The reason I mentioned is because I often have to make such a heat exchanger for restaurant ice machines. A coil of 3/8" is attached to the ceiling of the walk-in cooler to chill the water supplying the ice machine to increase its efficiency. Quite often the ice machine is in a hot kitchen and the cold water lines feeding the ice machine picks up this heat and it can't produce much ice.
TDD
Another potential problem with styrofoam is that is can displace just enough water to keep the toilet from functioning correctly. If the water level's already as high as it can be (based on the toilet's internals), there would be no way to compensate for the lost water volume.
Yes, this one's OK I believe - the level's quite a way below the inlet. I was planning on putting a housebrick or something in the tank first as a test just to occupy space and see if everything still worked :-)
Just to add to the negatives on Styrofoam-- Mine started breaking down after a few year and beads kept getting caught in the flapper. After about the 10th time that happened it was a major PITA to get the rest of it out.
Jim
Duh. That's why there's scuba gear. Don't you know anything?
:-)
And as anyone with a hot tub and a cover knows, styrofoam eventually becomes water logged.
Since it is "one of our." rather than "our only," then why not just use a different toilet? The water's temperature in the tank will soon exceed the dew point of the bathroom and the condensation will stop. If the toilet is the only one that's convenient, then the tempering tank solution would probably be advisable. If the toilet is essential to your bathroom décor, consider removing the old tank, scrubbing it out with an acid solution to get it perfectly clean, then spraying on an insulating, closed cell, foam on the inside. This should eliminate gaps. It sounds like you have an older toilet, and the reduction in flushing water volume would probably not affect the action. However, replacing the innards with a pressurized flushing system would eliminate the issue.
Nonny
m...
Yeah, the trick is to use something with closed cells. There is a pinkish packing material that is somewhat denser than stryrofoam that seems to be closed cell that might work ok, but I don't now what it is called. I think anything over 1/4 inch would work, the trick is to keep water from circulating behind the material. The pressurized systems that I have seen/heard are too noisy to have to listen to in the middle of the night when someone flushes. I vaguely remember seeing toilet tank insulation kits somewhere. Have you googled on that topic???
MAN! ain't that the truth? Our hot tub cover got so heavy we could barely open it! I 'bout threw the new one off onto the ground the first few times i grabbed it.
Make sure it isn't running constantly and running up your water bill. When I had a toilet sweating problem it was a faulty ballcock letting a constant stream of cool water into the tank.
They used to make tank covers to keep toilets from sweating. I haven't seen one for years, though. I have a broken tank lid (repaired but unsightly) and really don't want to replace the entire commode. :-(
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