10 Yr Old Ariston Water Storage Heater Leaking

[Guest our-home]

5 months after we moved into our resale apartment, we find out that the master bedroom bathroom storage water heater is leaking. It's an Ariston 50 litre horizontal cylinder model inside the false ceiling and was installed by developer 10 years ago.

We had the bathtub removed and now use hand-held shower. So thought of replacing with a 25 litre Joven or Alpha storage water heater instead.

Some shops/contractors we spoke to have told us that there are extra charges for piping (cos smaller heater) and cutting the false ceiling to remove the 50 litre heater if the access is not big enough. Don't know if it's true.

One contractor quoted charge for installation only is $150. Piping additional $120. Cutting of false ceiling and touch-up additional ???

One shop quoted $300 for removal, installation, piping, cutting false ceiling and touch-up. Another $400. One agent quoted $25 for transport for survey first (whether to cut ceiling) $250 for dismantling and installation.

Getting confused. Has anyone had a similar experience? Please share ...

[Guest our-home]

No replies, so went ahead to make many calls to find out more.

Just to share what I found out.

Bought Joven 25L horizontal water storage heater from Poh Joo at $225. Others like Asia Excel, Lookz, Universal Union and Joven quoted me $250-$300.

Poh Joo quoted $120 for removal & installation, $160 if false ceiling needs patching up. Others quoted $150-$300.

It's possible to replace an Ariston 50L with a Joven 25L without changing the brackets, no additional piping and no cutting of our false ceiling cos the access hole was big enough.

Total we paid was $225 + $120 = $345.

[blueCrystal 1]

5 months after we moved into our resale apartment, we find out that the master bedroom bathroom storage water heater is leaking. It's an Ariston 50 litre horizontal cylinder model inside the false ceiling and was installed by developer 10 years ago.

We had the bathtub removed and now use hand-held shower. So thought of replacing with a 25 litre Joven or Alpha storage water heater instead.

Some shops/contractors we spoke to have told us that there are extra charges for piping (cos smaller heater) and cutting the false ceiling to remove the 50 litre heater if the access is not big enough. Don't know if it's true.

One contractor quoted charge for installation only is $150. Piping additional $120. Cutting of false ceiling and touch-up additional ???

One shop quoted $300 for removal, installation, piping, cutting false ceiling and touch-up. Another $400. One agent quoted $25 for transport for survey first (whether to cut ceiling) $250 for dismantling and installation.

Getting confused. Has anyone had a similar experience? Please share ...

Hi, hope you still read the forum.

My Ariston water heater is also installed in the false ceiling. Can you tell me how your pipes are going around? Mine has the discharge pipe that linked to the T & P safety valve buried in the wall. If it is leaking the wall will be wet. I don't know if this is a reasonable way of doing such thing.

[leechaorui 2]

Hi, hope you still read the forum.

My Ariston water heater is also installed in the false ceiling. Can you tell me how your pipes are going around? Mine has the discharge pipe that linked to the T & P safety valve buried in the wall. If it is leaking the wall will be wet. I don't know if this is a reasonable way of doing such thing.

I think you need to have a pipe that links to either the waste pipe or somewhere at the bottom of the wall for the water to be discharged. Otherwise the water will leak through the wall.

I think best if you could re-install the storage heater and hack the toilet wall to redo the piping.

[blueCrystal 1]

I think you need to have a pipe that links to either the waste pipe or somewhere at the bottom of the wall for the water to be discharged. Otherwise the water will leak through the wall.

I think best if you could re-install the storage heater and hack the toilet wall to redo the piping.

I hope I can do that. But the house is a new house and it has beautiful marble wall for the bathroom. I can understand why the developer buried the pipe in the wall, because if it is not buried, it will be exposed and the bathroom will look very ugly.

But, the problem is that, if the wall is wet, plumber says that the other pipes are leaking, not the water heater discharge pipe. They want to do big job to fix it. How can we know exactly who is leaking?

[blueCrystal 1]

I hope I can do that. But the house is a new house and it has beautiful marble wall for the bathroom. I can understand why the developer buried the pipe in the wall, because if it is not buried, it will be exposed and the bathroom will look very ugly.

But, the problem is that, if the wall is wet, plumber says that the other pipes are leaking, not the water heater discharge pipe. They want to do big job to fix it. How can we know exactly who is leaking?

The reason the plumber insisting the other pipes are leaking is that the PVC discharge pipe from the water heater will never leak. I wonder if a qualified plumber in Singapore needs to go through proper training on water heater and installation.

[Gjjb 0]

My Ariston water heater was installed by the Developers. Less than 2 years and it’s now leaking. My contractor found 2 areas of rust and leaks. Called Ariston, will need send a surveyor down @ $60. Unless it’s water tank issue, no refund. They will do one replacement and the workmanship is $550 ! Including patching back the false ceiling. Seems this is a common issue with Ariston as few other units also face this. 

Decided to change the water heater and now waiting for the plumber in 2 days time to do the work 

[Chubbyfat2 2]

waaa, that is expensive ... normal contractor can't fix the problem ? Which heater are you changing it now then ?

[EugeneT 0]

On 5/10/2009 at 8:51 PM, Guest our-home said:

No replies, so went ahead to make many calls to find out more.

Just to share what I found out.

Bought Joven 25L horizontal water storage heater from Poh Joo at $225. Others like Asia Excel, Lookz, Universal Union and Joven quoted me $250-$300.

Poh Joo quoted $120 for removal & installation, $160 if false ceiling needs patching up. Others quoted $150-$300.

It's possible to replace an Ariston 50L with a Joven 25L without changing the brackets, no additional piping and no cutting of our false ceiling cos the access hole was big enough.

Total we paid was $225 + $120 = $345.

After such recommendation here I called up Joven, spoke to an excellent SM name Benjamin from Poh Joo. He was quick to walk me through and my Ariston heater was leaking. Got a quote for 35LTR for $260 with $180 installation. However the contractor said that my wire has to change due to constant trip testing it when changing to the new Joven. It was fine the day before during test but we had no choice and asked for a quote from the contractor Mr Chua recommended by Poh Joo. He said that a small hack needed on the concrete wall to get wire insertion from the switch to the ceiling as this is a condominium and putting a trunk weren’t nice. I agree to the price but when on the day of install , they fix it from 11.30am - 12.30pm in an hour and did not hack the wall but just cut a hole in the false ceiling to put in the cable and did not concealed it , I asked him if the price was the same and he said yes. After feeling uneasy about this I did some investigation and true enough I was rip off . The price to just insert the electric wire is through the roof quotes we’re going at $150-$200 only. 

Benjamin as a 5 Star Poh Joo guy call me to conduct customer satisfaction call , was notify and he tried his best to help me as he too agree that if he was a client the price is too much. I told him there is no point arguing for a small discount but I wanted fair price , however after much consideration I suggest that to Ben that I want he singapore client or potential client to know rather than fighting for a rebate. This will Ensure that you guys do not get rip-off again, a worthy sacrifice as Poh Joo had recommended me a contractor that over charge customers.

Happy to share for a better community