hot water tank sprung a leak, safe to use coal fire still?

[zebbedy]

Hi there, my hot water tank sprung a leak (couple of pin holes) and i tried to fix it with jbweld and some other epoxy but that didnt work and the water still found a way out, its an old system we have with the coal fire heating the bit at the back then powers the radiators and hot water (i say power but they are tepid at best not very efficient)

so the house is freezing till i get the funds sorted to sort this out, i drained the hot water tank and have lit a small fire not wanting to blast it and get the heaters going (is this even possible)

is it safe to have a fire on even though the hot water tank is switched off, am i going to explode?

thanks in advance for any help

 

[texasholden]

I'm definitely no expert but as long as you've simply stopped the tank filling up then there's no reason why the circuit will explode, as it should still be vented (I'm assuming it is vented!).

However, normally you can damage the back boiler through overheating when you light a fire whilst it's dry.

As to how much damage you've done, who knows, but I'd assume is won't be major if you only lit a small fire for a short length of time. I'd imagine it's high temperature which will do the damage.

Good luck

 

[Agile]

If you must light a fire then it would seem that there is not going to be anywhere for the heat to go in the water circuit.

So my advice would be to NOT light a fire until the cylinder has been replaced.

You have not said what the hot tank is made of or why its leaking.

If its copper then usually a temporary repair can be made by soldering it.

But holed in two places makes it sound as if its likely to be all ready for more holes to form!

Tony