Chrome Water Heater Tap Test
Referring back to Water heater number two – temporary success
Looks like the temporary instal was wise, but not for the anticipated reason.
The test instal had been fine for a few days, then I noticed a wet area – not unexpected at this time of year as the whole area around the kitchen sink stays wet for days as it’s currently too cold for splashes to evaporate quickly. But this was not changing.
Turns out my suspicions were correct, and wiping the water away only saw it mysteriously return after a few hours.
First thought was my earlier adventure inside the body of this heater/tap, to evaluate the ease/difficulty of removing the mains wiring for fitting. I thought I might have failed to align the internal mains water seal correctly. As that would have meant the body was filling with water AND submerging all the electrical wiring, I had no choice but to quickly remove and dismantle it – again.
A lot of effort for NOTHING as the interior was bone dry inside. Time to put it back together – again.
This was puzzling, as I had proven the water to be collecting around the base mounting washer. But obviously not leaking from around it.
Nor was it coming from the outlet spout seal, which would have left an obvious trail. Time to look for less obvious sources
The only remaining possibility on the seamless, one piece body was the hot/cold/flow lever, however I had not seen a drop near it
Because the tap was only a temporary install, I was able to turn the assembly on to its side, allowing a small tray to be placed beneath the lever = and this DID start to collect drops of water.
Signs of this leak first appeared on the first day the outdoor temp hit -5°C here, and the kitchen quickly followed, reaching around +2°C (where it will no doubt remain for the next few weeks as it seems a vortex has split over the North Pole and is set to bring even lower temperature than were projected only a few days ago. Oh joy!
The lever/valve had no obvious fixing to the body. Fortunately, a hot/cold label which looked like part of the lever was just stuck on, and covered the single screw which attached lever.
The pic below omits a threaded collar which secures the valve parts shown, and obscures them when in place, hence its omission from the pic.
I’m not sure if this was just not tightened correctly, or if the cold caused the parts to contract and allow the drip to pass the blue seal.
Regardless, I’ve reassembled everything and tightened all the parts, put it all back together, and refitted the temporary install – again.
At least I learned how these lever valves are assembled, so it was worth it.
Heater Tap Seal
Now the fun part
As hinted above, after some nice weather (the outdoor temperature climbed to +5°C) the split vortex I mentioned saw it suddenly collapse back down to -5°C.
This happened while I had the subject tap removed, and the mains water feed isolated.
By the time I refitted the tap – when I turned the water on… the line had been isolated long enough for it to freeze, so NO WATER!
Unfortunately, this particular pipework was added later than the original plumbing, and runs along a roof route which is isolated and close to the outside environment.
Even so, I was still surprised it had succumbed so soon. I generally mitigate the problem, and it usually takes days for it to freeze – this was fast, very fast, and shows we’ve had an unusually fast freeze to a temp that is lower than usual, even for sunny Scotland.
That wasn’t the fun. THAT came a little later.
I reassembled the temporary connection, ensuring that all the valves were left open – just sightly, so that the water would flow the moment anything made it past the frozen/blocked part.
Only problem was I hadn’t been able to check the joints for leaks.
About an hour later, just as I settled down with a hot cup of coffee to try to get my fingers defrosted…
I thought the sound of the house was ‘wrong’.
Sure enough, the fitting which should have been secured to the bottom of the tap was being forced off and unscrewing itself under the mains water pressure. It seats on a fat silicone washer, and my side of this connection does not engage many threads – my fault for not making it tighter than I did
On the one hand, I was lucky not to have just thought “SOD IT” when I thought I heard something ‘wrong’.
On the other, I did end up having to wet/dry vac a mini flood which I found just starting as the connection came off and a mini fountain appearing out of the kitchen sink.
Looked worse than it was (or could have been).
Amazing how far less water than it would take to fill a kettle can go 🙂
Surprisingly, only two hours later the floor is mostly dry (what I didn’t collect just drips away through the floorboard seams).
Update
Obviously this needs an update.
After a few hours under pressure, the good news was – no drips in sight.
Probably a good thing, once I knew where to look, there was a steady, if very slow, formation of drips to be seen.
Given it looked OK before, I’m not leaving it under pressure overnight, in case the closed tap leads to anther freeze of the cold water pipe leading to this tap.
I’ll check it again tomorrow – if the temp goes above 0°C (but predictions now show sub-zero until the weekend, then a surprising jump to+5°C and more).
Secret Scotland 