Replace / Move cold water tank

[Simon C]

Hi there...

Please bear with me! I'm in a 1920's house with pretty old gravity fed plumbing installed. The shower is OK, but not great. It was sugested to me that I move the cold water to higher up in the loft to improve the flow to the shower (it's not an electric shower, just a mixer type). The cold tank is already about 4 ft higher than the hot water tank. Will raising it another 3ft or so help any?

Would I be able to extend the pipes going in and waste out by using something like tap extention flexible pipes? I have not soldered any pipes together and not sure if I should takle something like that!

Oh, as if you didn't already guess, money is tight! (when isnt' it!?)

TIA

Simon C

[Niel A. Farrow]

After moving, and ensuring hte tank is well supported, reconnect using plastic push fit connectors and tubing. You may want to totaly replace the run with plastic tubing since it can go round corners without fittings, so less resistance to flow. Also consider a seperate pipe from cold tank to shower so other users of cold water don't make the shower hot.

See screwfix.co.uk for prices of fittings and tubing.

Neil

[Set Square]

The height above the hot tank is irrelevant - what matters is the level of the water in the cold tank above the shower head. If you can double this vertical distance, you should notice the difference.

However, installing a shower pump instead may well be easier.

If you raise the cold tank, you will need to extend:

• the mains feed to the ball valve

• the cold feed to the hot tank

• the vent pipe from the hot tank

• the cold feed to the shower - assuming this has a dedicated cold feed

• the cold feed to any cold taps which are fed from this tank

• the overflow pipe

Is this the original plumbing? Is the tank galvanised steel or plastic? Are the pipes copper, iron - or even lead?

If - and only if - it's all been replaced recently with metric copper pipes, and if you're simply raising the tank vertically in the same position, you might get away with cutting each pipe in a straight part and inserting an additional length of pipe, joining it together with push-fit connectors. The inserted pipes could be copper - or you could use plastic pipe such as Hep2O to give more flexibility.

If you have imperial copper pipe, I doubt whether you can get push fit connectors, so you'll need to use metric compression joints with imperial olives (assuming 3/4" pipes joined to 22mm etc.).

If it's a metal tank with iron or lead pipes, it ain't a DIY job!

[BillV]

In my experience 3 ft will have sod all effect. To be really noticable it has to be 1 bar = 30ft.

If poss hold the shower head 3ft (or more) lower than its normal position to get an idea of any gain ... I doubt you'll notice the difference.

[David P]

The important measurement is the vertical distance between the water level in the tank, and the shower head. If this is 10ft, you can generally expect a fantastic shower. If it's less than 3-4ft, it's going to be pretty poor.

So raising the tank by 3ft is likely to yield good results.

Don't be tempted to rig up some sort of temporary arrangement - it only has to go wrong once to cost you a fortune in flood damage. If you're worried about soldering, there are "proper" push-fit plumbing systems that you can use - have a look at screwfix.com

Don't forget, you can ask here if you are worried about any details. And remember when you're moving the header that water is heavy (1litre = 1Kg), so the tank must be suitably supported.

Good Luck!

[mike ring]

"BillV" wrote in news:40fd8ce1$0$236$ [e-mail]:

Mine too, BTDT etc

LOadsa work for nowt

mike

[Ed Sirett]

IME Evaluation of poor/OK/good pressure and flow showers can vary between people by a magnitude. Some people (can you beleive it) are satified with a 7kW electric shower. Others with a gravity fed unit at as little as 0.2 bar. Yet again others expect the experince to be akin to accupucture. Others wish to be drenched. Some will only be happy with a fire hose.

Typically rasing the tank from 1m to 2m of pressure can make a lot of difference for some people. Also replacing the hose with wide bore unit can make a big difference.

[John Rumm]

Never seen Leadlok? ;-)

[nog]

I haven't and Google isn't particularly forthcoming. Can you point me some information please?

[Simon C]

Thanks for all of your answers! I'll definately give the Push fir connections a go - for those who were interested, it's a metal tank (very rusty, hence the requirement to do any work on this) with standard copper pipes going in and out. I repleace the ball c*ck assembly and it all fitted OK. I'll get a set of push fit connectors and fingers crossed for a better shower experience!

Thanks again!

Simon C

[IMM]

[Dave Liquorice]

Hum, I wonder how much movement it will tolerate before turning into a colander? Plastic tanks are cheap amd *much* lighter to move about when empty. But do remember that water is heavy and that your new tank support needs to be substantial, a plastic tanks needs support over it's entire base area as well unlike a metal one.

[Set Square]

Yes I have, and if it were mine, I would fit a new plastic tank with copper pipes - and either join them to the lead pipes with Leadlok - or get rid of the lead altogether.

But that seemed a bit beyond the scope of someone who appeared never to have done any plumbing.

Maybe I should have said "it ain't a *first time* DIY job" rather than a DIY job per se.

[Set Square]

If it's a rusty metal tank you should certainly consider replacing it with a new plastic one rather than just moving the metal one.

As I said in an earlier post, copper pipe may be imperial size or metric size, depending on when it was installed. I don't recall ever having seen any push-fit connectors in imperial sizes. Doubtless someone will reply if they *are* available! [In any event, your new pipes will be metric - so you'd need fittings which were imperial one end and metric the other].

[nog]

[John Rumm]

Fair enough :-) - I did not read the OP carefully enough regarding plumbing experiance.

Probably true - although I suppose you could count Leadlok as a variation on "push fit".