A bit of a strange one, last night while i was sleeping i turned on the hot water. A few minutes after i heard a tapping sound, which i thought was the cat playing around with her toys. After 30 minutes of this i got up to find out there was a trickle of water coming from the hot water tank down the wall and sealing all the way down the stairs and wall.
I opened the door to the hot water tank to find out that it appeared to have overflowed (or so i assume as i know nothing about boilers / heating).
Now i had a look at the layout of the hot water tank and come to realise that the cold water enters via the bottom (which makes sense as i would assume this is where it is heated) and hot water will escape via the top.
Now i figured out that when i turn the hot water heating timer off it stops leaking.
Now i followed one of the pipes from the top of the boiler down to what appears to be an open black pipe where you can see it drip (if you turn the heating on or off) or if you manually release the pressure from the top of the tank. It does not seem to be draining down this pipe and just gathering, i assume there should be some overflow tank to catch this overflowed hot water and let it exist the system (rather than divert it back in because overflowed hot water or reusing water i assume could infect the water?).
I can only assume that the cause of the leaking and the dripping is because the water is heating up and expanding larger than the tank itself past the suitable level. I have reduced the thermostat on the tank from 65 to around 45 - 55 but clueless what to do next and the only thing i can think of doing next is to figure out if there is a way to reduce the amount of water going into the tank. If there is an inlet valve somewhere to reduce the amount of water kept in the tank for that temperature. Theoretically if you reduce teh amount of water kept in the tank and then heat it up there is more space for the water to expand and not overflow. This would not solve the problem of the overlfow not draining correctly, unless the tank somewhere is frozen due to the weather.
I have only ever had this problem twice before but it seems to have gone away and come back. I am unsure if this is because of the cold weather as i only ever get it in winter and do not really want to call a plumber out if i get it twice and i dont have a clue what it is.
Obviously the above is only theory and logic as i am clueless to any of this plumbing stuff. Any help is much appreciated.
I opened the door to the hot water tank to find out that it appeared to have overflowed (or so i assume as i know nothing about boilers / heating).
Now i had a look at the layout of the hot water tank and come to realise that the cold water enters via the bottom (which makes sense as i would assume this is where it is heated) and hot water will escape via the top.
Now i figured out that when i turn the hot water heating timer off it stops leaking.
Now i followed one of the pipes from the top of the boiler down to what appears to be an open black pipe where you can see it drip (if you turn the heating on or off) or if you manually release the pressure from the top of the tank. It does not seem to be draining down this pipe and just gathering, i assume there should be some overflow tank to catch this overflowed hot water and let it exist the system (rather than divert it back in because overflowed hot water or reusing water i assume could infect the water?).
I can only assume that the cause of the leaking and the dripping is because the water is heating up and expanding larger than the tank itself past the suitable level. I have reduced the thermostat on the tank from 65 to around 45 - 55 but clueless what to do next and the only thing i can think of doing next is to figure out if there is a way to reduce the amount of water going into the tank. If there is an inlet valve somewhere to reduce the amount of water kept in the tank for that temperature. Theoretically if you reduce teh amount of water kept in the tank and then heat it up there is more space for the water to expand and not overflow. This would not solve the problem of the overlfow not draining correctly, unless the tank somewhere is frozen due to the weather.
I have only ever had this problem twice before but it seems to have gone away and come back. I am unsure if this is because of the cold weather as i only ever get it in winter and do not really want to call a plumber out if i get it twice and i dont have a clue what it is.
Obviously the above is only theory and logic as i am clueless to any of this plumbing stuff. Any help is much appreciated.
