Water stop tap before going on holiday

isotonic_uk

Hi Fellow MoneySavers

Just a quick question about how best to plan this.

Going on holiday shortly and wanted to ask what people do with their stop taps?

I been advised to turn off my stop tap, but had one question which I forgot to ask the person who recommended it.

My plan is to let the central heating on the combi boiler come on for 1 hour during the morning and 1 hour during the evening each day. If I was to leave the central heating on to do this, if I turn off the stop tap could this affect the boiler?

I assume a boiler won't use new water from fresh supply, it just uses the same water since it was last serviced... correct?

Any advice on this would be most appreciated.

Thanks

richardw

Why turn it off?

StuC75

In case there's a freeze and there internal piping was to blow..

If theres an outside tap and it froze and thawed out (or someone turned the tap on), the op might come back to quite a leak \ loss of water (so depends if on a metered service)..

turning stop tap off shouldn't cause a problem since the boiler wouldn't have the filling loop opened to take in more water.. so as long as the radiators are set to a safe pressure level to start with they will continue to work.

Having the short time on for morning \ evening should help avoid getting too cold..

richardw wrote: »

Why turn it off?

robotrobo

StuC75 wrote: »

In case there's a freeze and there internal piping was to blow..

If theres an outside tap and it froze and thawed out (or someone turned the tap on), the op might come back to quite a leak \ loss of water (so depends if on a metered service)..

turning stop tap off shouldn't cause a problem since the boiler wouldn't have the filling loop opened to take in more water.. so as long as the radiators are set to a safe pressure level to start with they will continue to work.

Having the short time on for morning \ evening should help avoid getting too cold..

Turn the stop tap off always when going on holiday & forget about it as it will like you say will not be needed to run your sealed system & furthermore turn rad stats to frost setting or just higher & turn your room stat down to 14 & you will have no trouble & the boiler might not have even come on while you have been away.


Have a nice holiday.:o

meer53

I've never turned my stop tap off when i've gone away. I leave the heating on low too.

The one time i did turn my heating off in the winter i had a huge burst pipe and a flooded kitchen. The pipe was behind a newly fitted kitchen cabinet which had to be removed and part of the wall removed to repair it.

If i'd left the heating on it wouldn't have frozen. Never again.

PeacefulWaters

meer53 wrote: »

I've never turned my stop tap off when i've gone away. I leave the heating on low too.

The one time i did turn my heating off in the winter i had a huge burst pipe and a flooded kitchen. The pipe was behind a newly fitted kitchen cabinet which had to be removed and part of the wall removed to repair it.

If i'd left the heating on it wouldn't have frozen. Never again.

I suppose if there'd been no water in it then it wouldn't have frozen!

mgdavid

isotonic_uk wrote: »

........I been advised to turn off my stop tap, ............

May one ask who by?

Mojisola

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

I suppose if there'd been no water in it then it wouldn't have frozen!

Turning the stop tap off stops more water coming into the pipes but it doesn't drain the water that already in them.

agrinnall

Mojisola wrote: »

Turning the stop tap off stops more water coming into the pipes but it doesn't drain the water that already in them.

The point is that if you're turning the heating off completely then you also need to drain the system down so that if the pipes do burst there is no water to cause a flood. Easier said than done, and from personal experience I know that it's practically impossible to drain the internal pipes in an electric shower.

peachyprice

agrinnall wrote: »

The point is that if you're turning the heating off completely then you also need to drain the system down so that if the pipes do burst there is no water to cause a flood. Easier said than done, and from personal experience I know that it's practically impossible to drain the internal pipes in an electric shower.

Do people really do that, just to go on holiday?

Mojisola

agrinnall wrote: »

The point is that if you're turning the heating off completely then you also need to drain the system down so that if the pipes do burst there is no water to cause a flood. Easier said than done, and from personal experience I know that it's practically impossible to drain the internal pipes in an electric shower.

That was the point I was making. Far easier to leave the stop tap on and the heating in frost protection mode.