Some advice please on loft tank

[hansi]

I am going away shortly for a week and I always shut off the stop cock in case of overflow probelm. This time I also want to empty the loft header tank and empty all the pipes to avoid a disaster if the pipes freeze up. Am I right in saying that after I shut the stop cock I open the hot water tap and let it drain the tank? If not, what is the correct procedure to ensure there is no water left in the header tank. Thank you.

 

[bster]

if you turn the stopcock of and open the taps you will drain the cold water tank (cistern in loft) but if you have a smaller header tank for the heating then this will have to be drained from a radiator.

it's not cold enough for them to freeze though, so i wouldnt bother draining, just turn the stopcock off.

 

[hansi]

Thank you.

 

[Softus]

Or could you just leave the heating set very low...

 

[hansi]

Yes, thanks, I know I can do but I recently had a bad experience when the ball valve stem snapped into the tank and the water gushed out of the overflow, thank goodness but I was there at the time and turned the stop cock off. Lord knows what would have happened had I not been there.

 

[Softus]

Lord knows what would have happened had I not been there.

Presumably you wouldn't have snapped the float valve arm?

 

[hansi]

erm yes but it did snap itself, honest

 

[Softus]

erm, but surely someone had been bending it, n'est-ce pas?

 

[hansi]

Non how could you sauy such a zing!

 

[hansi]

Honestly, it was an old metal one and it just rusted away. Just like that!

 

[holty]

if you hadnt have been there it would have just carried on overflowing outside.no harm done only to the water bill though.or if some places iv been to e.g overflow stoped left of the kitchen sink , that could have been a different story .

 

[hansi]

Well funny you should say that about the overflow. My neighbour had the same problem recently while she was away, and there must have been a problem with the overflow, either a blockage or something, and her house was totally flooded. She had to start from scratch and I don't want to have to go through that, thank you.

 

[oilman]

...... My neighbour had the same problem recently while she was away, .........

You don't mean she had been up in the loft snapping off ball cocks too?

 

[holty]

theres a joke somewere in that line oilman