why did you not upgrade to mains pressure?

The area was originally a low pressure zone.  There have been some watermain upgrades and I could have gone to mains pressure.

The original cylinder lasted 22 years, and the new one will hopefully last 20. I needed a narrow 560mm cylinder to fit and 250-270 seemed to be the limit.

Had recently replaced kitchen mixer and low pressure shower mixer.

Plumber suggested around 7 year life for a mains pressure cylinder.

I had looked at all options including heat pump systems, the change over cost was too much and again the life span of the systems seemed too short, or unknown. 

I am happy with low pressure, it works for me. I was concerned that mains pressure may use more hot water, unless restricted at mixers and taps.

kotuku4:

Plumber suggested around 7 year life for a mains pressure cylinder.

The PV Diverter system was not working well, heating and cooling too quick and heating from grid whenever hot water used. The temperature probe had to be relocated to about 1/3 height in the cylinder. It's much more stable now and and I don't see it cooling down or heating from grid.  The outer case needed to be drilled/cut and the probe inserted under the foam insulation against the cylinder. 

Overall the cost of The Paladin installed does not seem to be much cheaper than the Immersun option which I would prefer as it is much smarter.  The Paladin cost me around $1100 installed including a new switch (on, off, manual) that was not really required.  The typical installed cost of the immersun is $1500.

I would hope that we can get all our water heating from solar now. 

As you can get stainless steel cylinders that have 20 year warranties.

But if you read the conditions on the 20 year warranty it will usually say something like "annual inspection by qualified plumber required" plus other conditions no-one is going to bother with.

A lot of enamel cylinders have anodes in them that protect them from corrosion and you need to replace/renew the anodes at least every 10 years to make the cylinder last. I didn't know this until after my cylinder failed.

Appreciate the updates. Let us know weather or not it works out in the long run. I don't mind stuff that isn't too technological. If it requires an app or web interface or cloud account to work it, I loose interest fast.