How Well Do Water Chillers Work?

[PiscesDragon212]

I live in an old apartment building built in the 1920s. I have an issue where my cold tap water takes 5-10 minutes to get cold. I'm thinking this might be due to the fact that the hot and cold water pipes are uninsulated and/or they're too close together. I don't think my building staff is going to want to investigate by opening up the walls and insulating the pipes so I'm thinking of getting a water chiller to have a consistent, on-demand supply of cold water from my faucet. Does anyone know how these work? Do they need to be replaced often?

 

[Jadnashua]

Water run through conditioned space will approach the temp of the area it runs though. A multistory building may have internal storage tanks on the upper floors to help maintain water pressure in the building and pump it up there. Sort of like your own water tower. This means that you may need to run lots of water to purge out all of that that was stored in the building, especially if it's first thing in the morning when it sat in the tank without much use all night. It's very wasteful to just let the tap run until the water cools off.

Normally, you wouldn't do this to your supply line to then feed all of your cold taps. If it's for drinking, a stand alone water chiller is probably what you want as in a water fountain. NYC is know to have some good tasting water (at least most places), so buying a chiller that uses bottles may mean more expense and inconvenience of carting them around and returning the empties, but I'm sure you could find a service to do that for you...better to just use a water fountain, I think. If you need lots of water, those will run out, too, as the tank isn't huge that it keeps cool.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

A lot of refrigerators build that function in.... in case you were thinking about replacing the fridge soon.

 

[PiscesDragon212]

Water run through conditioned space will approach the temp of the area it runs though. A multistory building may have internal storage tanks on the upper floors to help maintain water pressure in the building and pump it up there. Sort of like your own water tower. This means that you may need to run lots of water to purge out all of that that was stored in the building, especially if it's first thing in the morning when it sat in the tank without much use all night. It's very wasteful to just let the tap run until the water cools off.

Normally, you wouldn't do this to your supply line to then feed all of your cold taps. If it's for drinking, a stand alone water chiller is probably what you want as in a water fountain. NYC is know to have some good tasting water (at least most places), so buying a chiller that uses bottles may mean more expense and inconvenience of carting them around and returning the empties, but I'm sure you could find a service to do that for you...better to just use a water fountain, I think. If you need lots of water, those will run out, too, as the tank isn't huge that it keeps cool.

It would be for drinking and brushing my teeth. The reason I'm thinking of getting a water chiller is so that I can have cold water from my faucets on demand. I use Brita pitchers for drinking but it's not really a substitute for water from the sink because I have to refill the Brita pitchers often.

 

[Jadnashua]

An inline water chiller on all of your cold water supplies would be grossly inefficient as it would then also likely feed things like your toilets, making them potentially sweat in the summer or when the humidity is higher.

Got enough money, almost anything is possible.

I don't see a cheap answer other than to use your room temp water from the Brita pitcher. Even then, NYC is reported to have some of the best water of a major city in the world. Now, your old building's pipes might be adding some stuff that you might want to filter out, but that's not a certainty.

 

[Phog]

I vote for Reach's idea of the refrigerator with the chilled water dispenser in the door. This will make enough cold water for a normal family household's drinking needs. Many newer refrigerator models that have this function also have a replaceable charcoal filter that performs the same function as the Brita filter, if that's important to you. This wouldn't feed all your faucets (for example for brushing teeth in the bathroom) but you can always draw a glass of chilled water in the kitchen to brush your teeth with.

 

[PiscesDragon212]

I vote for Reach's idea of the refrigerator with the chilled water dispenser in the door. This will make enough cold water for a normal family household's drinking needs. Many newer refrigerator models that have this function also have a replaceable charcoal filter that performs the same function as the Brita filter, if that's important to you. This wouldn't feed all your faucets (for example for brushing teeth in the bathroom) but you can always draw a glass of chilled water in the kitchen to brush your teeth with.

Thanks for that idea. But I don't think they make those types of refrigerators for the dimensions that fit in my kitchen space.

 

[hj]

There are MANY undersink water chillers, of various sizes, which will do what you want.

 

[Dana]

There are MANY undersink water chillers, of various sizes, which will do what you want.

Given the diminutive kitchens in typical NYC apartments it would be wise to measure the available space for the chiller very carefully. But that's probably the closed thing to a "right" solution here.

 

[WorthFlorida]

....on-demand supply of cold water from my faucet.

I have to say NYC residences are about the most spoiled people when it comes to cold water from the tap. Most of NYC water comes from reservoirs from upstate NY and there is nothing like it as far taste and temperature as I remember it. It's the main claim why NY pizza taste as good as it does and nowhere else. I've heard someone in Florida apparently sells pizza with NY water trucked in but it may be just a rumor. Try Florida, no such thing as cold water from the tap. Ground water is 75 degrees and nearly everyone uses the water dispenser from the refrigerator and chilled bottle water.