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Immersion Heater Problem
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
wrote:
I need to fix a failed immersion heater in my hot water cylinder;
which seems in principle straightforward enough. The problem
is there seems to be no way of draining water out of the cylinder
without removing one of the elements! There are two heaters,
both side mounted one about a third of the way down, the other
at the bottom.
There is a "bolt" just below the top element, which might be where
a drain tap of similar should have been fitted, but I don't actually
know what it's for (if anything).
The hot water is drawn from the top of the cylinder, cold goes
in at the bottom; so shutting the inflow and opening the hot
taps has minimal effect on the amount of water in the cylinder.
It looks like I'll just have to take out the top element and try
to catch as much as possible in a bucket. Unfortunately, it's
at least several buckets worth, and it's going to gush out when
I remove the element -- and I'm not sure the flat downstairs needs
an in-house waterfall.
So this all sounds pretty impossible to do with any degree of
dryness. Any one got any suggestions or miracles that might
work better than a lot of towels and a hopeful waving of buckets?
Thanks,
#Paul
My hot cylinder has a drain tap at the bottom of the cold feed pipe - just
before it goes into the bottom of the cylinder. What size is your cold feed
pipe, and can you get at it? I'm wondering whether you could fit a tap in
it, using the sort of clamp-on and pierce fitting ** somtimes used for
outside taps and washing machine supplies. That would, at least, allow you
to drain it in a controlled fashion. If you don't fancy that as a long term
solution (not sure I would!) once the cylinder is drained, you can remove
the temporary tap, cut out the pierced section of feed pipe and fit a proper
drain tap for future use.
** Not sure I've ever seen these in anything other than 15mm - so if your
feed pipe is 22mm (which it likely is) this may not be possible. Anyone seen
any of these things for 22mm pipes?
--
Cheers,
Set Square
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