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Gas Boiler: water does not stay warm

  • 13-01-2013 7:51pm
    #1
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭


    Hi everyone,

    My housemates and I are tearing our hair out with a problem ongoing for a couple of months now so any advice would be appreciated!

    We have a gas boiler which heats the radiators around the house in 2 zones, and another zone which heats the water for the taps and showers.

    No matter how long we leave the water heater on for, the water does not stay warm in the cyclinder so when showering, the water rarely stays warm to have more than a 5 minute shower. We've had a couple of different plumbers come over and the problem still has not been fixed. The most recent plumber reckoned there's a leak downstairs so turned off one of the sink hot taps (downstairs) to check this. In fairness, since doing this, the water has been much warmer for showers but still nothing like what it was before this whole issue started. BTW the radiators all work fine. We cannot identify any leaks anywhere but in addition to this, the pressure in the boiler keeps dropping within a couple of weeks of releasing the air.

    Can anyone help??


Comments

  • #2
    shane0007
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,677 ✭✭✭shane0007


    Maximus3 wrote: »
    Hi everyone,

    My housemates and I are tearing our hair out with a problem ongoing for a couple of months now so any advice would be appreciated!

    We have a gas boiler which heats the radiators around the house in 2 zones, and another zone which heats the water for the taps and showers.

    No matter how long we leave the water heater on for, the water does not stay warm in the cyclinder so when showering, the water rarely stays warm to have more than a 5 minute shower. We've had a couple of different plumbers come over and the problem still has not been fixed. The most recent plumber reckoned there's a leak downstairs so turned off one of the sink hot taps (downstairs) to check this. In fairness, since doing this, the water has been much warmer for showers but still nothing like what it was before this whole issue started. BTW the radiators all work fine. We cannot identify any leaks anywhere but in addition to this, the pressure in the boiler keeps dropping within a couple of weeks of releasing the air.

    Can anyone help??
    Turn off the valve for the cold feed to the cylinder, heat the water and leave until the next day. If the heat stays in the cylinder then you have a leak on your hot pipework from the cylinder.


  • #3
    Outkast_IRE
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,516 ✭✭✭Outkast_IRE


    Maximus3 wrote: »
    Hi everyone,

    My housemates and I are tearing our hair out with a problem ongoing for a couple of months now so any advice would be appreciated!

    We have a gas boiler which heats the radiators around the house in 2 zones, and another zone which heats the water for the taps and showers.

    No matter how long we leave the water heater on for, the water does not stay warm in the cyclinder so when showering, the water rarely stays warm to have more than a 5 minute shower. We've had a couple of different plumbers come over and the problem still has not been fixed. The most recent plumber reckoned there's a leak downstairs so turned off one of the sink hot taps (downstairs) to check this. In fairness, since doing this, the water has been much warmer for showers but still nothing like what it was before this whole issue started. BTW the radiators all work fine. We cannot identify any leaks anywhere but in addition to this, the pressure in the boiler keeps dropping within a couple of weeks of releasing the air.

    Can anyone help??
    What size is the cylinder ? how tall is it ?

    Also is the shower a power shower/pumped or just gravity fed


  • #4
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭Maximus3


    Thanks Shane. Unfortunately, our cyclinder is very difficult to access (in a corner in the cupboard, surrounded by shelving). Where is the cold feed usually located?

    Outkast, the cylinder is about 3 ft tall (does that sound about right for a regular cylinder?). Both showers in the house are power showers and the problem began when one of the power showers was replaced (the motor went in the previous one). I don't think that these issues happening together are a coincidence but both plumbers who have been here seem to make no connection between the installation of a new power shower and the problem. :-s


  • #5
    shane0007
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,677 ✭✭✭shane0007


    There should be a valve on the pipe that leads to the lowest connection point to the cylinder. It will be located above the height of the cylinder.


  • #6
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭Maximus3


    Shane0007, do you mean the pipe is located above the cylinder? I can only see one pipe going into the top of the cylinder at the moment and I think that one is from the gas boiler downstairs as I've felt it before and it's hot when the boiler is on.


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  • #7
    Outkast_IRE
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,516 ✭✭✭Outkast_IRE


    Honestly though a power shower and a relatively small cylinder arent a great mix, you would be incredibly surprised how much water a power shower can use.

    I wonder would the new power shower have a greater flow rate than the old one that was replaced.....

    Is the cylinder insulated or not ?

    Is there a thermostat on the hot water cylinder ? If yes whats it set to ? And if you run the hot tap whats it like temperature wise ? can you hold your hand under the water or is it just warm ? Or is it too hot to hold your hand under ?


  • #8
    shane0007
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,677 ✭✭✭shane0007


    Maximus3 wrote: »
    Shane0007, do you mean the pipe is located above the cylinder? I can only see one pipe going into the top of the cylinder at the moment and I think that one is from the gas boiler downstairs as I've felt it before and it's hot when the boiler is on.

    Take a picture of your hw cylinder & post. It will be the pipe coming from your attic tank feeding the cylinder.

    It is a simple test that is worth doing. It will 100% determine whether the issue is on the do rustic pipework.


  • #9
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭Maximus3


    @ Outkast IRE: Yes I understand what you mean but we turned the pressure almost down to the minimum on the shower to check this and it didn't make much difference. Plus, the last shower which was there was a power shower also and there were never any problems with that. IMO I think the previous shower was actually more powerful than the current on!!

    The cylinder is insulated and there's a thermostat on the cylinder. We have set it to the recommended 60 degrees (and the temp on the gas boiler is set to 7/8). The water in the hot taps is definitely warmer than what comes out of the shower (I assume cos it's a mixed shower) but again, it's the same problem, the hot water doesn't last in either the taps or the shower. Do you think there could be a boiler problem since the pressure is dropping on the boiler? Or perhaps another leak somewhere?


  • #10
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭Maximus3


    @Shane0007- should there be two pipes going into the top of the cylinder so? I don't have a camera handy at the mo.but will have a look tomorrow and post the pic.then.


  • #11
    shane0007
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,677 ✭✭✭shane0007


    Maximus3 wrote: »
    @Shane0007- should there be two pipes going into the top of the cylinder so? I don't have a camera handy at the mo.but will have a look tomorrow and post the pic.then.
    It is the one pipe going to the LOWEST connection point of the cylinder. The 2 at the top is probably taps & hw take off. The pipe I am talking about is coming from your attic tank.

    Re: Pressure drop, yes it could be related. If the temperature drops after my initial test, then the next test is the cylinder coil.


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  • #12
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭Maximus3


    Ok, could you clarify what you meant by the height of the cylinder so? Thanks for your help!


  • #13
    shane0007
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,677 ✭✭✭shane0007


    Maximus3 wrote: »
    Ok, could you clarify what you meant by the height of the cylinder so? Thanks for your help!
    The valve will be located on this pipe above the highest point of the cylinder.


  • #14
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭Maximus3


    Thanks Shane, I will investigate between now and tomorrow. Thanks for your time and comments. Here's hoping the problem will be identified soon!


  • #15
    jackreacher
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 204 ✭✭jackreacher


    had a very similar issue recently and one of my colleagues checked it out and reckons its the motorized valve needs replacing


  • #16
    Maximus3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭Maximus3


    Hi everyone,

    Thanks for the responses and here is the update.

    The plumbers FINALLY arrived the day after my post. They turned off the hot water supply to all of the underground pipes downstairs and everything magically got better. So it turns out it was an underground leak all along-no wonder the problem was difficult to find :confused:

    We did have problems with the valves in the past but they had ruled that out fairly early on.

    Thanks again for all the responses and suggestions. Yay for hot water :D


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