Leak you can't find!

[secret squirrel]

I had a call about a directly heated hot water cylinder,

The set up is in a retirement flat, the lady had gone away for about 4 days and got home, the carpet was a bit wet.

The son went round and turned off the hot water emptied the taps but not drained the cylinder. I went round the following day to have a look, the floor was already drying out as was the airing cupboard.

I dried the area as much as I could with the son, turned on the hot water and hoped to see a leak......... there wasn't one.

Thinking the problem may have come from the bathroom, this was next to the airing cupboard, the bath had a drippy tap we took off the bath panel and there wasn't any visible leak.

My thought was: as the hot water cylinder is always full of hot water(immersion is always on!) over the four days the customer has been away a joint has contracted slightly causing a drip, on her return and putting the immersion back on it has expanded again and sealed.

I explained that if you can't find a leak its difficult to diagnose a problem and repair it. My advice was, let the cupboard dry out and then using kitchen roll check the joints etc.

I didn't want to start pulling things apart......

Has anyone got any ideas?

 

[justlead1]

Hi. I think you done the right thing. As you can spend hours checking and still be none the wiser. Asking the client to monitor the situation is the best solution as it reduces the spend and puts you in pole position when required to act. Good luck

 

[stevetheplumber]

leak from upstairs that has been rectified?

 

[secret squirrel]

The job was on the top floor flat, we checked downstairs and the water hadn't gone through,

I did explain that it was a difficult situation, I had no idea where to start, I'd be changing compression fittings for new ones with no idea if it'd cure the problem and the cost would just keep going up.

Luckily, we'd all agreed to the course of action and monitor the problem.

I was hoping one of you guys would say "its this or that" "did you check this?"

 

[GreenArmy]

secret, was the cylinder the fortic type? If so i would bet it had overflowed internally.

 

[secret squirrel]

Fortic has confused me a little, from my understanding (limited, so bear with me) a fortic tank does both hot water and heating so you can not use inhibitors. Open for a bit more info if you have it....

This OAP home is 17 years old and I thought fortic were used a while before that. Having said that the heating in this property is electric (economy 7,) the hot water cylinder is vented and has 2 immersions, 1x econ 7 and 1x expensive rate.

 

[david williams]

fortic can be direct or indirect.it has small cold water cistern on top to supply the cylinder,you were proberly thinking of a primatic cylinder

 

[REDSAW]

heat expansion leak,
put every thing on at full heat for an hour, that will show the leak i am sure.

 

[Bernie2]

Fortic is just a trade name for a combination cylinder. They wrok in the same way as a cistern/tank in the loft and an ordinary cylinder, except the cistern/tank is part of the cylinder. Usually used where its hard to fit a store tank i.e. small houses or flats.

They are okay but tend to be small.

Have you considered condensation?

Once again though its proving it isn't it?

Good Fortune squirrel!

 

[secret squirrel]

Thanks for the replies,

Its definetly not a fortic.

I've not considered condensation, the reason is that this is a new problem,
would condensation have just started?

 

[welly2510]

it could of been an overflow problem, is storage cistern above airing cuboard? It would of had time to build up while she was away, then son drained through taps, if ballvalve only had slight drip it might not of overflowed while you were there.

 

[bobpape]

Hi SS
Did you look under the immersion heater covers?

 

[REDSAW]

crikey! what time do you get up in the morning bob?.

 

[deg]

could the e7 heater have over heated due to a faulty stat, and not vented over correctly?

 

[stevetheplumber]

Thanks for the replies,

Its definetly not a fortic.

I've not considered condensation, the reason is that this is a new problem,
would condensation have just started?

we had a job where there was a wet patch on the floor in an office every morning
traced it to a leak on the cleaners bucket which she used to put in the office hallway when she finished mopping the stairs

 

[REDSAW]

how did you fix the leak steve?
was it a sttandard rate.

 

[bri-w]

how did you fix the leak steve?
was it a sttandard rate.

LSX & half an olive?!!!

 

[Hugh]

get a good look at the cylinder small leaks can be very hard to see take take jacket off and inspect every fitting, can you see the bottom of the cylinder? is the cylinder on a tank stand can the air circulate around it if not may be rotten, ive been tested a few time by leaks like this and always find a problem with cylinder .

 

[secret squirrel]

Thanks for the suggestions, a few things have been suggested that I will check if I have to go back, its definetly not a bucket though,

I did consider a leak from the cylinder but if all looks in really good condition, did not think about taking off the e7 immersion covers