Was I being poisoned?

[Dr Atkins]

I’ve just ripped out my hot water tank as it’s no longer required only to discover something a tad worrying. The bottom was full of red rusty water of the same type that poured out when I disconnected the gravity feed pipes. Obviously I thought the heating coil must have corroded through but then the plot thickened. Once I removed the top pipe I could see inside more than just the heating coil. There looks to be a small tank in there and a pipe that runs vertically from the coils to about 12” from the top and is sheathed half way up with another length of pipe.

Now when I filled the tank using a hosepipe water poured out from the lower gravity coil end fitting but not until it was well clear of the coils and half way up the vertical pipe where the sheathing attaches.

Has anyone ever seen this before? I’ve been googleing for an hour now but can’t find anything similar on the net.

It’s a bit worrying to think that I may have been ingesting CH water every time I opened the hot tap.

Due to the fact I only have the one expansion tank in the loft am I right in thinking this is some sort of internal CH top up system to save space and even if it was why was it pumping out rust water?

Cheers

Dr A

P.S. Just for info the system was a baxi 552 vented (or so I thought) with gravity feed to the aforementioned hot water tank which was fed by a single cold tank in the loft. I think the system was installed in 1968 due to newspaper being wrapped around pipes having this date. There was no other cold water feed to the CH system as far as I can tell.

 

[ArtfulBodger]

Haven't you heard the one about not drinking the bath water?

 

[Dr Atkins]

I do try to avoid drinking rusty bath water, and golden showers for that matter

 

[JohnD]

If you can find a picture of a primatic system, does that look like yours?

 

[Dr Atkins]

Yes thats the one.

Thanks John. Must have typed every combination of descriptions in google but still didn't find it. This is actually very good news as the 2 plumbers I spoke to last week told me that the top up for the CH must be under the concrete floor as they couldn't find it upstairs and yes they are Corgi registered all be it fresh out of training school. Saves me alot of digging to reconnect my DHW without flooding the old pipework.

It's a good job I didn't add that fernox to the radiator I was refilling last year. Still would have brought the cutlery up nice when I did the dishes.

Thanks Again.


Dr A