Hot Water leak

[Fergus O'Rourke]

My hot water system is leaking badly somewhere, but I cannot detect it !

The water is being lost but I can find no sign of where it is going.

Any ideas on how to track the leak down ?

[Tim+]

Silly question perhaps, but how do you know? Do you mean your CH system or do you mean your HW supply to your taps?

Is the HW header tank ball valve running all the time? Is the tank overflowing?

Some clarification needed.

Tim

[Fergus O'Rourke]

OK. Point taken

My system is a conventional system. The hot water being lost is not the CH system water

All the time, as far as I can tell

Yes, and the sewers.

House

[John Williamson]

Possibly a silly question, but, if you have nothing coming out of the tank overflows, nothing untoward flowing down any of the drains, and no suspicious puddles, what makes you think there's a leak?

Can you hear running water with all the taps turned off? Have you tried putting a stick in contact with all the pipes in turn and listening for the sound of flowing water? With all the taps turned off, any pipe with hot water flowing through it will not cool as rapidly as one where the water isn't flowing, so feel the temperatures of all the pipes. The warmest one half an hour after all the taps are turned off is likely to be the one with the leak.

[chris French]

If you've not yet found a leak, how have you determined that you are losing hot water?

[harryagain]

What do you mean by "lost"? How do you know it is being lost?

[Tim+]

Unless this is just a wind up (which is seeming increasingly likely) you're really going to have to give us some clues as to WHY you think you have a leak. Where's your evidence?

Tim

[Brian Gaff]

Look for steam?

Brian

[Fergus O'Rourke]

None visible.

[Tim+]

Or perhaps listen for trolls under the bridge?

Tim

[Mr Pounder]

Nice spot of trolling. Let me be the first to tell you to f*ck off.

[John Williamson]

You've still not told us why you are so certain you have a hot water leak. You say that you can't find any water coming out of the system where it shouldn't, and you've not told us the result of the checks it was suggested that you make to locate a hidden leak.

If you are hearing a pressure booster pump repeatedly cycling, then it's very likely that the pump has a leaky non-return valve, but as you've told us precisely nothing about the system concerned, that's pure speculation.

In effect, you've told us that you're holding a piece of string and are now expecting us to tell you how long it is.

[John Williamson]

We may end up as material for his blog:-

Seems quite opinionated on the basis of not a lot of information. We might want to watch what we type here.