Leaking Hot Water Cylinder?

Hot water cylinder leaking? How to stop your leaking Hot Water Cylinder. If your hot-water-cylinder leaking, it is often a sign that the hot water cylinder is approaching the end of its working life and probably needs to be replaced or needs a repair. Leaks from a hot water cylinder are generally caused by corrosion. Its often not economically viable to repair a hot-water-cylinder if it’s reached this stage, which is generally 20-40 years for electric low-pressure hot-water-cylinders and five to 20 years for mains pressure hot-water-cylinder. When a hot water cylinder is leaking, it is costing you money in additional power and water usage, about 30% of an average households energy use goes on heating the cylinder, so it makes sense to repair or replace the hot water cylinder as soon as possible.

Turn off the tap that leads to the hot-water-cylinder or the tap that controls the water to the header tank if you have one in the ceiling. If you have a mains pressure gas-heated hot water system, cutting off the mains supply will do the trick.

You will have to wait until the water system empties before the flow at the leak stops. this may require draining the hot-water-cylinder from the bottom outlet. A small leak in a pipe can be temporarily fixed with a rubber patch and metal clamp. Let the hot water cylinder drain so it stops leaking.

This should be followed by giving your plumber a call so a permanent repair can be made. Give  Plumbing Guys a call if you need any advice or need hot water cylinder repairs and hot water cylinder installation by qualified installers- 0800 33 66 77

Overflowing Hot Water Cylinder
If you notice that the overflow from your hot-water-cylinder is running constantly, it could be a sign that there is an expansion or valve problem. When water is heated it expands. When heated from cold the volume of water can increase by as much as 3%. For a 180L hot-water-cylinder this could be as much as 5.4 litres. hot-water-cylinders are designed to relieve expanded hot water through an open vent pipe (Overflow) on the roof or by way of a relief valve and pipe to an outside wall or drain. There have been a number of cases where these vent/relief pipes have been blocked off by owners trying to stop the dripping. In some cases, where a secondary safety vacuum break was not fitted, the hot-water-cylinder has exploded with devastating consequences. Walls and roofs have been blown off and houses moved on their foundations. These days’ cold water relief valves are installed to the inlet side of the hot-water-cylinder to save hot water.

To test whether the dripping relief pipe is normal expansion or a faulty valve:
turn off the power supply to the hot-water-cylinder for 5 minutes.
if the dripping stops then this is normal thermal expansion.
if it continues then the valves are probably faulty on the hot-water-cylinder

If it is the valve, you will need to call Plumbing Guys, Auckland Plumbers  to fix or replace the valve. Give us a call and we can offer some free advice – 0800 33 66 77

Hot water cylinder not working? No hot water?
If you have no hot water there are several items in your hot water cylinder that may need an electrician to look at and fix

Heating element.  In the case of not enough hot water, or hot water that is not hot enough, it may be that you need to replace the heating element on your water heater.

Thermostat problems.  If you have some hot water, but it’s just not hot enough, it may be that you need to adjust the temperature on your water heater thermostat.  It may even be that your thermostats are not working correctly, in which case you may need to replace them.

What ever the problem with the hot water cylinder, Trade Guys have the electricians and plumbers that can fix or replace it for you. We can repair, supply and install your hot water cylinder quickly and cheaply.