I've been having a problem where our hot water gets progressivly smeliier with an metallic smell - The last time it got bad, I got around it by draining off the HW cylinder and cold water tank, but it's starting again.
One thing I've noticed is We have a small copper cylinder (about 10 ins high and 5 ins dia) which when the central heating switches off deposits a small amount of water back in the cold water tank - It's got SPARTAN Automatic Recovery Tank on the side of it (and Bray Thermal Systems) and has an even smaller cylinder, with a screw on top, on the side of it (10 Bar max operating pressure)
I'm wondering it this is the cause of my smelly water, redepositing water from the CH circuit back in the cold water tank ?
My suspicion is that you have some sort of system that allows the primary water to gain access to the DHW.
I suspect that the rest of the plumbing and heating system is similarly past it's prime. So the best answer is to upgrade. For now it might be that draining as you did before cures things for the moment.
such a cylinder in our old house. The hot water is getting too hot, and causing the central heating water to get mixed up with the hot water. Ours was connected to a Parkray coal fire, which would pump out too much heat on occasion, and you would hear the cylinder bubbling every so often. The only remedy was to empty off quite a bit of the hot water down the sink, otherwise it would just keep bubbling, and the DHW would get a brown tinge to it - very noticable when you run a bath, indicating the DHW and central heating water had mixed up a little. Alan.
quote] Hi, in response to your question, I worked in the Design & Technical dept for Hydro Spartan when I left college back in the early 90?s. The company closed about 16 years ago but I kept some old brochures and leaflets, which I still have. If you would like copies, please let me know and I will scan and email them to you.
The Spartan expansion vessel came in 2 standard sizes, ET50 & ET100, the numbers representing the water capacity of the heating system, that the vessel could be used with. I think Spartan is an acronym for ?Self Priming Automatic Recovery Tank?.
Basically the Spartan is in 2 sections, split top and bottom. Water from the domestic side of the system is piped through one of the side fittings, into the top chamber. In the middle of the top chamber is an upstand pipe. Once the water level reaches the top of the upstand pipe it overflows into the bottom chamber. The bottom chamber is connected to the central heating system, this water from the DHW system is used to fill the central heating system.
The functions of the Feed and Expansion Tank in a normal open vented system, are taken care of within the Spartan. Basically the head of water in the DHW header tank and the internal layout of the Spartan prevent water in the 2 separate systems from mixing under normal conditions.
It?s pretty simple, as long as the Purgomat (Automatic Air Vent), which is connected to the bottom of the chamber of the Spartan is working ok, it shouldn?t cause too many problems, as there are no other working/moving parts to worry about. I hope this is helpful, if you need any more info please ask and I will try my best to answer them. [End quote]
If I recall correctly I once met one of these things. It serves the same function as the air bell innards of a primatic cylinder (spit) and draining off the system will allow the air bell to re-establish. Better to chuck it though and install a proper indirect system with a seperate small heating header tank
replying to Andy Wade, john Lavery wrote: Hello,I would be obliged if you cold send me any diagrams you may have on the spartan tank, my young engineers think its from space! Thank you
You need to clean out the cold water tank finishing off with bleach. Also clean out the pipework and hot water cylinder with a bleach solution by letting it run through from the loft tank. This tank should have a closely fitting lid and be insulated to keep the water cool in hot weather.
The lid should be near airtight. A vent can be purchased and fitted which has a screen to keep insects out.
This sort of problem is made worse if the throughput of water is small or the tank is over sized.
You might even find a dead bird in the loft tsnk if there's no lid.
I have just managed to down load your pix, it was very slow, took 10min. I see you have a combination tank. The problem with these is the water in the top tank is warmed by the bottom tank so creating the deal environment or bacteria to thrive. The insulation is in very poor condition.
You need to improve the insulation on the bottom tank and get insulation between the two tanks. Also if the lower (hot water tank) spends long periods with no throughput or warm rather than hot this makes the problem worse.
If there are old/young people in the house, the situation could be health threatening.
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