Birthing Pool + Small Hot Water Tank = ???????

[NonnyMouse]

OK, I need some help. I'm having a water birth, using the la bassine pool (450 litres) and I've realised my hot water tank is small and inadequate, if I want a long leisurely shower (read : more than 8 minutes) then bt the end of it I'm rinsing my conditioner off in tepid water.

SO... I'm realy worried about how long it's gonna take to fill the blardy thing once I'm in labour! Should I get a water urn thing that I can fill from the cold tap, should I have every pot n the house on the boil, should I upgrade the tank to a decent sized one, or has someone else successfully filled one of these to a confortable temp with a small hot water tank, and if so, how many hours did it take?

Thanks in advance!

Nonny

[missie_mack]

How big is your tank?? (they are usually about 80 litres) Most instantaneous tanks only take about 1/2 a hour to reheat... I dunno how that relates to the bath but most bigger electric hot water tanks are about 250- 300 litres unless you get a twin element tank which has 1/3 run the same way as your little tank to give extra hot water for bigger consumers (as most big tanks run on off peak cheaper rates because of the associated cost or usage of power to heat the hot water service on straight electricity)

[NonnyMouse]

I have no idea how big my tank is, and I can't check cause it's down under the house and I'm a big girls blouse when it comes to creeping around down there in the dark LOL

I do know that if I run a bath, in my regular bath, I can get it about halfway filled before the water runs out. Usually by the end of the bath the water is hot enough to top it up a little.

If it's only 80 litres, then I'd need 5 tanks to fill the pool up, and it would tak e2.5 hours, by which time the first couple of tankfuls would have cooled down.

Is this going to be a logistical impossibility?

[missie_mack]

Its only 5 tanks if your bath is straight hot water. A plumber *might* turn your thermostat up for you....

But to give you an idea of a bigger tank I have 310 L and it takes about 6 hours to reheat if I run it stone cold on straight electricity (ie if I bypass the timer function) and most baths take between 60-80L of water.

What about putting a hot pump on the bath of some sort like they use with a spa?? It might be more economical if you wouldn't otherwise replace your hot water service (particularly as your tank and service may have to be relocated if you get a bigger tank) I don't know about the viability of the pump with the pool but it might be worth enquirying about :detective:

[NonnyMouse]

Hmmm.... trning up the thermostat is a thought... I've got it turned way down cause the last owners had it up high enough to scald! And they had a newborn too! YIKES!

I could prolly turn it up quite a bit higher (it goes from 60 minimum to 90 max).

Um.... pardon my ignorance, but what's a hot pump?

[missie_mack]

they use them on spas to heat the water/ keep the water warm (because as you can imagine heating a spa from your tank could take days and days otherwise) No idea what one costs to buy and use in this scenerio but I have seen a few pumps from blow up pools of late so they might be viable :)

[NonnyMouse]

Ooooh thanks! I might ring around a few Spa shops and see what they can suggest. :-)

You're a gem!

[borntobemummy]

Ooooh thanks! I might ring around a few Spa shops and see what they can suggest. :-)

You're a gem!

please let us know what you find out if you can, we are having the same issues. I've been experimenting and it takes around 15 minutes for our hot water to come back, but there isn't much at all. I've also heard that blow up pools hold the heat really well because the air in the walls acts as insulation.

[delirium]

Have you thought about buying an urn? You can get cheap ones for about $50 and they heat quite quickly and hold a far bit. It might be enough together with your hot water reheating every few hours. Just a thought.

[NonnyMouse]

Just thought I'd pop in and update this in case anyone else had a similar worry.

The pool ended up taking 45 - 60 minutes to fill, and we just turned the hot water cylinder up to maximum temp in the weeks before my EDD so that on the day we needed a far less hot:cold water ratio to get the right temp in the pool, and we still hadn't run out of hot water after filling it.

The only thing that was a worry was making sure we had signs on all the hot taps in the house warning people not to use them, because the max temp on our cylinder is about 90 degrees... hotter than I have my coffee, and definitely hot enough to give you a nasty scald!

The few practice runs we did with the pool proved that the water stayed comfortably warm for around 3 hours (started at 38deg, dropped down to 36 before I felt it was too cool to stay in).

Hope that helps someone else who wants a water birth with a small hot water tank. :)