immersion tank leak???

jane_72

Hi

i found i had water running down the wall in my dining room last week! I went and looked in the airing cupboard and everything under the tank was drenched!! and also the wall behind (underneath)the tank and the table it sits on.

I dried it all out and put some fresh towels down to see if would still leak. I went away at weekend, came back and the wall in the dining room was worse than ever and the towel on the airing cupboard floor were drenhed again.

My partner had a look last night, and could see where the leak was coming from. We took the lid off the tank and hung a small peice of cloth over the inside of the tank to see if it was overflowing, had a look this morning and the cloth was dry and the water is about 4 inches from the top.

meanwhile the wall in the dining room was dry this morning.

Has anyone got any tips or ideas on how to check what it maybe before i phone i have to phone a plumber??
££££££'s......

Any replies would be really appreciated!!!

EliteHeat

jane_72 wrote: »

My partner had a look last night, and could see where the leak was coming from.

Well where is it coming from?

jane_72

I'm not sure,

all i can tell you is that the bottom of the airing cupboard is wet and the wooden stand that my tank rests on is wet...

the wall behind the tank underneath is also damp.

The cold water pipe has condensation on it but would this cause so much damp over the space of a weak?

I'm not sure how to check or what to check for to find out where it is actually coming from!!!

EliteHeat

If its the tank that feeds the hot water cylinder and assuming that you do not have a gas boiler, then it is possible that water is coming up the open vent - the pipe that goes above the tank and then down over the top of it.

If you have an electric immersion heater then there is a good possibility that the thermostat has failed in the 'on' position and there is boiling / extremely hot water venting into the plastic tank.

This is a potentially dangerous situation. So, can you clarify if your source of hot water is just the immersion heater and whether it is on a timer switch of some sort.

jane_72

the electric immersion heater is my only source of hot water. i have a timer on the outside of the cupboard which also has a boost button on, if this helps...

we could not find a thermostat last when we looked. Is it likely to be near the tank or could it be somewhere else in the house?

jane_72

P.s

The tank is a copper tank if this makes a difference!!

EliteHeat

The thermostat is under the large round cover. It would normally be set to 65 degrees.

The older thermostats failed 'to danger' meaning that they didn't shut the power off when the required temperature had been reached. This is analogous to a kettle failing and not clicking off. All new thermostats must be of the resettable type and cannot fail to danger.

What could be happening is that hot water is being sent up the vent / expansion pipe and either this is not correctly located over the header tank and is simply discharging into the cupboard. Or, the vent pipe is discharging into the tank and the overflow is leaking into the cupboard.

You should be able to observe this happening easily enough. Just turn the immersion heater on and see what it's doing after 45 minutes or so.

If this is the problem then you should not use the heater until the thermostat, or the immersion heater and the thermostat are replaced.

jane_72

ok i will try it when i get home later on.


Thanks for all your help..

will post back later....;)

ormus

ive seen one case where the hot water was so intense that steam was coming out of the overflow pipe, and then condensed on the walls, thereby causing water to run down the walls.

BobProperty

jane_72 wrote: »

P.s

The tank is a copper tank if this makes a difference!!

Are we talking storage tank that feeds the hot water cylinder here? Or the hot water cylinder itself? I would be surprised if the storage tank is copper, more likely galvanised steel. I would expect the hot water cylinder to be copper.
Galvanised tanks leak eventually, and so can hot water cylinders, how old is the tank and the cylinder?
Have a look at this as an explanation of the layout:
http://www.wras.co.uk/Directory/images/RIRN/Diagram%205.jpg
(It's actually for a bathroom with a bidet, but is a reasonable picture of the layout)

jane_72

The problem was the thermostat, got someone coming to put me a new one on!!

Thanks all for your help and advice!!;)