Pressure Vessel?

[farmeroman]

About six years ago I had three new bathrooms (each with a seperate shower cubicle) installed; one has a rain shower which requires higher pressure than a normal shower. Our mains water pressure was terrible so I had a Megaflow cylinder installed and the plumber said that we needed some kind of tank (I believe it was a pressure vessel of some kind) installed to boost the mains pressure. Once installed the system was amazing; the mains cold water pressure is now very hight; baths fill very fast and the shower pressure is amazing.

You will see from the picture that the presseure vessel (if that is what it is) is a large blue tank about 900mm high and 600mm diameter and is many times larger than the small red pressure vessel on my heating system. This tank developed a rust patch at the bottom about a year ago and I thought that it could start to leak soon so I contacted the original plumber to have a replacement installed. He said that he didn't think he could get another of those tanks, and have not heard from him since, which makes me wonder if the tank was non-standard and maybe left over from a commercial rather than domestic job. Two other plumbers who have taken a look at it said that it was not necessary and should be removed from the system, but I am concerned that my mains pressure would suffer if it were just removed or replace with a much smaller taknk as another plumber suggested.

Any ideas what this thing is and if I can get a replacement?

 

[Howsie]

Here you go: Cold Water Accumulator Improving Water Pressure | Expansion Vessels

Find another plumber

 

[iiplumbing]

Hi farmeroman

There are pressure vessels of all sizes out there.

A vessel is sized to be suitable to accommodate the increase in volume of water created by a raise in temperature from its cold fill temperature volume.

Therefore a high rise booster pump set may have several vessels of a large size side by side to accommodate the expansion of the water in the system

This is one I found just quick on a google search, its a 60l vessel

60 Litre - ULTRA-PRO 60 H Potable Water Expansion Vessel - Horizontal - ZI-318061

Of course an accumulator can be found as Howsie points out. I just wanted to say that there are systems out there that are massive and use much larger vessels than the normal domestic systems....


Russ

 

[Dotty]

Personally I like the GAH range.. GAH - How Coldstream Works

There you go, several options to hit your plumber with!

 

[farmeroman]

I see. So it increases the mains flow rate rather than the pressure. I suppose that the rubber bag/membrane means that the tank is unlikely to burst and flood my house anytime soon. How do I go about determining the required size for my house?

 

[iiplumbing]

I see. So it increases the mains flow rate rather than the pressure. I suppose that the rubber bag/membrane means that the tank is unlikely to burst and flood my house anytime soon. How do I go about determining the required size for my house?

speak to the manufacturer

google accumulators

russ

 

[farmeroman]

Thanks everyone; at least I now know how they work. The animation at GAH was very useful.