Leak in Boiler heating Coil pipe at Hot Water Cylinder

Calibos

Called a local plumber out last year for a leak on the Flow pipe from the Boiler at the joint with the Hot water Cylinder. It was after hours and he said it was an easy job just time consuming if Cylinders or Cold water tanks or heating system had to be drained after he'd worked out how everything was connected and where. It was a slow enough leak so we just wrapped some old towels around the pipe and said we'd book the repair for business hours. Plumber went back home for his dinner. Both the plumber and ourselves totally forgot about it.

We rarely use this hot press so it was only when I was reading about 60º water for Legionnaires that I went to the hot water cylinder in the hot press to double check what our cylinder thermostat was set to. I was greeted with towels covered in beige slime and green and black mold and the plywood subfloor looked soaked with water pooling. YUCK!!

(Now, as it turned out, after removing the towels, cleaning up and letting air dry, you wouldn't know there was such a leak with slime/mold and the subfloor is perfect.)

What I did, which the plumber didn't do was use a phone to take a picture of the joint because you can't actually get a sightline to is because of the cylinder insulation and position of hotpress wall and pipes.



Looks to me like its actually a leak in the compression fitting of the Flow pipe to the Cylinder Coil flange or whatever its called. ie. not a leak between the flange and Cylinder wall which would require draining the cylinder below that pipe.

This flow pipe has a lock valve.



When this pipe gets to the boiler cupboard on the floor above it goes into the HW Myson Electric Zone Valve.



So my question is this. Can this be a DIY fix. Is it simply a case of turning the boiler off, closing the lock valve on the flow pipe to the Cylinder Coil, jamming a piece of wood between hotpress wall and flow pipe to hold the pipe to the joint while I unscrew the compression fitting nut, (towels on floor to catch inevitable leakage), clean all the crud off the nut and threads of the fitting, wrap in PTFE and retighten nut, reopen lock valve and turn back on boiler and jobs a goodin'???

agusta

It not an on/off valve.its the coil balance valve.it will not stop the water .Its not a diy job

Calibos

agusta wrote: »

It not an on/off valve.its the coil balance valve.it will not stop the water .Its not a diy job

Fair enough. SWMBO won't let me attempt anything more complicated so I'll get the Plumber in.

whizbang

Its probably a bad solder joint at th bottom of the elbow, due to the difficulty of heating the joint.

Just put a cup under it, wait till summer, drain down the heating system, and redo it yourself.

Calibos

whizbang wrote: »

Its probably a bad solder joint at th bottom of the elbow, due to the difficulty of heating the joint.

Just put a cup under it, wait till summer, drain down the heating system, and redo it yourself.

I was trusted to self install the Hive Multizone system (with guidance from this forums DGOB's) because I could only blow up the Hive, electrocute myself or Trip the MCB. I wouldn't now be trusted with this level of plumbing job especially after already saying I've been told by some lads on boards to get a plumber in to do it. No amount of, "Changed my mind and No, I wont flood the house!!" is gonna work now.

I've wrapped a towel around the leaking joint with the other end of the towel sat in a plastic container on the floor of the hotpress to wick the dripping water down into the container otherwise it runs down the insulation of the cylinder and underneath.

To my surprise, it actually seems to be leaking about a litre of water a day! What I can't understand is where 1L of water a day went, if this leak has been dripping to this degree for a year already!! There is no evidence of it on the ceilings or walls on the floor below. The only evidence was the slimey moldy pile of towels and wet hotpress subfloor. I mean, was evaporation from the towels (heated by the Cylinder pipes Touching them) enough to keep up with a 1L a day leak?? Thats the only explanation I can think of.

So, Yeah, I'd love to still tackle this myself but it ain't gonna happen now for the reasons explained above.

Browndoff

BTW - As a general guide, when dealing with a leaking pipe, it's usually best NOT to use a wraparound towel unless the water is SQUIRTING-OUT. It just provides too much area on which to form a nasty mould!

My choice, as a wick, would be to tie a thick cord around the pipe and run the end of the string down to a handy spot for your water-collector. An ideal wick would be one of those cords used as a handle in a fancy paper-bag.