Bathroom toilet cistern replacement???

slinga

We've been away for 6 months and on returning have wacked the CH up to full, to warm the house. This usually takes about a week and we do the same thing every year.

For the first time in my memory and I've lived in the house for over 60 years the bathroom cistern which is ceramic is appearing to leak.

I've checked the seal through which the pipe exits through the bottom and it looks OK.

Now I'm wondering if it is just condensation.
Hot air outside the cistern, cold water inside the cistern.

I can just see condensation on the outside of the cistern up to about the level of the water inside the cistern.

Would this condensation produce enough wather to dribble down to the underside of the cistern and then to form water drops onto the floor.
If so I've never seen this happen before and that's with colder weather/water than we have this year.

Anything else to check?

Aylesbury_Duck

If you can see condensation on the outside, it's almost certainly that which is collecting and dripping from the bottom of the cistern. Stick a tray underneath and monitor it but it will stop once the water inside the cistern warms.

I'm surprised it takes a week to warm the house. Where do you live? Down here in Kent our house can warm through in a few hours, even if unoccupied for a few days.

slinga

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

If you can see condensation on the outside, it's almost certainly that which is collecting and dripping from the bottom of the cistern. Stick a tray underneath and monitor it but it will stop once the water inside the cistern warms.

I'm surprised it takes a week to warm the house. Where do you live? Down here in Kent our house can warm through in a few hours, even if unoccupied for a few days.

Yeah but after a few days your house hasn't even got cold.

6 months with no heating will make a big difference. Certainly to wall and floor temperature.

getmore4less

We let ours drop to 10c inside when away a long time in the cold and even though relatively efficient it takes a 2-3 days to get back to equilibrium and needs the heating on a lot more than our normal cycles, the place feels ok, but cools more rapidly once the heating goes off.
(we usually have it come on a day or two on the normal cycle to kickstart the process, and have a tank of hot water when we get in)


I think your leak is probably the condensation so give the cistern a wipe down and stick a bowl under the drop point.
review in a day or two.

Aylesbury_Duck

slinga wrote: »

Yeah but after a few days your house hasn't even got cold.

6 months with no heating will make a big difference. Certainly to wall and floor temperature.

I assumed you'd had the heating on a frost setting which is normally the sensible thing to do to prevent frozen pipes, damp, etc. If we go away in the winter months even for a couple of days we still have the heating come on for a few short periods every day and night, with the thermostat turned down. With the loft trap left open, it reduces the risk of frozen pipes in the event of a really cold spell and means that it doesn't take ages to warm the house through when we get back.