Fitting a hot water cylinder...

[Johnny]

Following on from my 'Leak in hot water tank' post, I've turn the cold water back on in the house (with the cylinder still being empty) and there's no more leak - so I know for sure now it is the cylinder that's at fault.

Now, how easy is it to fit a hot water cylinder oneself ?

Assuming I can get one identical so that all the connections are in the same place, what's involved ? From what I can see there's just 4 pipes connected, one is the cold water feed, the one on the top is some sort of vapour release back to the water tank in the attic (this pipe also goes down, so maybe this is the hot water out too), one has a balancing valve on it, and another which has the pump on it.

There isn't any welding to do is there? or any gas involved (I think it's electric, and the only gas being used is for the CH boiler in the garage) ?

TIA John.

[Lurch]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:57:21 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "Johnny" strung together this:

Taking the old one out, then putting the new one in. Draining down, refilling and bleeding the system, removing possible airlocks, possibly pressure testing.

Welding?! I think you mean soldering, you don't weld copper pipes.

If you don't know how the water gets and whether there is any gas in a water cylinder it's probably time to calla professional. Given your obvious total lack of anything plumbing related I think you would be better off leaving it alone.

[Johnny]

Cheeky Monkey!!

You are of course 100% correct, and after reading on Google Groups some of the problems people have had I think I'll get someone else to do it :)

[Graeme]

I'd be quite interested to know how much a plumber would charge for doing this. We recently had our hot water cylinder replaced, and it took two men nearly a whole day to do it.

[Christian McArdle]

I had a gravity cylinder replaced a couple of years ago. He charged me 300 quid including parts and VAT. He worked alone and did it in a morning, which also included fitting a new condensing boiler to a different location from the old one.

Christian.

[Dave Plowman]

Like all these things, it depends on many things.

Is the replacement identical, or has pipework got to be modified?

Do all the fittings unscrew easily, or are they corroded and need to be cut off and replaced?

To replace a new one with another of the same type might only take a matter of minutes once the system is drained down. But this isn't often what happens in practice.

[tarquinlinbin]

i know of a friend of a friend who was recently billed £600 to replace leaky cylinder. I didnt view the job but wish i had been asked to do it. I;d have taken £400 and gone away happy!!

joe

[Graeme]

Thanks for the replies. I was just interested to see what it might cost. We had heating insurance (yep, via those BG people) for about a year and called them out to mend the boiler, replace the cylinder and cure another heating problem (a little blockage) - three separate visits. It sounds like we actually have got our money's worth. The cylinder and boiler will probably be good for another 20 years, so maybe we should cancel the cover.

[mike ring]

"Johnny" wrote in news:407bb983$1 [e-mail]:

I'm thinking of doing this myself this summer; the real issue is time.

I don't need hot water for the shower (one up for electrics), so I can afford to have it down for as long as it takes. The advantage will be a modern quicker recovery insulated one that will keep me in constant hot water without busting the bank (I hope)

I don't think replacing like for like wiil be all that difficult, but pipework will need some mods, so a bit of soldering, and knowledge of pipe sizes and fittings will help, but having the bits in your hand and asking a merchant is generally very useful.

I think I (you) will be able to solve all the problems if you can take your time.

mike r

[G&M]

Well it took me (one man) a morning to fit ours. But then several hours chasing the leaks from the bottom fitting which just didn't want to seal properly for some reason.

[Dave Baker]

It took me and a friend a few hours to fit mine but most of that was because it was a different size to the old one and had fittings in different places. All the pipework needed shortening or lengthening which was a minor pain. Like yours it then also pissed water out of every joint despite copious use of plumbers tape and I think we had to redo everything at least twice. Still had a couple of minor weeps but because it's a hard water area they sealed themselves up in time with calcium or whatever it is that deposits out of hard water.

Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

I'm not at all sure why women like men. We're argumentative, childish, unsociable and extremely unappealing naked. I'm quite grateful they do though.

[Dave Plowman]

I can thoroughly recommend Fernox thread sealer over PTFE tape - it seems to be a form of silicone by the smell. I've done quite a few joints with it out of which I'd have expected some to have a couple of drips before that final tighten, but all were fine.

[Brian S Gray]

That is what I might have thought until last winter. We had a new HW tank fitted when we had a replacement boiler fitted in a new location. Three months later we had water dripping off the kitchen ceiling below - a vertical seam on the new tank had failed. The installer replaced it under guarantee and the tank supplier provided the replacement free of charge and paid the labour charges. But I am no longer confident of the life of modern HW cylinders.

[Capitol]

I've been playing with Loctite pipe seal cord recently. It is very painless to use and IME always successful on threads. Totally ignore the instructions on how to use however, it doesn't stay on the threads done that way.

Regards Capitol