Hacker News Reader

Comment by jfim | Hacker News Reader

It is a scalding hazard though. At 70°C skin burns occur in about a second or so.

The thermostatic valve makes it so that the water that comes out of the water heater is at a more reasonable temperature.

View on HN

I was surprised at how cold "hot" water actually was. I thought it was 60-70, but apparently what feels "hot" is around 45-50. Especially for me, that finds anything beyond my shower's "middle" heat as uncomfortably hot, I must be showering with around 40 C water, which is basically "hot day" hot.

Going less than 55 °C tap temperature / 60 °C in the tank is bad though, at least in larger installations - otherwise, you risk legionella and other microbial infestations [1].

[1] https://www.verbraucherzentrale.sh/pressemeldungen/lebensmit...

Oh definitely, I'm purely talking about "feel".

Then again, I grew up with thermostatic valves in the shower mixer, and a "child safety" latch to restrict it to even less hot water in normal use. I don't see why putting the mixer in the water heater is that different.

It's supposed to be HOT water, not lukewarm... I have my water heater set to 150F because it makes the hot water last longer, especially in the winter when the incoming supply is barely above freezing, but that doesn't make the tank bigger.

I think what this "smart tank" does is mix the super-hot with cold.

If the automatic mixing feature malfunctions to super-hot, then it could be risky...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com