Leaking water tank

Partner got up in the night to find the central heating on when it shouldn't have been. He said he couldn't turn the programmer off as the washing in the airing cupboard had dripped onto the programmer and locked it up. He promptly went back to sleep.

I knew that any washing in the airing cupboard would only be slightly damp and there was no way anything would be dripping, so I went downstairs to investigate.

The overflow pipe is leaking and dripping and has dripped onto the programmer.

So, I'm probably going to need a new programmer - how much are they? But I also need to know why the overflow is leaking. I've tried running the hot water tap and letting the tank refill as we thought it might be something to do with the ballcock, but it didn't overflow when I did this. It only overflows when the heating or hot water is on. (The programmer initially was stuck on heating only) and I tried putting the immersion on and it did the same thing then.

Any ideas what this could be?

Reply to
Jet
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Which overflow pipe? It runs to the airing cupboard? Is it plastic or copper?

Old one might be OK when it dries out. A new one can be around £20-30 depending on it's features.

Have you just started using the CH, and so this might be caused by some issue that built up over the period of disuse?

Based on what you've described my best guess is that you have an open vented system and the overflow pipe you describe is the copper pipe that allows expansion water to return to the small CH tank (about the size of two toilet cisterns) when necessary. A blockage or airlock somewhere is causing the pump to push water into this tank, but none is leaving it to reenter the system.

Are all the rads hot, or are some clearly not getting water? If there are cold ones my first try would be bleeding them until water appears. Next would be to turn off all rads except one to help the pump push any air through this rad, and repeat this for each cold rad (and posibly all).

Whilst doing this I'd be ready to tie up the ballcock in the small tank if it still seems to be going wrong. Keep an eye on it and try to ensure there are always a few cm of water in it. Give it time to recharge if its draining low to avoid pulling any debris at the bottom into the CH system.

And running a bath should have no effect: this is fed from a different tank of water (large one in the attic/some high point).

HTH IanC

Reply to
Ian Clowes

Hi,

Thanks for the advice.

Sorry for not explaining myself properly. I have no water upstairs (downstairs bathroom) and the airing cupboard is downstairs and contains the tank I am describing.

The tank I am describing consists of a cold water tank at the top and the hot water tank at the bottom.

I have called a plumber and have had the inlet valve and ballcock replaced in the cold water tank - both were broken causing the tank to overflow. He has also fixed the overflow pipe (which runs from the cold water tank to the drains via under the bath.

I am waiting to see if the programmer has dried out or if I need a new one.

Thanks.

Ian Clowes wrote:

Reply to
Jet

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