Instant Water for Kitchen Sink

[Kevin Herber]

I have an instant boiling water heater/tank for my kitchen sink. It is about 3 years old. Brand is In-sink-erator. It has a small (1-2 quart tank - I can't remember exactly)

Recently the water has been smelling real bad, kind of a scorched odor. I drained it multiple times but the smell remains. It is fed from an under the sink RO unit. I recently changed the RO filters but the smell persists from the instant hot water unit only. Normal drinking water is fine, it never did have any odor.

Does anyone have suggestions how to get rid of the smell? Does anyone know of an under the sink instant hot water system similar to the 'new' instant whole house heaters? (New?? these have been around for a number of years, but now seem to be catching on on this side of the pond)

I like the concept of an on demand setup. I wonder how much I have been spending keeping hot water at boiling temp 24/7.

Thanks - Kevin

[John Hart]

Kevin, we have the same brandname at work in the cafeteria....and we have the same problem. I won't drink it. About the only thing people do with it is clean with it. The smell is like the water is in direct contact with the heating elements or something. Whatever it is, I can't believe it's good for you.

[Todd Burch]

I will follow this thread with intererst. I've been considering using these in a project I've had in mind to do for a while. Have you called in-sink-erator? Have you searched any of the euro forums?

It truly doesn't make much sense at all to store hot water.

[John Weber]

We've had one since '99, when we remodeled our kitchen. Our contractor said they only last a year (minerials clog them up), well ours is going on 6 years old and works great (knock on wood). My wife uses it when boiling water etc..., I use it when cleaning floors, windows, etc... I've not done a thing to it, but didn't think it stored any amount of water, the unit is fairly small, but works great. Ours is an in-sink-earter (sp), but an older model, it looks more like a drinking water tap, but is white and says HOT on the lever.

John

[John Shuk]

I have a similar situation at my house. I don't have an instant heater but I get sediment from my hot water only. My water is about as neutral ph as you can get. I've had 3 places test it. I can only think something comes out of solution as it is heated. Must be the same as your. No smell though.

[John Hart]

The one we have here at work is:

In-Sink-Erator
Model #H770-22
750W
6.5 Amp
Tank Capacity 1/2 Gallon

I just checked it again and it smells like something metallic burning..Which is a fairly unnatural smell for water to have I reckon.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi All,

Talk with a plumber. In larger eletric water heater there is a sacrificial rod that can react with the water as it heats. This rod can be replace with a different metal and can eliminate the bad smell. I'll look to see if I can find what the rod is made of.

An anode rod is what I was thinking of. Here is a link that has lots of info on maintaining hot water heaters: http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/index.html

I found it on the Mother earth News forums. Nice people there also.

[Todd Burch]

What size unit would be required to take a shower? Or, fill up a bathtub?

[Norman Hitt]

What size unit would be required to take a shower? Or, fill up a bathtub?

Todd, I don't know what Heating size it was, (ie: BTU), but I had a Natural Gas model in my apt. when I lived in Belgium that supplied my Kitchen and bathroom, and you could run water for a whole hour wide open if you wanted to and it would never cool down any. It was about 12 or 14" wide, 4 to 5" deep and about 18" tall and mounted on the wall at the end of the cabinet in the kitchen. They had a tremenduous amount of calcium & other minerals in the water there, but there was never any bad taste or smell, and the flow never slowed during the 5 1/2 years I lived there, and it was an old unit when I moved in. Sure wish I had looked to see what brand it was, as I would like to have one or more in my home here.

[John Hart]

Paul Harvey is also advertising a model that replaces your hot water tank completely. There's no tank...just no limit, in-line heating. Something about a 30% savings on energy too. Can't recall the brand name...I'll look it up

[Randy Meijer]

Kevin:

Why don't you contact the manufacturer and see what they have to say??


http://www.insinkerator.com

[John Hart]

Ok..I checked on that hot water thing that I caught on Paul Harvey. It's the Rinnai system. Here's an info link http://www.foreverhotwater.com/news.shtml

[John Shuk]

I'm thinking of going with a Whole house instant system powered by propane. Bosch also makes one and it is about $500- $600 at Lowes. Not installed though. I currently use my boiler to heat water so in the summer months it make no sense.

[cathrine james]

Hi,

I would like to know how long are you facing this kinf of problem with your Kitchen Sink?

Regards,

Kitchen Sinks

(http://www.sinksusa.com)

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I have an In-Sink-Erator. It has an in-line filter preceeding it. It smells too. I don't use it for cooking purposes nor for hot tea or coffee. Unfortunately, that's why I bought it.

My first In-Sink-Erator lasted about 3 years. It did not smell. And, it did not have a pre-filter. So, I'm wondering if filtering out the chlorine, then storing the hot water for long periods of time, caused the problem.

I also understand that these units do not have a long life. My friend went thru a couple of In-Sink-Erators in short period to time too. It's probably a function of how much crud and minerals are in your water supply.

I don't recommend one...or at least, not this brand.

-Jeff :)

[Al Willits]

Scale deposits are gonna be directly related to how hard your water supply to it is, also you can develop a bacteria in the water heater if water temps are under about 138 degree's, and that has a unpleasant smell, also anode rods do wear out and need replacing.

Usually the anode rod is screwed in on the top of the water heater, standard units need a 1 1/16" socket I think, or something close to that.
If it need replacement, make sure you get the proper one, standard water heater take several types, usually a weld on the top of the rod means its Magnesium and that usually is for city water, no weld is Aluminum and for well water, there's a few hybrid rods also but these two take care of 99% of the units.

I'd check the anode, if that's ok, run bleach though the WH and system to kill any possible bacteria and if that don't do it, not sure what else ya could try other than replacing the unit.

fwiw dept.....
Be careful on instantaneous water heaters, Bosch recommends a rebuild/inspection on their units every other year last I looked, and we're seeing more and more units burning out because flow valves sticking because they're not maintained.

Also fwiw....I'd say out of 375+ service techs we have where I work, the only ones using these, are ones where a standard water heater won't fit or work, gotta be a reason for it, least here in Minn..
They have their place, just look into it before buying one. imho

Al

[Ed Falis]

Anyone have any experience with AquaStar - they've been around for years? But I think they were bought by a larger company recently.

[Jim Becker]

Ed, the only AquaStar I know is a Bosch brand...for years now.

[Thomas Canfield]

I have used an Instant Hot from In-sink-erator for about 9 years. The first one lasted about 6 years before starting to leak, and there was never an issue of odor or taste problem (wish I could say the same for the ice maker in the refrigerator). The hot water is used for tea and instant coffee, in addition to other uses for boiling water including filling a small pan of water to put on the stove-top since I think it is more efficient than the range top to heat the water. There is a limit to the water, but filling a quart thermos to heat, and then making instant coffee in the thermos is not a problem.

[Matt Meiser]

I wonder if it is a function of how often you use it? If the water is coming from an RO unit I wouldn't suspect there would be much of anything but water.