New cylinder

caspermccormack

Hello all,

Going about installing a solar panel system to the house this weekend. I purchased a new coppercraft 259 litre cylinded and have it in roughly the same spot as the last one, but took hours to fill, ended up filling from a watering can to help out. What can be causing this to happen. Is it to much weight to push up fillling from the bottom? I have a large header tank in the attic so that should be fine and the ballcock is not blocked. the top of the new tank is about the same height as the old one, which sat on a shelf. And another question I have is the hot water out and the vent pipe, should the "T" fittng be on it's side or be upright as in "T". If you know what I mean.

Thanks in advance.

Joey the lips

caspermccormack wrote: »

Hello all,

Going about installing a solar panel system to the house this weekend. I purchased a new coppercraft 259 litre cylinded and have it in roughly the same spot as the last one, but took hours to fill, ended up filling from a watering can to help out. What can be causing this to happen. Is it to much weight to push up fillling from the bottom? I have a large header tank in the attic so that should be fine and the ballcock is not blocked. the top of the new tank is about the same height as the old one, which sat on a shelf. And another question I have is the hot water out and the vent pipe, should the "T" fittng be on it's side or be upright as in "T". If you know what I mean.

Thanks in advance.

No the T is side ways for a reason. Pressure could blow it off if its up right. As for filling. Did a plumber not commission it. A solar cylinder is a dual coyle cylinder but usually with extra wraps. TBH i am guessing air locks. I would have open taps to let water through then closed them off to let it fill

caspermccormack

Joey the lips wrote: »

No the T is side ways for a reason. Pressure could blow it off if its up right. As for filling. Did a plumber not commission it. A solar cylinder is a dual coyle cylinder but usually with extra wraps. TBH i am guessing air locks. I would have open taps to let water through then closed them off to let it fill

I'm putting in the system myself and have done one other one before, I had plumbed the house about 8 years ago now and the old cyclinder had the T on its side alright, so i'll change that tomorrow, and it is a solar cylinder with two coils. all the taps where open, and very little flow coming down the cold water feed to the cyclinder, aldo it was noisy enough, would air not escape up thru this pipe?

caspermccormack

Would it be possible to put a non-return valve on the vent pipe?

Carlow52

caspermccormack wrote: »

Would it be possible to put a non-return valve on the vent pipe?

IMO NO as they can stick.

on the filling side, if the taps are open and the header tank is full and u have little gravity flow then u have a blockage on the feed from the header tank: dirty in bottom perhaps.

one way to clear it is to disconnect the pipe from the tank and connect the garden hose to it and blow any dirty back into header tank.

In passing is the (HW) system open or closed?

caspermccormack

In passing is the (HW) system open or closed?


How do you mean? Is vented? -yes.

Carlow52

thanks, as the system is vented, ie all gravity, which is what I surmised, i was confused by the T piece and the comment by jtl that it could blow: hence my question.

I imagine the T is fitted on its side (--l )with the vent pipe going straight up back up and ending over header tank and the longer ( now horizontal) leg acting as the feed

caspermccormack

yeah it was as " T " i'm going to change it to " -I " so straight up to vent. Anyway the drain valve i had put on to drain the whole tank is fooked, leaking and a bastard of a thing.

aujopimur

I think you may have problem with the valve on the cold feed to the cylinder these are usually of poor quality.

caspermccormack

All sorted now, new fittings, working fine and no leaks!, roll on the new panels! Thanks to all for your help.

Casper.