Loft tank has 2 ball valves - issues?

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I've been getting to know the plumbing in my house a bit better in the last couple of weeks. One of the things which struck me as an oddity when I first spotted it a while back was that the cold water tank in the loft has two ball valves (one of which I had to replace recently because of a dripping overflow). That is, a single pipe comes up and then forks into two, each going to a ball valve.

Now I understand rather better the way the indirect hot water system works, I am assuming that this is because the tank, at 25 gallons (95 litres), is rather small so could empty quite quickly with a power shower in use. The extra ball valve was presumably put in when the shower (with pump) and bidet were put in (before we bought the house). I imagine the idea is that this will considerably increase the refill rate (although presumably not double it, as only so much water can go through a pipe).

Given that the system has worked OK for the 8 years we've been living here, there are clearly no major problems with it. Is there anything I should watch out for, though? Any downsides to this I need to be aware of?
 
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I guess that's exactly the idea behind this one.....the main tank is on the small size!
No real issues with this but the valves won't shut off at exactly the same water level so it's worth checking the level doesn't get too high occasionally.
John :)
 
Not sure quite why the tank is so small. There's certainly room for a larger one. I wonder is the issue to do with weight? As regards the valves shutting off, it was the overflow which alerted me to the need to change one.
 
My neighbour had the same set up as yours, as it happens so I put another tank in parallel with the original and connected them with 22mm flexible copper called ' plumbers stick '. I kept the tanks perfectly level and reinforced their supports with extra timber.
I returned to the single valve set up for both as I couldn't be certain the overflow could cope if things went pear shaped.
John :)
 
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Interesting. I wonder how common this setup is. There is another, smaller, tank behind it, with some pretty manky looking water in it, which I presume is for the central heating. Not worked this bit out yet...
 
Yep, that's the 4 gallon expansion tank for your vented system. The water level should be around 6" deep as a round figure. There will also be a larger pipe curving above it, called the expansion pipe.
John :)
 

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