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problem with hot water cylinder

  • 28-02-2011 9:52pm
    #1
    LittleVision
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭


    Here's a puzzle some of you more expert may be familiar with. Since the cold weather when our header tank (outside on the roof!) was frozen we have had a change in how our hot water system works. We have a copper cylinder which is heated by a closed system from a solid fuel range (which also heats radiators activated by a thermostatically controlled pump) and also an immersion heater. One night during the freeze we left a hot tap running to keep all systems moving but our pump which takes water from a well died that night so the whole system drained. I got water back into the system by filling the header tank with buckets and after the thaw all resumed as normal ... EXCEPT ... now it takes ages, sometimes five minutes, to get hot water to the hot water tap, only a short distance from the tank, even when the tank feels very hot. Even once the hot water finally comes, if we turn off the tap for any length, we must then wait for ages again to get hot water again. The only conclusion I can come to is that whatever convection is going on in the tank, we must be getting water to our hot taps from the bottom of the tank first. Before the freeze we would get hot water within 30 seconds of turning on the tap. Anybody got any ideas why this might be happening and how it can be fixed? I would be much obliged for advice.


Comments

  • #2
    Billy Bunting
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,842 ✭✭✭Billy Bunting


    I've seen this type of problem when a cylinder was fitted directly, when the cylinder was drained and refilled there was a partial airlock at the top of the cylinder and the range was circulating via the return (cylinder feed), the pipe stat was removed and the system allowed to boil, that removed the problem.


  • #3
    Buford T Justice
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,262 ✭✭✭Buford T Justice


    You really have a Closed heating system powered by a solid fuel stove??
    Tut tut tut.....


  • #4
    LittleVision
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭LittleVision


    Thanks for the responses. I'm not sure now if I described our system correctly. I think it is called an indirect system. We have two header tanks, one solely for the radiator system, the water for which travels in a coil through the hot water cylinder heating it but never mixing with it. There is an escape pipe for when things get too hot but I think that pipe doesn't get rid of the pressure fast enough (if radiator pump is turned off and range is burning too hard we hear a knocking sound and switch on rads quickly). Anyhow that's the system. Is it really a bad idea? I'm in this old cottage 17 years and it has served us well, till now.


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