Leaking Essex Flange & v hot water

[Roland Burr]

We have been plagued by a leaky essex flange for some time. I tried sealing it with LSX and it worked for a while but then started a steady trickle. This week I stripped it right back (but didn't remove the flange itself) and discovered a) whatever washer (rubber?) is inside the tank is now a devayed caulky mass which is all but useless b) the outer washer is metal only (no rubber) and c) the hole in teh side of the tank is for some reason not a nice snug round one but a oval shape which makes getting a good seal all the more challenging. Again the best part of a tube of LSX has made it a lot better and it is dry most of the time but at other times for reasons I cannot fathom, there is a slight trickle. It doesn't seem to be raleated to time of day, temp of water etc.

Do I assume my best course of action is to replace the essex flange entirely? Does the pipe going into it go all the way thru it - when I loosened it I tried to pull the pipe out but it didn;t want to move so I left well alone.

Alkso, I replaced the immersion heater element and thermostat when the old one died recently. Despite the thermostat being set to 60 deg the water still seems to get very hot indeed - very cosy indeed but I'm worried it might do damage. I've checked the thermostat is working - it is - but presumably there's not really much that can go wrong with them anyway other than being always on or always off?

RB

[Christian McArdle]

This is pretty common, as the thermostat is measuring the temperature low down, whilst convection currents mean the heater is actually heating higher up, leading to heat stratification and higher temps at the top compared with the bottom. If you desire constant temperature output (perhaps you have young children or elderly or disabled relations), then you'll need to install a thermostatic mixing valve on the exit. If it is a gravity fed system, you'd almost certainly need a pump to maintain reasonable flow and pressure due to the insertion loss.

Christian.

[Roland Burr]

No - we love it piping hot but were worried that it was faulty or otherwise doing some damage. The thermostat is in the top of the tank (down the immersion element) - maybe we're just unrelaistic as to what 60deg C feels like :)

RB

[Roland Burr]

A little postscript question to this is:

We leave the immersion on 24hrs a day. During colder months we also run the gas CH which will heat the water somewhat. As I said, we love to piping hot water on tap but I'm wondering how excessive this is - were we to fit a timer onto the immersion heater would we be likely to significantly reduce our electric bills or would the heating of colder water take more electricity anyway?

RB

[Christian McArdle]

Provided you have a modern foam insulated cylinder, I wouldn't bother turning the immersion off unless you go away for a couple of days. The overnight reduction in cylinder surface temperature won't be very much and it is the surface temperature that determines the heat loss.

The only way I can think of to make significant savings would be to turn it off before having a night time bath. That way, the cylinder would be cool overnight.

Consider using your central heating to heat the cylinder, even in summer. Depending on the layout, type of system and controls, you may find this significantly cheaper than electricity, although this would depend on many factors.

Christian.

[IMM]

Replace the flange and get a flange with rubbers on both side. Try and do something with the oval hole. That may mean installing a large flange that requires a larger hole and bush it down to the pipe size you have once installed.