Any nice kindly plumber around, please!

foreversummer

Hi

I'll try to keep it brief.

My two year old hot water pump serving the hot and cold water to my house was leaking and when the pump engineer tried to fix it he found very excessive solid limescale on the hot side (the side that was leaking), leading him to believe that water may be running through it constantly. He asked if we had any dripping taps which we do not and he suggested that I may have a leak somewhere in the house, the most likely place being under the floor as there are no stains on walls or ceilings.

Now today I've noticed that the cold water tank in the loft drips continually, not through the overflow, but just drips instead of stopping completely when full. I'm assuming this further points to a leak somewhere.

The upheaval of searching for the leak is vast obviously and I do not want to unless I'm sure we are on the right track.

Your thoughts greatly received.

Foreversummer

jackomdj

are you on a meter? If so take a reading, don't use any water for a while, take another reading...if you have a leak it will have moved!

HTH, it may be something so simple you just have not thought of it in your worry!

roger196

foreversummer wrote: »

Hi

I'll try to keep it brief.

My two year old hot water pump serving the hot and cold water to my house was leaking and when the pump engineer tried to fix it he found very excessive solid limescale on the hot side (the side that was leaking), leading him to believe that water may be running through it constantly. This may be due to a failure to add inhibitor when the system was installed or using an inhibitor with a one year life which has not been renewed annually. He asked if we had any dripping taps which we do not and he suggested that I may have a leak somewhere in the house, the most likely place being under the floor as there are no stains on walls or ceilings. Is your central heating system sealed or open. The latter will have two cold water tanks in the loft. The small one is the feed and expansion tank for the central heating system. Do you have a hot water tank?

Now today I've noticed that the cold water tank in the loft drips continually, not through the overflow, but just drips instead of stopping completely when full. I'm assuming this further points to a leak somewhere. If you lift the float does the drip stop? If not, change the washer in the float valve or the whole float valve. If it stops, the float needs changing as it probably leaking.

The upheaval of searching for the leak is vast obviously and I do not want to unless I'm sure we are on the right track.

Your thoughts greatly received.

Foreversummer

See above comments.

foreversummer

jackomdj wrote: »

are you on a meter? If so take a reading, don't use any water for a while, take another reading...if you have a leak it will have moved!

HTH, it may be something so simple you just have not thought of it in your worry!

Thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately, I'm not on a meter. Someone at work this afternoon said that the water company may be able to provide a temporary meter to measure it but I don't know if that is the case.

If anyone has heard of this please let me know.

My head is in a bit of a spin admittedly and I know from past experience you guys often come up with the ideas.

Foreversummer

foreversummer

roger196 wrote: »

See above comments.

Thanks roger196, I probably did not explain it very well, but its not the central heating that's affected. Its the hot/cold water that feeds the taps, toilets, etc from the water tank in the loft.

Foreversummer

keystone

My two year old hot water pump serving the hot and cold water to my house was leaking and when the pump engineer tried to fix it he found very excessive solid limescale on the hot side (the side that was leaking), leading him to believe that water may be running through it constantly.

Is this a whole house pump for domestic hot water? You say hot water pump then say hot and cold water.

He asked if we had any dripping taps which we do not and he suggested that I may have a leak somewhere in the house, the most likely place being under the floor as there are no stains on walls or ceilings.

Thats very helpful of him (not much) but TBH without more data its impossible to say.

Now today I've noticed that the cold water tank in the loft drips continually, not through the overflow, but just drips instead of stopping completely when full. I'm assuming this further points to a leak somewhere.

No I'd say that this points to a dodgy washer in the ballvalve. 15 minutes and £6 materials to put a new valve in. Don't even think about just replacing the washer - it will cost more.

Cheers

keystone

This may be due to a failure to add inhibitor when the system was installed or using an inhibitor with a one year life which has not been renewed annually.

I believe you'll find that OP is talking about their Domestic Hot Water rather than their Central Heating.

Is your central heating system sealed or open. The latter will have two cold water tanks in the loft. The small one is the feed and expansion tank for the central heating system. Do you have a hot water tank?

Ditto.

If you lift the float does the drip stop? If not, change the washer in the float valve or the whole float valve. If it stops, the float needs changing as it probably leaking.

Yes - see above.

Cheers

foreversummer

keystone wrote: »

Is this a whole house pump for domestic hot water? You say hot water pump then say hot and cold water.

Thats very helpful of him (not much) but TBH without more data its impossible to say.

No I'd say that this points to a dodgy washer in the ballvalve. 15 minutes and £6 materials to put a new valve in. Don't even think about just replacing the washer - it will cost more.

Cheers

Hi Keystone

Sorry it is a whole house pump for hot and cold water but it is on the hot side that it was leaking and very badly scaled, suggesting any leak must be through a hot water pipe.

So a dodgy ball valve may be causing my problem. So would the dripping water go through the pump causing the limescale?

Sorry, but struggling to get my head round it all.

Foreversummer

keystone

foreversummer wrote: »

Sorry it is a whole house pump for hot and cold water but it is on the hot side that it was leaking and very badly scaled, suggesting any leak must be through a hot water pipe.

If you live in a hard water area your pipes will scale up and so will anything connected with then (eg the hot side of the pump). I mean are your hot water taps showing indications of scale? They will scale up even though you turn them off. I am really not sure at all why he suggests that a leak is responsible. What teperature is your hot water set to? If thats too high it will increase scaling.

So a dodgy ball valve may be causing my problem. So would the dripping water go through the pump causing the limescale?

No I think thats purely coincidental and an unrelated fault.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

foreversummer

Thanks Keystone.

I do live in a hard water area, but strangely enough the kettle does not scale up very quickly. The engineer said he had never seen anything like that amount of scale in such a short period of time. He showed me and you could not rub it off or even scrape it off it was almost as if some process had occurred and it had become completed baked on. The impeller was completed caked as well.

Back to the water tank, if the ball valve is dripping continuously and not shutting off the water completely, but this water is not coming out of the overflow, where is it going? That's why he's come to the conclusion that it must be leaking through a pipe somewhere in my house. How does the dodgy washer fit into the equation - just so I can try to understand.

I really appreciate your time in trying to explain it to me.

Foreversummer

keystone

foreversummer wrote: »

Thanks Keystone.

I do live in a hard water area, but strangely enough the kettle does not scale up very quickly. The engineer said he had never seen anything like that amount of scale in such a short period of time. He showed me and you could not rub it off or even scrape it off it was almost as if some process had occurred and it had become completed baked on. The impeller was completed caked as well.

Sorry can't really add to my previous observations as I haven't seen it.

Back to the water tank, if the ball valve is dripping continuously and not shutting off the water completely, but this water is not coming out of the overflow, where is it going? That's why he's come to the conclusion that it must be leaking through a pipe somewhere in my house.

Well I'm guessing that you have a hot water cylinder as well as the cold water tank in the roof. In that case your hot water is heated in the cylinder and the cold tank supplies the cylinder with fresh cold when some hot is drawn off. It probably also supplies the cold to your basin and bath and also the loo. If the drip is tiny then its more than likely that it never adds enough cold water into the roofspace tank to make it overflow before you draw hot water off and the level in the rooftank drops. In that case its never actually going anywhere just adding tiny little bit to the cold storage tank. The only time that its likely that water will come out of the overflow is if the ballvalve fails completely and the tank fills to overflowing before water is drawn off and the level drops.

How does the dodgy washer fit into the equation - just so I can try to understand.

The dodgy washer is what is causing the drip in the roofspace tank - thats all.

Cheers