plastic water tank in loft is hot

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Hi I have just bought a house and when exploring everything I found two tanks in the loft which I was expecting, however one of them was boiling hot. Is this normal? I have never had an immersion heater set up before.

Cheers in advance
 
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No it is not normal. Which tank? If there’s x2 usually a small one for heating and large for cold water to feed the cylinder.
 
Some photos would help a lot.

Outside and inside of tanks, with something to show scale.

Have you got a hot water cylinder? If it has an immersion heater in it TURN IT OFF NOW.

The "boiling water in tank" event is very dangerous.

This is important.
 
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Hi Thanks for the quick replies
There is a cylinder in the airing cupboard and 2 plastic square tanks in the loft above it. One, as The Novice said, is smaller than the other the bigger one is cold to the touch but the smaller one is hot, as hot as a cup of tea.
 
square plastic tank in loft should not be hot.

Turn off the immersion heater now

then do the other investigations.

Do you have a gas boiler? That will probably relate to the problem, as it is the small tank, but we can deal with that after you have checked the immersion as the dangers are greater.
 
Hi I turned it off as soon as I discovered it

I have a boiler which does the CH this was serviced by BG the day I got the keys

could it be that the heat from the water from the cylinder is rising up into the tank?
 
great.

photos please.

There will be a large copper pipe, bent into a sort of inverted "U" shape, hanging over the small tank. Are there any signs that hot water has come out of it, e.g. wet or dripping, or hot?

I bet it's the boiler so I will stand aside now for the CH experts.

edit
sorry I was alarmed, but hot water in loft tanks has caused some horrible accidents, at least two fatal.
 
Last edited:
Probably the immersion thermostat has gone, they are not expensive and easily changed
 
great.

photos please.

There will be a large copper pipe, bent into a sort of inverted "U" shape, hanging over the small tank. Are there any signs that hot water has come out of it, e.g. wet or dripping, or hot?

I bet it's the boiler so I will stand aside now for the CH experts.

No I checked this and at that time there were no drips

unfortunately i wont be back there for a couple of days to take any photos.
 
I have a boiler which does the CH this was serviced by BG the day I got the keys

Is that service under warranty or anything? Maybe tell them, since the boiler was serviced this tank in the loft is boiling hot, why is that happening?
 
Probably the immersion thermostat has gone, they are not expensive and easily changed
Hi I turned it off as soon as I discovered it

I have a boiler which does the CH this was serviced by BG the day I got the keys

could it be that the heat from the water from the cylinder is rising up into the tank?
That's not going to cause the f&e tank to get hot. If the immersion heaters thermostat fails ,and there is no thermal cut out on the stat ,the large tank in the loft would be the one that gets the hot water going into it from the expansion pipe .
You have a problem with the central heating . Engage an engineer to check it out.
 
As above, feed and expansion cistern can get warm but better getting it checked out.
 

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