Draining Direct cylinder fitted with a pump

[HFMaintenance]

Hi all,

I have a direct cylinder which is fitted with a pump to hot and cold taps in bathroom. I need to change the off peak immersion at the bottom and have isolated water from header tank to cylinder..
but have a problem draining as I've connected a hose to the drain valve to the bottom and opened hot taps to allow gravity siphoning but the drain valve is fully open and water is very slow to drain out of the hose,
could this be due to the pump restricting the drain down. If it is then what can be done to do this quickly?
Also just to add the header tank is very large and is sitting very close to the top of the cylinder so that hot output of the cylinder is not accessible..

Any help would be great !

Thanks in advance

 

[John506]

No mate usually due to limescale caked up inside the drain off, can you undo the compression nut on the pipe coming out the top of the cylinder and get a hose in there and syphon it out?

Or crack any other nuts, possible the one with the drain off and get a little Jack and Jill setup going to drain it

 

[TicklyT]

It's not unusual for a draincock washer to stick to it's seating, and the screw to pull through the middle of the washer, leaving about a 3mm hole in the washer to drain the cylinder through.

Sometimes you can prise the washer free with a small electrical screwdriver pushed up the draincock outlet.

 

[HFMaintenance]

Thanks for your help guys. The drain Valve is fine but the water flow through the hose is low. Ïts just because the shower pump is fitted after the cylinder for the hot and cold.
I had isolated water to cylinder and then opened the drain valve and OPENED the hot taps and nothing emits from the taps, I think the Sower pump is restricting flow from the cylinder... Is that right ?

 

[TicklyT]

As long as the open vent is clear, the cylinder should drain. Having a pump fitted should make no difference. As above, flakes of limescale that were sitting in the bottom of the cylinder, out of harm's way in normal use, might now be wedged in the draincock.

Are there no other fittings now above the water level you could drop a hose in through to syphon it?