This might be an example of what even a small 2 gal sadia can do, if done wrong
Seeing that clip, reminds me of a job I did about 40 years back;
I had just come out of the "Mob" and was finding my feet again in plumbing after 3 years away from it
2 No Sadia 2 gallonUDB water heaters in a (newly consecrated church), heaters supplied by "sparks", services in iron by heating fitters, basin and kitchen sink allready fitted, all I had to do was do the connections in copper, my supervisor took me to the site and said dead easy, cold inlet at the bottom hot outlet on the top just connect from stopcock to the heater then from the heater to the tap, I forgot about there being a need for a special tap and did just what he said
First one in the toilet was done thursday so was most of the other one in the kitchen, it only needed final connection and cliping of the pipe work to be done on the friday, it was a "job and knock", and I wanted to get away for the week end
I had nothing but trouble with the catholic priest who used to sit on the wash hand basin and swing his legs then call me and say "look the basin is loose, you should do a good job in gods house" which left me muttering nothing but building language, so I was eager to get away, I had allready flicked the switch to the heater in the toilet, just to see if the water was warming up then turned it off on the thursday night, I did the same to the other heater when all the pipework was connected, the job was finished appart from 2 clips which needed to be fitted, so I went down to the basement for the clips, teaboy said cup of tea is out for you, I said cannot stop its job and knock, bugger it now its out I will have it, at that moment there was a thundering explosion which shook the building, one of the lads said what the hell is that?, I replied jokeingly "Sadia's blown up", then another who said I think that its a propane gas cylinder on the tarmac machine they are relaying the road, I will go and look, he came back saying water is pouring through the ceiling, I shot upstairs to find the Sadia under the sink had blown up
It had blown a Wrighton sink unit made out of 3/8" plywood into matchwood, the double drainer sink was twisted into a question mark, the brackets on the Sadia 2"x1/4" steel instead of being shaped around the Sadia they were straight, the fibre glass insulation was imbeded into the plaster, the outer light steel caseing was opened out flat, and the inner copper cylinderhad the top and bottom ripped off, a cup which was on the sink was crazed all over and dissintergrated into dust when picked up, a brass "conex" bent tap coupling had been torn in half at the elbow, a copper "S" trap was more like a "P" trap, if I had been ther when it blew I would have been dead, because my head would have been about 6 inches away from the Sadia
By this time I was laughing like a drain from the realisation that I had escaped from near death by a couple of minuits, a party of Nuns who were being escorted around the church asked me why I was laughing when I told them that I should have been there when the Sadia exploded, they did every thing to me except sprinkle me with holy water, I was blessed by all 6 of them together with much shifting of beads and moveing of the cross, I think that I had just about the full monty including the last rites, but I took it that the good lord was not too amused with me curseing the priest and calling him a F Old C amoungst other words, inside a consecrated church
On inspection by the sparks who were still on site, it was found that the thermostat link on both Sadias, had been forgotten by the sparky who had wired them (but that was soon put right), (the poor sparks was so worried, he said that he would get the sack and he had just got married and had a mortgage to pay), and my supervisor took the blame because he said that I had done exactly what he told me to do
The way the Sadia should have been plumbed in was via a special tap with 3 tails to it, cold in, cold out to Sadia, hot open vent from Sadia, this way even if the Sadia had boiled the open vent (hot from Sadia to tap) would have let the steam out of the Sadia, the way I had plumbed it made it into a steam bomb, especialy so because the thermostat hadent been wired in to break the current when the water was hot enough
