Subject: Leak in hot water tank
From: "Johnny"
Date: 09/04/04 01:46 GMT Daylight Time
Message-id:

I live in a modern house (around 4 years old), it has a large and small
water tank in the attic, a hot water tank in an airing cupboard, and a
boiler (central heating) in my garage on the wall.

Tonight the hot water tank in the airing cupboard has decided to spring a
leak. Can't actually see or feel where the leak is coming from, but the
floor is wet - as is a few patches on the ceiling under the airing cupboard!

What I've done is I've turned off all water entering the house via the
stopcock under the kitchen sink. I did this as I was unable to find a
stopcock in the attic on the water tank for the feed to the hot water tank.
Turned on all hot & cold taps to drain the water (the large water tank in
the attic is now empty, the smaller one (for central heating?) is still
full). Finally I drained the hot water tank via the draincock in the airing
cupboard.

Also, the central heating and hot water systems are turned off.

What I'm unsure of is:

Can I run the central heating with the water turned off ?

Is it safe to leave everything off for the next few days ? my concern here
being the pilot light in the central heating boiler - even though the
central heating is switched off. Being without water for a few days isn't
an issue as I'm a scruff and would rather wait til after the Easter weekend
as it'll save an absolute fortune Is it safe though?

Obviously I have no drinking/washing water as if I turn the water on via the
stopcock then the hot water tank will fill up (and leak!) - isn't there
supposed to be a stopcock in the attic for precisely this reason? I
couldn't find it. The only other stopcock I could find is in the airing
cupboard and is labelled "hot water isolating valve" - could this be the
stopcock for the cold water feed to the ho****er tank? it's on a pipe
coming from the attic to the bottom of the ho****er tank so it seems likely,
but as it's labelled 'hot water' I'd like this confirmed (also, this
stopcock is mentioned seperately from the one that should exist in the attic
in the booklet I got when I bought the house)...

Thanks in advance,
John (who doesn't want to call out a plumber on Good Friday $$$$)


I'm getting well confused with all these tanks - the one in the airing cupboard
is called a cylinder - but let's work through it anyway. The hot water cylinder
is filled from the large tank in the loft which will also supply the cold water
to the bath. If there is no stop valve between the two then you have to isolate
the mains supply to the large tank but all you need to do to achieve this is
tie up the ballcock with a stick and a piece of string. No need to shut the
water off at the mains or switch off the central heating. All you'll lose is
all hot water and the cold water to the bathroom. Cold water to the kitchen
sink will be straight from the mains and maybe the loo is also direct.

The cylinder fills from the bottom NOT the top so check again to see if there's
a stop valve between there and the large tank in the loft.


Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines (www.pumaracing.co.uk)
I'm not at all sure why women like men. We're argumentative, childish,
unsociable and extremely unappealing naked. I'm quite grateful they do though.