It's very rare that you even see a hot water cylinder which has survived six decades of daily use and most people will not think twice to just replace the cylinder with a new one.
This low pressure Stanley hot water cylinder was manufactured in 1962 in by Stanley Sheet Metals LTD in Wellington and in 1961 over 10 000 of them were sold in New Zealand and from what we gathered, over 40 000 were sold up to 1962. It make you wonder how many of them are still around and in use after all these years.
The Stanley tank only have a 5 year warranty which would have lapsed in 1967 and its still going strong in 2023.
We recently had the opportunity to upgrade this 61 year old hot water cylinder to solar with the Green Heat PV solar kit.
From the photo on the right you can see the old electric water heating element on the bottom left hand and above that on the right will be the mechanical temperature thermostat.
At first we were unsure if our element will fit this specific thread and the size, but after investigation, we found that we might have a good change that it will work. And, it did!
The photo below will show you the newly installed AC/DC element which fitted perfectly without any issues. We also replace the old thermostat with a new modern digital thermostat with a cut-out in the event of something going wrong.
This modern stainless steel element can retrofit in any hot water cylinder.
The solar water temperature as well as the AC power is controlled by the Green Heat smart controller which will switch the solar power off on your selected temperature of anything between 50áµ’C and 75áµ’C. On rainy days, the smart controller will automatically switch over to grid power to boost the water temperature to 60áµ’C.
The 3 x 440 Watt Jinko solar panels, also known as photovoltaic panels was supplied with a 25-year warranty and an additional 30-year 87% performance warranty.
What would happen if this old water cylinder need to be replaced?
If the hot water cylinder do start to leak, the stainless steel AC/DC element can easily be remove from the old cylinder and re-installed on the new one.