Plumbing (house not car) help

[frontman]

Anybody with any plumbing know how?

Overflow from central heating header tank is dripping, checked out the tank and there is hot water in there, to such a degree that it's deforming the plastic tank. I'm fairly sure that this is just a top up tank for the CH system and wondering why it's hot.
The tank is roughly a foot square with;
Mains inlet & ballcock
Overflow to outside and
a copper pipe that I presume comes from the system.

Any ideas

( at least the truck seems to be running OK)

[Vultch]

Are you heating the water using the immersion electric system or the central heating system.

At a guess your immersion heater thermostat has gone badly wrong and boiling the water, the hot water is rising and its melting your plastic header tank.
The heating element in the immersion heater has the thermostat built in, its a case of draining the system and replacing the element. The element screws in like a giant spark plug...anyhow I'm no expert I'm sure someone will pop along soon.

ps if you do heat your water using the immersion switch it off now

[Webbo]

Are you heating the water using the immersion electric system or the central heating system.

At a guess your immersion heater thermostat has gone badly wrong and boiling the water, the hot water is rising and its melting your plastic header tank.
The heating element in the immersion heater has the thermostat built in, its a case of draining the system and replacing the element. The element screws in like a giant spark plug...anyhow I'm no expert I'm sure someone will pop along soon.

ps if you do heat your water using the immersion switch it off now

Sounds about right to me. Is the water much hotter than usual ?

[tintin]

Sorry guys, but if it were the immersion stat the heated water would rise up the other expansion pipe and flow into the main (large ) water tank.

Frontman...your problem lies within the central heating system itself.
Something is definitely causing the water to get too hot /expand and overflow into the Feed & Expansion tank.
Without getting lots of details from you it's almost impossible to diagnose over t'net.
I would suggest you get it checked by a central heating engineer as soon as poss to avoid further damage.

Alan

my place of work on and off at the mo'
www.hawkstown.co.uk

[frontman]

Cheers for the response folks,
You all seemed to be on the right track and thanks for pointing me down the "water to hot" path. The boiler is a very old glow worm spacesaver and has a water temp control on the front, it would seem that someone (most probably mrs frontman) has caught the switch and increased the temp.
On inspection the boiler was cutting out via it's internal cut off before the room thermostat because the water was boiling.
I have now turned the boiler to a mid setting and everything is cooling down.

Cheers again for the help.

Col.

[shokenore]

Did you have a look inside the F & E tank ?
You might be able to see a tide mark from the limescale that should give you an idea of what the level was before things got too hot.
And obviously if there is not much height difference from the tide mark to the over flow then that would explain why having the water heated that much more would cause it to spill over.
Is the ball cock letting any water in?

I too have an ancient central heating system the ball cock was not shutting off and caused the F and E tank to over fill might be worth checking?

[frontman]

Did you have a look inside the F & E tank ?
You might be able to see a tide mark from the limescale that should give you an idea of what the level was before things got too hot.
And obviously if there is not much height difference from the tide mark to the over flow then that would explain why having the water heated that much more would cause it to spill over.
Is the ball cock letting any water in?

I too have an ancient central heating system the ball cock was not shutting off and caused the F and E tank to over fill might be worth checking?

Just let some water out of the system with feed turned off, turned feed on and tank filled to tidemark ballcock shut off supply ok with no drips/leaking so all seems ok. Cheers for the heads up re the tidemark.

[tintin]

Glad you're sorted mate

Alan

[Webbo]

I do like a happy ending.

[shokenore]

Anything with a "happy ending" is good,although I recently had the misfortune to stay at a Premier Inn and they advertise their breakfast price as including a "happy ending"

I can tell you that their staff have not received any formal training on this matter.


http://www.premierinn.com/en/why/breakfasts.html

[JD_975]

Anything with a "happy ending" is good,although I recently had the misfortune to stay at a Premier Inn and they advertise their breakfast price as including a "happy ending"

I can tell you that their staff have not received any formal training on this matter.


http://www.premierinn.com/en/why/breakfasts.html

Damned mis information!

[Sancho]

Anything with a "happy ending" is good,although I recently had the misfortune to stay at a Premier Inn and they advertise their breakfast price as including a "happy ending"

I can tell you that their staff have not received any formal training on this matter.


http://www.premierinn.com/en/why/breakfasts.html

No, it's says 'happy ending price' as in you have to pay another twenty quid for it....

[shokenore]

No, it's says 'happy ending price' as in you have to pay another twenty quid for it....

Decisions decisions
I can only claim £25 a night "expenses"