Hello
I have been using a Megaflo for 17 years now. For those that do not know the Megaflo is a pressurised, steel, hot water cylinder. Internally it has an air gap and when the hot water gets hot and expands, the air inside the megaflo gets compressed.
When it heats up there is a significant pressure increase inside which can only be relieved through the hot water taps.
In practice this means that when we turn on any hot water tap in the house, we get something like a Yellowstone geyser until the pressure drops and then we can use the mixer taps normally.
This is dangerous (as the water that comes out is terribly hot even though the mixer tap is in the middle position), it is also very wasteful as you sit there letting the hot water run freely until its pressure more or less equalises with the cold's, and it is time consuming.
In another county where I have lived in the past, the hot water cylinders do not have a check valve at their cold feeds and they let their pressure back into the cold so that inside your house the pressures are equalised. That means no more surprises when you turn on a tap.
Is there a reason why in the UK the Megaflo requires the check valve at its cold water feed? Is it to prevent contaminated (hot) water into the cold mains? Assuming the house has a check valve at the water meter, is that really a problem?
I have been using a Megaflo for 17 years now. For those that do not know the Megaflo is a pressurised, steel, hot water cylinder. Internally it has an air gap and when the hot water gets hot and expands, the air inside the megaflo gets compressed.
When it heats up there is a significant pressure increase inside which can only be relieved through the hot water taps.
In practice this means that when we turn on any hot water tap in the house, we get something like a Yellowstone geyser until the pressure drops and then we can use the mixer taps normally.
This is dangerous (as the water that comes out is terribly hot even though the mixer tap is in the middle position), it is also very wasteful as you sit there letting the hot water run freely until its pressure more or less equalises with the cold's, and it is time consuming.
In another county where I have lived in the past, the hot water cylinders do not have a check valve at their cold feeds and they let their pressure back into the cold so that inside your house the pressures are equalised. That means no more surprises when you turn on a tap.
Is there a reason why in the UK the Megaflo requires the check valve at its cold water feed? Is it to prevent contaminated (hot) water into the cold mains? Assuming the house has a check valve at the water meter, is that really a problem?