Discharge from water heater

DaveBH

Hi guys,

In my aparment there is a phoenix water heater (www.coppercraft.ie) in the hall press. Recently I have noticed a wet patch on the concrete floor of the press. On further inspection the patch is directly under the discarge pipe from the heater which I think means it's the temperature/pressure relief valve or the expansion relief valve.

Can anyone advise if this is normal (very small amount of water) or if I could soon have a serious problem on my hands?

Any advice appreciated...

Thanks

landydef

try turning down the stat on whatever you heat your hot water with, if its the central heating then there is a cylinder stat on the cylinder, if its the immersion then you will have to remove the cover on the 2 immersions that are on also on the cylinder and inside them there is a small stat dial which you can turn down with a fase-tester or a small flathead
just be carefull as the wires under the covers may be live so turning the immersion off while you have the cover off might be a good idea
usually they are set at 65 but even 5 degrees should do the trick
also if you find your water overly hot at the taps then it could also be a possibility that the stat has failed and its overheating if thats the case you could just replace the stat before the immersion burns out,
what you could also check is the pressure in your expansion vessell,thats the big blue globe shaped vessell, on top of this there is a black plastic cap which you can spin off where you'll see a connection that you can check the pressure with a normal car/bicycle tyre gauge,theres a label on the vessell which will tell you what it should be
the temperature/pressure gauge is set at 90 degrees and 10 bar (as far as i can remember) and is spring loaded so it would defenitly be worth getting it fixed as the more times the spring is breached the more its gonna leak
sorry for the novel!

DaveBH

Thanks for your advice. I turned down the temp on both immersion heaters to 45 (from 55). This helped a little but it turned out that the expansion vessel needed to be replaced. This was done but I haven't turned up the temperatures on the immersions again - is it ok to leave them both at 45?

It would concern me that you had a temperature/pressure relief valve that didn't terminating in a safe manor, if you download the installation instructions you can see the safe way of installing a invented cylinder If there is a problem with a cylinder the first thing that tends to happen is they over pressurize and leak which can be just a drip or fully opened which is more dramatic, to answer your question if you find your water is hot enough then you can leave it at 45 if not turn it up, just be carefully it doesn't get to hot, it should be 55 at the tap, Gary.

landydef

DaveBH wrote: »

Thanks for your advice. I turned down the temp on both immersion heaters to 45 (from 55). This helped a little but it turned out that the expansion vessel needed to be replaced. This was done but I haven't turned up the temperatures on the immersions again - is it ok to leave them both at 45?

just make sure the new vessel is not red,it should be either blue or white,the red ones are for heating systems and shouldn't be used with fresh water

DaveBH

Thanks guys and Landy, yes the new unit is white. Water is at perfect temperature so leaving settings at 45 degrees. No further discharge.

Happy Ending!

MickLimk

Legionnaires disease precautions say that the water should be heated above 55°C to kill off the bacteria. Ideal growth temperature is about 38°C and they will multiply at temperatures between 20 and 50°C.

Some people reckon the whole legionella thing is over-hyped but people still get infected. Never heating your water above 45°C may not be best for your health...