Advice with changing hot water tank and leaks

MiniWolf

Hello everyone :j

This is my first post here and a long time reader of the site. I have noticed their are many people with more life experience than me and hoped someone could offer some advice. Apologies for the long post.

Me and my partner recently bought our first apartment and it hasn't gone very well so far! We originally rented for 2 years before buying it from the landlady. Nothing ever went wrong until we bought it!

The bathroom leaked and required a complete refit and everything has been fine for 8 months until a few days ago water starting coming from the walk in shower tray! It is somehow seeping through from the silicone. I had the area tanked etc so my initial thought was the pipe connecting to the electric shower must be leaking down between the wall and tiles.

But then I found the hot water tank (Economy 7- 20 year old tank) is also leaking. The ballcock seems fine, the overflow is dry but about 15cm down is a leak. Perhaps the tank has leaked?

There is only one tap in the entire apartment that uses the hot water tank as everything else is just cold water mains. The electric shower is cold only too. I wanted to ask if I removed the HW tank and only put a small under sink instant hot water tank under the kitchen sink would this be OK?

I don't want to devalue the property price either. ( We don't plan on moving or selling soon) Its just there has been so many leaking problems that we want to minimise the damage. There is a huge fine if it leaks downstairs!

The company is coming to check the problem as it has a 12 month installation warranty but thinking it might be good to just get the other work done now to stop any future leaks.

I hope the post is clear enough. Thanks so much for your time :j

p.s. as a new user I cannot upload photo's

Owain_Moneysaver

Don't you have a bathroom washbasin? You would need to supply hot water to that as well to comply with building regs.

The 'instant' hot water heaters are very limited in power; an unvented tank of < 15 litres will be much better for washing-up.

MiniWolf

Ah yes we have a bathroom wash basin XD I didn't know there was a reg for that. I couldn't find a tank with a small amount such as 15 litres. Anything that small seemed to be the ones fitted directly under a sink etc hence me looking at those.

Thanks for highlighting this for me. I will have a look for a small unvented tank.

Owain_Moneysaver

https://www.heatraesadia.com/products/cylinders-and-hot-water/electric-unvented-storage/multipoint/multipoint-10-and-15-litre

Note that they do require a pressure relief discharge to the outside, as well as an expansion vessel in many cases.

MiniWolf

That is really helpful. Thanks for your time!