hot water system

[Gaynor]

I'm new to this .. Have many things to ask, but the key one at the moment is-can I fix my electric HWS without paying the plumber? It is not young, but the thermostat has already been replaced and it is still heating up. I turned it off for the summer months and now the water simply will not come out of the taps. Is there something simple that I can buy and install to get the water flowing again?
Thanks in anticipation.
Gaynor.

[Cliff Rogers]

G'day.

More info pls.
When you say "I turned it off for the summer months..."
What did you trun off?
The power to it, the water to it, or both?
It may just be a stuck washer in the water tap.
To find that out, first, turn your main water supply to the building off & take the tap into the HWS apart & see if the washer is stuck in the seat.

[Gaynor]

Wow! A quick response. Hmmm..I turned off the power for the summer months. I don't think that is the problem. Both the shower outlet and the handbasin have no hot water coming out-so it can't be a stuck washer, I think. Still, I can check. So far I've been using buckets of hot water mixed with cold for showers and stood round feeling helpless...well, not quite-I did check to see if it could be the thermostat.
Gaynor.

[Kev Y.]

Gaynor, this may be a silly question but have you checked to see if the water inlet tap is open?

As far as getting by without consulting a plumber.. I think that will not be an option.

Good luck anyway.

Kev.

[Cliff Rogers]

..I turned off the power for the summer months. I don't think that is the problem. Both the shower outlet and the handbasin have no hot water coming out-so it can't be a stuck washer, .

G'day.

You've lost me a bit here....

I take it that you turned off the power to the HWS at the switch board &
left the water to the HWS turned on.
This means that you had cold water coming out of the hot water tap right?

If this is the case, you need an electrician first.
He will check to see that there is power getting to the HWS.
If there is & it is not getting hot, either,
a. the heater in the HWS is now dead & you will have to replace the whole HWS or,
b. the thermostat is open circuit & the electrician should be able to fix that.

If you have no water coming out of the hot water tap & you have checked the tap to the HWS is on & working, then you need a plumber.

[Bob Willson]

Also have a look to see if the fuse is blown. Hot water systems tend to have their own circuit.

[HavinaGo]

Hi Gaynor,

To make some suggestions on where to look can you be specific about the type of Hoth Water Service (HWS). Is it a mains pressure unit or is it a gravity fed system? Are you getting water to flow out of the hot tap?

Gravity systems usually have a header tank with a ball valve to fill the header. The HWS itself may be in the roof (or on the ground in really old systems ... with a shepherds crook sticking up above the level of the header tank) The cylinder inside these tend to be copper and tend to last a long time. From a user point of view the water flow is slow out of the hot tap compared to the cold tap and if anyone turns on another tap in the house, you get a change in shower temp.

The mains units usually sit on the ground somewhere, have a cold pipe in the bottom, with a stop cock, one way valve and pressure reducing valve and cold relief valve (in SA). At the top is the outlet to the house and a hot temp and pressure relief valve. These beasts usually have a steel tank and if you get 5 years out of them you have done well on SA water.

If it is a Gravity system and no water is flowing out of the cold tap then check the ball valve in the header tank. They can stick shut. (If you need more information than that then a plumber is really going to be your best friend as you can make quite a mess if things start to leak in the roof!).

If water is flowing but cold for either system, then as Bob suggested check supply to the HWS as far as possible for a handy person. My way of doing this is to see if the meter supplying the heater measures any consumption of electriciy in a 24 hour period. (There is a time clock that only lets the HWS use electricity for a restricted time. Next to it there is a meter just for the HWS .. older systems like yours should have 2 meters .. so in your meter box there will be 3 big black things, 2 are meters, one is the clock, the one above or below the clock is usually the HWS meter) If it does not, get an Electrician.

Well that is a bit long winded Hope it gives you some guidance but when water and electricity are involved, as in a Hot Water Service, go carefully and use the professionals once past the external things.

[Dan]

It sounds to me that the system is still heating the water and you can get hot water from other parts of the house (kitchen? laundry?). If this is the case then I would suggest that there is a temp reducing valve installed (and it's blocked or faulty) which supplies the hot water for the bathroom but at a temp that will not let kids burn themselves. I've attached a pic of the valve at my place - cold water in the bottom, hot water from tank in the top and an adjustable medium/hot out the left side that goes to the bathroom. It looks like it wouldn't be too hard to remove but I'm not sure how it would be tested (if there is one on your system to begin with).

[Gaynor]

Thanks, all.
Have printed the latest advice and will go away and think about it. Have changed the washers on both hot and cold water taps in the hand basin and that did not change anything but made me feel better. There is still no water coming out of the hot water tap.
(This HWS only feeds hot water to the shower and hand basin. Kitchen sink has its own small heater.)
Have checked the fuse to the HWS and that is OK.
I have realised that my experience of when HWS's die, is that they leak water all over the place and you know they have had it!
Thanks to Fixer & Mangler for the latest comments.
Gaynor

[Bob Willson]

One other thing that you may not have tried is refilling the system via the valve on the top. Even if the water is not heating it should still come out cold. However, if there is no water in the system then it won't flow. Try operating this valve until the system overflows.

[journeyman Mick]

Gaynor,
if I understand your post correctly you closed the inlet valve on the hws (as well as turning off the power)for a few months and now there's no water coming out at all - cold or hot. If this is the case there is a possibility that the jumper valve (tap washer) in the inlet valve is stuck on its seat. If the inlet valve looks like a straightened version of a garden tap you can dissasemble it. turn off the main supply and unscrew the top of the tap to access the washer. Check to see that it is not stuck and will operate properly. Alternatively HWS are often fitted with combination valves, these are combined filter/strainers, overpressure valves and stopcocks. I'm not sure if these are serviceable. Like Bob says, operate the pressure relief valve to see if you can get water to flow out of it. If you can get water out of it but not your taps then the problem is more than likely somewhere after the tank outlet. Sorry this hasn't been that helpful, but if you're still having trouble then a detailed description of what you have and haven't done accompanied by a photo of your HWS may enable you to recieve more help.

Mick

[Gaynor]

Well, I bit the bullet and called the plumber. He charged me $25 to replace the Isolation non-return valve washer. My HWS is a 1989 mains unit so it'll have a new life now, hopefully. Thanks, everyone.

[morry]

Called a plumber - job done for $25 - Eureka. Mine won't answer the phone for less than $100

[al2]

I'm not too nifty with PCs/Forums -don't know where to click to start a new tread, so I posted a reply to this area as its also related to hot water systems. The old hws gave up last month and had a new Rheem model 462 (315 litres) with twin element (non-simultaneous operation off-peak connection) installed. As the previous heater was just single element off-peak, the plumber just wired the off-peak wiring to the new hws. Now how do I rig up an additional elec supply for the other element in case the hot water from off-peak power source runs cold? The rheem book just says "the active from the continuous supply must be connected to the top heating unit circuit and the active from the off-peak or time controlled supply must be connected to the bottom heating unit circuit" and it includes a wiring diagram. Can I just tap wiring from a power source to connect to the contiuous terminal? Or should I call an electrician to wire it?

[bitingmidge]

Or should I call an electrician to wire it?

YES.

P