Plumber, during the pandemic the only geysers they could get were Chinese imports. Send the guy into his moer, and got a proper plumber. Got to love insurance when they claim that their service providers are not only the good guys, but also the best guys.
 
Your insurance has budgeted for a geyser replacement every five years or so. You are paying for it effectively.

Copper geysers can last decades, what’s with the low 15 years in the OP?
 
I was inside a very old manor home, and a massive one at it too. They had this downstairs room with multiple vertical standing copper geysers, and they were quite large. I don't even want to know the running costs. They all worked.
 
purrr said:
Your insurance has budgeted for a geyser replacement every five years or so. You are paying for it effectively.

Copper geysers can last decades, what’s with the low 15 years in the OP?
Click to expand...
Replacing this one with a copper geyser again.
 
How is it a swindle because everyone ignores doing the required maintenance?

Are car services also a swindle? They should just magically keep going forever?
 
Good to know. When my geyser was replaced a few years ago, nothing was mentioned about an anode.
Guess I'll be up in the ceiling next weekend having a look and figuring out how to drain without flooding the ceiling again.
 
My house, built in 1948 had a vertical copper geyser in a walk-in wardrobe. Very poor pressure, hot water trickled out, We moved in during 1986 and I engaged a plumber to fit a high pressure hot water system in the roof. The quote was for a 400 kPa copper 200 litre geyser

This was fitted and worked well. However, in 1997 it began leaking. By this time the original plumber had moved from Cape Town so I got another plumber to fit a new 400 kPa copper geyser

On removing the old geyser, we found it was a Kwikhot steel geyser, not copper which I had paid for. I contacted the original plumber who made all sorts of excuses and stopped taking calls. The difference was R8345,00. I sent him a Small Claims Court summons. He did not attend the hearing so I got judgement. He did not pay so I sent the local Sheriff round to see him. At that time he lived in Hartenbos, near Mossel Bay and was still plumbing. The payment arrived in dribs and drabs

The replacement geyser has lasted 28 years. I have replaced the pressure valve once

The original 1948 copper geyser was cut up and I received R 1400 for the scrap copper
 
Copper geysers are 4-5 times the price and while they might theoretically last longer also aren't guaranteed to do so.
Probably is better value to use a good quality standard geyser but maintain the anode regularly.

If you had a copper geyser and it burst would insurance be obligated to replace like with like?
 
airborne said:
Access issues aside it does seem relatively simple to replace the anode and you only need to drain half the geyser water to remove it. I’m assuming some water types corrode the anode faster, theoretically what would the worst water be in the regard, very hard water with lots of lime?

Click to expand...

Yeah very hard water with lots of salt and lime is the issue, so we are probably safer here in Cape Town than most.

But there’s also iron and other metal content.


I’ve already set a yearly reminder for the IHP to clean the filter, check the anode and flush the tank once a year.

There is no way I’m paying an expensive plumber to come do something this basic every year, even if it means a potential warranty fight down the road.
 
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