The efficiency of thermal energy storage and solar collector systems is improved if the water tank is stratified. There are many parameters to characterize stratification but no work compares their suitability. This paper identifies the most used dimensionless numbers to characterize stratification in water tanks and studies their suitability. Experiments with different flow rates were done and the dimensionless numbers were determined. Richardson is the best number to define stratification in a water tank, while Mix number presents some problems and a bad behaviour. The other numbers do not clearly characterize stratification but can be useful combined with Richardson. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.