Hot water cylinder questions!
 

I have a cylinder that provides the hot water for our flat. Recently,
we noticed that the overflow was dripping o some work on the ballcock
is required but on looking at the cyclinder I am unsure if we dont
also have an additional problem as physically it looks as though there
is a slight leak.
To keep things simple and safe I would like to remove the cylinder and
replace it but I am struggling to "identify" the type of cyylinder I
have. This may seem strnage but the cylinder appears to be in two
parts. THe main unit appears prety standard and contains two seperate
heater elements. Interestingly though, there is what I think is some
sort of "header" tank that sits on top of the main cylinder and
contains cold water as well as the ballcock and the overflow. This
tank is also open to the elements. The water in this tank is never
anything but cold, it is fed directly from the mains. THe cold water
suply as one would expect is direct from the rising main and both the
cold supply in bathroom and kitchen are fed from the main, not via a
tank as best as I can tell.

My question(s) firstly, what type of cylinder do I have and are
replacement cylinder easily found? (The property is approximately 15
years old). Is the "extra" tank a header tank as I assume and is it
only feeding the cylinder beneath? Is this really some form of gravity
fed system or is the main cylinder sealed and the hot water supply is
under pressure (the hot water supply presure is poor at the best of
times but all propertiues in the development seem to have this
issue??)

THanks for any help!

Jasper

"Jasper" wrote in message
om...
I have a cylinder that provides the hot water for our flat. Recently,
we noticed that the overflow was dripping o some work on the ballcock
is required but on looking at the cyclinder I am unsure if we dont
also have an additional problem as physically it looks as though there
is a slight leak.
To keep things simple and safe I would like to remove the cylinder and
replace it but I am struggling to "identify" the type of cyylinder I
have. This may seem strnage but the cylinder appears to be in two
parts. THe main unit appears prety standard and contains two seperate
heater elements. Interestingly though, there is what I think is some
sort of "header" tank that sits on top of the main cylinder and
contains cold water as well as the ballcock and the overflow. This
tank is also open to the elements. The water in this tank is never
anything but cold, it is fed directly from the mains. THe cold water
suply as one would expect is direct from the rising main and both the
cold supply in bathroom and kitchen are fed from the main, not via a
tank as best as I can tell.

My question(s) firstly, what type of cylinder do I have and are
replacement cylinder easily found? (The property is approximately 15
years old). Is the "extra" tank a header tank as I assume and is it
only feeding the cylinder beneath? Is this really some form of gravity
fed system or is the main cylinder sealed and the hot water supply is
under pressure (the hot water supply presure is poor at the best of
times but all propertiues in the development seem to have this
issue??)

THanks for any help!

look at:

http://rangecylinders.co.uk/products/fortic/index.html

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 08:39:08 -0800, Jasper wrote:

I have a cylinder that provides the hot water for our flat. Recently, we
noticed that the overflow was dripping o some work on the ballcock is
required but on looking at the cyclinder I am unsure if we dont also have
an additional problem as physically it looks as though there is a slight
leak.
To keep things simple and safe I would like to remove the cylinder and
replace it but I am struggling to "identify" the type of cyylinder I have.
This may seem strnage but the cylinder appears to be in two parts. THe
main unit appears prety standard and contains two seperate heater
elements. Interestingly though, there is what I think is some sort of
"header" tank that sits on top of the main cylinder and contains cold
water as well as the ballcock and the overflow. This tank is also open to
the elements. The water in this tank is never anything but cold, it is fed
directly from the mains. THe cold water suply as one would expect is
direct from the rising main and both the cold supply in bathroom and
kitchen are fed from the main, not via a tank as best as I can tell.

My question(s) firstly, what type of cylinder do I have and are
replacement cylinder easily found? (The property is approximately 15 years
old). Is the "extra" tank a header tank as I assume and is it only feeding
the cylinder beneath? Is this really some form of gravity fed system or is
the main cylinder sealed and the hot water supply is under pressure (the
hot water supply presure is poor at the best of times but all propertiues
in the development seem to have this issue??)

THanks for any help!

Jasper

You didn't say that your hot water is all electric, but I assume it is by
your description.

You have a mains fed hot water tank (my last flat had a square one, but
IMM proffered a link to an equivalent round type).

The HW tank is electrically heated by (usually) 2 immersion heaters - the
lower one for the bulk of the water, from Economy 7, and the top heater is
a day top up heater.

The reason to have the funny little cold water tank on top is so that the
freshly introduced cold water can be fed into the bottom of the HW tank
via a pipe so as not to intermix with the hot water stored any more than
possible. The hot water floats on the cold as usual and is drawn off near
the top.

You definately have a leaking ballcock - it's no more difficult to change
these than any other types so dive in with your spanner and get it out :D

What evidence do you have of other leaks? It would be fairly unlikely,
unless you have leaks around the immersion heater bosses.

HTH

Timbo

--
Tim Southerwood
Website: http://www.dionic.net/

Jasper wrote:

My question(s) firstly, what type of cylinder do I have and are
replacement cylinder easily found? (The property is approximately 15
years old). Is the "extra" tank a header tank as I assume and is it
only feeding the cylinder beneath? Is this really some form of gravity
fed system or is the main cylinder sealed and the hot water supply is
under pressure (the hot water supply presure is poor at the best of
times but all propertiues in the development seem to have this
issue??)

As you suspect, it sounds like you have a combined cylinder and cold
cistern. The cold cistern will be supplying the cylinder with cold water
by gravity. Assuming that this whole lot is not situated in the loft,
then that will also account for the poor hot water pressure.

Like for like replacements are still available, although that won't do
anything for the lack of pressure.

--
Cheers,

John.

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| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
John Rumm wrote:

Jasper wrote:

My question(s) firstly, what type of cylinder do I have and are
replacement cylinder easily found? (The property is approximately 15
years old). Is the "extra" tank a header tank as I assume and is it
only feeding the cylinder beneath? Is this really some form of
gravity fed system or is the main cylinder sealed and the hot water
supply is under pressure (the hot water supply presure is poor at
the best of times but all propertiues in the development seem to
have this issue??)

As you suspect, it sounds like you have a combined cylinder and cold
cistern. The cold cistern will be supplying the cylinder with cold
water by gravity. Assuming that this whole lot is not situated in the
loft, then that will also account for the poor hot water pressure.

Like for like replacements are still available, although that won't do
anything for the lack of pressure.


Indeed. If you *do* replace it (and that's not necessary if it's just the
ball valve which needs sorting), and you've got loft space above where you
could put a separate header tank, consider using a separate header rather
than a combined tank. Not only will this give better pressure at the hot
taps, but it will also free up some space in the airing cupboard, or
wherever.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

THe main unit appears prety standard and contains two seperate
heater elements. Interestingly though, there is what I think is some
sort of "header" tank that sits on top of the main cylinder and
contains cold water as well as the ballcock and the overflow.

It appears that you have a combination cylinder.

If you replace it, consider installings a mains pressure system instead.
This will be much more expensive, but will provide oodles of hot water,
provided your cold taps already give excellent performance.

Unfortunately, they can be quite expensive, but if you choose a heatbank,
they are easy to fit. If the expense is too much, you may be able to fit a
pump to a conventional cylinder. These won't be quite so reliable and will
be a bit noisy, but a lot cheaper.

Christian.

Thanks for all the replies - first time I've used the group, will be
back!

Given that I have only about 4" of space between the top of the header
tank and the ceiling I think I will need to remove the entire cylinder
to fix the ballcock therefore to be on the safe side I may wimp out
and get a friendly plumber in otherwise I might start it and be at it
the rest of the week!

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message .net...
THe main unit appears prety standard and contains two seperate
heater elements. Interestingly though, there is what I think is some
sort of "header" tank that sits on top of the main cylinder and
contains cold water as well as the ballcock and the overflow.

It appears that you have a combination cylinder.

If you replace it, consider installings a mains pressure system instead.
This will be much more expensive, but will provide oodles of hot water,
provided your cold taps already give excellent performance.

Unfortunately, they can be quite expensive, but if you choose a heatbank,
they are easy to fit. If the expense is too much, you may be able to fit a
pump to a conventional cylinder. These won't be quite so reliable and will
be a bit noisy, but a lot cheaper.

Christian.