Taking water tank to the loft

[North]

I have a two bedroom ex - council house with one bathroom. In the water tank cupboard I installed a 24 v hot water pump but it is giving me nothing but problems, leaks, noise etc. I am thinking to install a new water tank in the loft (the one I got is too high to fit) in order to have enough pressure in the bathroom.
Can anyone give me a clue in how much that should cost before I get a quote? I live in Southampton.
Many thanks!

 

[JohnD]

When you say "tank" when do you mean tank and when do you mean cylinder?

Have you got one of each? What dimensions?

How long does it take to fill a bucket with the hot bath tap? And how long with the cold hath tap?

 

[Burnerman]

f you are considering a gravity shower, the new tank base needs ideally to be 2 metres above the shower head......just a thought when you plan your project.
John

 

[North]

It is a hot water cilinder covered with green foam insulation. It is about 2 metetrs high and 40cm diameter. This feeds from the mains and provides hot water to the bathroom and kitchen. The pump is located just below the cilinder and connected to the hot water only. Without the pump there is barely pressure in the bathroom and it would take one day to fill the bath!

 

[JohnD]

if it is a green cylinder, it must be fed from a cold water tank, probably already in the loft, although some cylinders have a small round cold tank perched on top. Does yours?

The pressure is driven by the height of the cold water tank. The height of the hot cylinder is immaterial.

Fill a bucket at the bath taps so you can tell us how many litres per minute each delivers. This is important.

 

[North]

You are right, this cilinder has got the cold water and hot water cilinder all in one, that is why it is so high. The cold water tank is just covered by an aluminium lid. I managed to fill up a 2 lites water bottle in around 4 minutes.

 

[JohnD]

then a cold water tank in the loft will improve things. No need to move the cylinder, its little cold tank will simply become redundant. Have the pipe from the tank to the cylinder run in 22mm.

If there is room, build a little wooden platform to raise the cold tank as high a possible. It will need to be insulated, with a lid, and all the loft pipes need Climaflex or similar lagging, preferable the BS/Water regs grade which is extra thick for use in unheated areas.

The pipe from cylinder to bath tap is probably already in 22mm

You did not say if the hot and cold taps delivered at the same flow rate. assuming they do, a 22mm pipe from the cold tank to the cold tap will give you equal and balanced flow. It will be a bit better if they have their own pipes.

This will give you good flow to fill the bath and basin, the shower will still not be very high pressure, but improved, and perhaps adequate.

 

[Agile]

I think that ( unusually ) John has been distracted when answering above!

The combined cylinders have an integral pipe from the open header tank on to the base of the cylinder and they are normally not accessible to make any connections to them.

The simplest solution would be a new standard vented cylinder ( £160 to buy ) and a tank in the loft which is raised so there is a 2m head above the shower minimum.

Loft tank costs about £100 but quite a lot of work to install particularly if a wooden platform needs to be constructed.

But at least a gravity system does not go wrong like those horrible shower pumps!

Tony

 

[JohnD]

that's odd, I thought I'd seen a copper pipe running down the side. Hjave never cut one though.

but a new cylinder, without combination tank, can be bigger so you will have more stored hot water.

 

[Nige F]

then a cold water tank in the loft will improve things. No need to move the cylinder, its little cold tank will simply become redundant. .

Sorry John - it won`t work . it`s a Fortic the OP is talking about So it`s a new CWS tank on a stollage in roof and a cylinder where the fortic sat

 

[Agile]

It may or may not be a Fortic brand.

I would doubt that it has a heating coil allowing flow between the HW and heating water.

They do usually have the cold feed pipe running down the side but most ones I have seen are not accessible to connect onto. Some even brazed to the cylinder.

Perhaps not impossible for a bodgeit plumber but as its green foam covered not the nicest of jobs anyway.

Tony

 

[North]

This is getting complicated, time to ask for a quote ...
Thanks to all