Just fitted a new immersion heater and have no pressure

[steve9]

HI guys, just a quick question.

I have just fitted a new immersion heater, but the old one was at the bottom of this cupboard:

i thought i would put the new one up higher than the old one but now i have less pressure than before... Have i missed something obvious here?

I dont really have much experience at plumbing other than common sense (i hope) so if anyone can help here i would be immensely grateful.

Cheers,
steve

 

[REDSAW]

er, haha, yes.
the big blue thing is called a direct cylinder.
the immersion is the wired thing at bottom that heats the water.
the cylinder creates no pressure of its own.
it is the cold storage tank feeding this cylinder that creates the hot pressure which is determined by how much higher (head) it is above the cylkinder.
drop the cylinder back to the floor or raise the c/w/s tank higher ie 500mm.

and i do hope that shelf is stron cause if it gives way the cylinder could go of like a bomb-litrally.

 

[WHPES]

The cylinder looks like one of those with integral cistern on top. Raising it WILL increase pressure at taps.

I suggest you look for an airlock in the pipework.

 

[REDSAW]

strange! coulnt see it before thought it was a shadow. doh!.
it is a combi cylinder, looks like 15mm pipe of it too with push-fits.
yup, air or restriction in pipework. to faucets.

just noticed, the angle of my screen makes a difference to the picture, hehe.

 

[unguided1]

you can also see where the air lock is if you look carefully, underneath the shelf where the cylinder is sat, there are two pipes that are not horizontal but dropping back.

 

[steve9]

Thanks for your replies, i was a bit worried for a while there that i might have made a major boo-boo.

unguided1: Im not sure what you mean by dropping back? heres a pic of the pipes:

Im not sure how to get an air lock out either... ive opened the last tap on the line and tried to just flush it through, and its a lot better than it was before, but its not great.
Am i expecting too much from what ive got, and is there any way of fitting a pump (or is that just daft?

Again thanks for your replies i would have been totally lost without this forum 😎

 

[Blackcatgas]

Make it a bit lower next time Steve, your going to struggle to change the ball valve, it looks very close to the cieling.

Its really hard to see from the picture, but have you connected the hot outlet up in a 15mm flexi then through a high pressure stop tap then reduced back up to 22mm? If you have then this needs to be changed to 22mm all the way to the 22mm coming out of the floor, and dont use that type of stop valve on low pressure pipework use a full bore or even a gate valve if you must.Bang a few clips on that wire aswell, sorry to pick fault.

 

[unguided1]

We have sorted this one out now I PM'd the guy my number so I could fully understand it. What was wrong was he had put a flexi onto where the drain cock should go at the bottom of the tank, using it as the hot outlet, and what should have been the hot outlet was capped off.
After a quick chat on the phone this will all be rectified later today

 

[GreenArmy]

First time ive read this thread and it wasnt until i seen the blown up photo that i started to chuckle and see where the hot water outlet was coming from.
Also that pipe on the left (lower of airing cupboard), the cold main. It looks like that is running up then teeing off to supply bathroom and then carry on to the tank supply. If so isnt the stopcock on the wrong way?

 

[charitynjw]

"Make it a bit lower next time Steve, your going to struggle to change the ball valve, it looks very close to the cieling."

Happened to me once - had to cut a hole in the ceiling!

 

[unguided1]

First time ive read this thread and it wasnt until i seen the blown up photo that i started to chuckle and see where the hot water outlet was coming from.
Also that pipe on the left (lower of airing cupboard), the cold main. It looks like that is running up then teeing off to supply bathroom and then carry on to the tank supply. If so isnt the stopcock on the wrong way?

well spotted mark yes the stopcock was fitted upside down and the guy said he was going to change it all that after noon. 🙂