Replacing leaking hot water cylinder

Our hot water cylinder has developed a pin-hole leak in the area around one of the coil connections from the boiler. I plan to replace this tank, and wondered whether the spacing between the coil connectors is standardised?

It's very well fitted within an airing cupboard, and whilst modifying the vent/water outlet and inlet pipes shouldn't be too difficult, the side with the coil connections are more complicated, with little space between the side of the cupboard, and plenty of existing pipework. It would be wonderful to just put a new tank in and find that the pipes line up perfectly...

Are there any issues I should expect when doing this? What sort of time should I expect this job to take? I'm hoping to get it done on Saturday, with possibility of Sunday or Monday if it all goes pearshaped and lots of pipework changes are required.

I roughly measured the tank (tape measure straight cross the front, top/bottom and left/right) and wrote down 45cm wide x 90cm tall. This is including the insulation. Looking on line 400mm x 900mm and 450mm x

900mm appears common. Am I right in saying that tanks are measured by their pre-insulated sizes? Would different width tanks change the coil connection spacing? What about height? I was wondering about going for a slightly taller cylinder as there's space...

Any advice is appreciated,

Thanks

David

Reply to
David Hearn
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Don't assume they are "standard" in any way measure, measure and measure again. They tend to be sized by capacity (numbers of litres). Don't know if similar capacities are likely to be same aspect ratios or not! They come in different grades based on the amount of head pressure (I think) that they are built to withstand. If I was going to this bother, I would get the better grade version if readily available. You might want to consider a tank with additional connections for future shower take offs perhaps?

HTH

Phil

Reply to
TheScullster

Most new tanks are the quick recovery type (it might even be mandatory?) and have bigger internal coils to facilitate faster heat transfer. This means that unless the old one was also a fast recovery jobbie, the boiler connections on the new one will almost certainly have greater vertical spacing than the old one. Mine certainly was! The bottom connection was in more or less the same place but the top connection was quite a lot higher up the tank.

Reply to
Roger Mills

I had a similar issue last year. Last time I changed a copper cylinder myself about 20 years ago it nearly killed me getting it downstairs, as it was so heavy with calcuim deposits. So this time, in a different house I called a plumber in, as I also wanted a new pump and some seized gate valves changed out, plus some pipework improvements.

I noted the details on the old tank (Wickes) and was surprised to find that the identical design is still stocked by them. 900mm high x 450mm wide (36" x 18") 117L,(26 galls) Measured without the insulation considered. All the pipework connections were in the identical location, which made it easy for the plumber.

So if you are lucky, you may find a new cylinder with an identical layout. Otherwise expect to do some plumbing pipework...

Oh - the old tank is worth nearly £30 at the scrapyard with the insulation removed.

D.

Reply to
David J

When I looked a couple of years ago, I found a number of variations and chose the one that was closest to ours, so I only had to move one connection.

On the other hand, the previous owners had built a cupboard around the tank and pipework and as the new tank had foam insulation rather than a separate jacket, it wouldn't quite slide in. I had to temporarily cut off various central heating pipes, so as to be able to get the tank in at an angle and then straighten it up, so it ended up taking a lot longer than I had planned! Luckily the weather was warm, so we didn't need the heating and I got the tank in place before the kids went to bed (it's in their bedroom), allowing us to use the immersion for hot water. A pig of a job though!

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

When our's was replaced nothing lined up. The plumber had to alter every piece of pipework and some of the threaded connections were different threads. Whilst the system was drained we had the valves on the central heating pump thingy changed too as one was seized. He only charged us the extra cost of the valves as they were easy to get at.

I think he was glad to see the back of the job when he was finished as it took him the whole day and he looked really worn out.

Reply to
m1ss_wh1te

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