Hot water cylinder replacement
Discussion
Hi,
We recently had a new boiler fitted and the central heating is now all working fine. We also had a new bathroom fitted about a year ago and had a Mira Platinum digital shower fitted to replace the really old Mira power shower. We’re having problems with the hot water side now, the shower will only run for 8 or 9 minutes tops and then it runs out of hot water. It then takes 30 minutes to fill the hot water tank back up, meaning it’s really difficult come shower time in the morning.
Our system is as follows:
New Vailant vented boiler
Cold water tank in the loft (I think this just supplies the shower pump in the airing cupboard but it may also do the upstairs taps in the bathroom)
Hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard, on the 1st floor, same floor as the bathroom. It’s a combination copper tank, so it has a small cold water header tank alongside the hot water storage. The cold water header is actually alongside the hot water storage, not above. The cold water tank is filled by a float valve. When the new boiler was fitted, I found the float was broken (had a hole in) and the actual arm was duck taped up to the side of the tank. Very strange, I’m sure it wasn’t like this before the boiler was fitted as I noticed it when the hot water tank ran empty after the new boiler was fitted. I replace the ball float and it seems to work ok now. However, it does drip out of the overflow and no amount of adjusting on the float valve will stop this. It just doesn’t look like a very good design.
So the shower is emptying the hot water tank way faster than it can refill. The float valve seems to trickle water into the cold water header, rather than flow freely so there seems to be a problem there. But also I think the tank is too small. The tank is also full of rocks and the water doesn’t smell too good so I want to replace it - I think it's about 30 years old! Can someone point me in the direction of the correct replacement tank I need? Should I fit another cold water header in the loft for the hot water cylinder or buy another combination tank?
Thanks,
Dan
We recently had a new boiler fitted and the central heating is now all working fine. We also had a new bathroom fitted about a year ago and had a Mira Platinum digital shower fitted to replace the really old Mira power shower. We’re having problems with the hot water side now, the shower will only run for 8 or 9 minutes tops and then it runs out of hot water. It then takes 30 minutes to fill the hot water tank back up, meaning it’s really difficult come shower time in the morning.
Our system is as follows:
New Vailant vented boiler
Cold water tank in the loft (I think this just supplies the shower pump in the airing cupboard but it may also do the upstairs taps in the bathroom)
Hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard, on the 1st floor, same floor as the bathroom. It’s a combination copper tank, so it has a small cold water header tank alongside the hot water storage. The cold water header is actually alongside the hot water storage, not above. The cold water tank is filled by a float valve. When the new boiler was fitted, I found the float was broken (had a hole in) and the actual arm was duck taped up to the side of the tank. Very strange, I’m sure it wasn’t like this before the boiler was fitted as I noticed it when the hot water tank ran empty after the new boiler was fitted. I replace the ball float and it seems to work ok now. However, it does drip out of the overflow and no amount of adjusting on the float valve will stop this. It just doesn’t look like a very good design.
So the shower is emptying the hot water tank way faster than it can refill. The float valve seems to trickle water into the cold water header, rather than flow freely so there seems to be a problem there. But also I think the tank is too small. The tank is also full of rocks and the water doesn’t smell too good so I want to replace it - I think it's about 30 years old! Can someone point me in the direction of the correct replacement tank I need? Should I fit another cold water header in the loft for the hot water cylinder or buy another combination tank?
Thanks,
Dan
I would install a new indirect cylinder in the airing cupboard and then put new CWS storage tanks in the loft. Without knowing the spec of the shower i cant tell you what size tank you may need.
Hardest part is getting the tanks in the loft through the hatch. Some of the houses I have worked in have had hatches I could only just squeeze through
Cheers
Nigel
Hardest part is getting the tanks in the loft through the hatch. Some of the houses I have worked in have had hatches I could only just squeeze through
Cheers
Nigel
cjs said:
How big is the CW tank in the loft? If it is big enough you could use this to supply the new, bigger HW tank.
Not that big, I doubt it will be enough to supply the hot water cylinder and the cold water to the shower at the same time. It's about the same size as the loft hatch I suppose but a cube shape, so not very long. I'll check tonight to see if it has a size written on it. The house is a late 70's early 80's so it has the usual sized loft hatch with a folding ladder.
How new is the CWS tank? If it's serviceable I'd put another tank in the roof and join them together with a couple of tank connectors and drop a down service to feed a new hot water cylinder. You can never have too much stored water and if you put a couple of tanks together there's no faffing about with overflows and ballvalves.
Ferg said:
How new is the CWS tank? If it's serviceable I'd put another tank in the roof and join them together with a couple of tank connectors and drop a down service to feed a new hot water cylinder. You can never have too much stored water and if you put a couple of tanks together there's no faffing about with overflows and ballvalves.
It does look quite recent. It's one of those black plastic ones. Good idea. Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff