Hot water!

  For more years than I care to mention, we have had no running hot water in our kitchen sink. The large hot-water tank adjacent to our bathroom supplies as much very hot water that anyone could desire to our wash basin and shower in the bathroom. By the way, I am constantly amazed at the superiority of the French system of pressurising the tank with the cold water supply, which means your shower gives an abundant supply of very hot water if desired, rather than a trickle of warm water from the English system where the water is heated by a coil in the shower itself and has to be restricted if you want your shower hot.
    That was not to say that we washed our dishes in cold water!  No, a bowl was carried in from the bathroom and placed in the butler sink. From force of habit, this has seemed the norm, but Kim recently rebelled and demanded an improvement.
   One of the reasons for the old `system` was that our kitchen is some way from the bathroom and its water supply, so we felt to run a pipe through would waste water while we waited for the hot water to traverse the length of pipe. Kim saw in Castorama the above-pictured neat little water heater which seemed the answer to our problems. I did have some reservations but unhappily I did not voice them clearly enough and we ordered the machine. As it was listed in Castorama`s site as not available in Niort I ordered it on line from the Poitiers site.
   We had arranged for it to be installed by our neighbour Ian who is experienced in plumbing and subsequently to be connected to the electricity supply by Stewart who is an electrician, among his other skills. The plumbing work went well as can be seen but disaster struck when Stewart arrived to carry out the connection. The wretched appliance  was far too powerful to be connected to our house supply! It would have tripped the house fuse each time we used it. Stewart suggested it should be changed for the same model which drew a lesser supply.

The heater has vanished replaced by a temporary COLD tap

     I took the heater carefully off the wall cleaned it up and took it to Castorama Poitiers to change it. I had expected problems and was not disappointed!  Oh, no, said Castorama Poitiers we have nothing to do with Castorama Direct! it is a completely different organisation and you will have to deal with them direct to return the item. I also saw that they do not in fact stock the lower-powered version, probably because it wont heat the water sufficiently.
  I sent an Email to Castorama Direct who seemed curiously difficult to contact. They didn`t reply directly, but I did get an advert containing the small-print terms of supply limiting changing an order to two weeks and stipulating that the item should be in its original packing etc. It seems obvious that I stand no chance of recuperating my money.
  We decided to accept the possible waste of water (it can always be used for plant watering) and run a pipe from the hotwater tank, which Ian did very competently yesterday. Here is the completed result.
  I have learned a few lessons from this saga. First, research your projects thoroughly and dont rely on publicity.  Second, don`t expect to get any cooperation from retailers once you have parted with your money. And finally, do NOT take any notice of Castorama`s publicity that they are amateur-friendly, they are not. They could have warned me of the power problem. It`s not Castorama, c`est castoche, more a case of Castorama c`est moche!
  And by the way, if anybody has a house with a supply of more than 25 amps and wants a sink or washbasin water heater, as new, let me know....
  Bye for now, going to do the washing-up!