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As I reported in a reply to another topic, last week I discovered we had a leak from our hot water system that produced not a little fuss and head scratching that may at least amuse if not inform some readers.
Unfortunately, this took a little longer to remedy than I had at first anticipated. Not least because, after I had shut down the in-bound cold supply and drained the system, I took a little time to consider an opportunity I had been toying with. This being, to replace the traditional copper cylinder with a thermal store as perhaps a foundation step in a grander plan to use solar and/or ground-heat sources to supply some/all of the energy input.
The First Lady, noting that my ponderings had wandered slightly from the immediate challenge, announced that, given the as yet undetermined lead times for….
A: me to make a decision regarding what to purchase,
B: how long it may take the chosen supplier(s) to deliver the products, and;
C: how long it may take me to install the new kit and to clean up the inevitable mess I’d made while doing so.
…… she would be de-canting to her parent’s home while I got on with it and, if the job was not finished by the time they asked her to leave, she would be taking up residence in the nearest and most expensive hotel she could find between there and here.
As I know to my cost there are some seriously expensive hostelries between Bath and Ludlow so the economic benefits argument underpinning my aims would very quickly go down the pan. Maybe too revealing for this forum but this, of course, highlights one of those fundamental differences between our respective personalities and characters that both add and subtract from the quality of our relationship – what I call ‘Planning and Preparation’ the First Lady calls ‘Procrastination’. I suspect that I am not alone in this regard and that many other contributors may share the dilemma.
So; as the First Lady would (disparagingly) say – ‘time to practice some GOYA’.
Focusing on the immediate needs while parking my long-term ambitions I decided that the first course of action, having already established using my trusty endoscope, that the leak was not from a failed pipe or connection to the cylinder I should first get the old cylinder out. However, concluding that the root of the leak was a split seam and that installing a suitable thermal store would require considerably more expenditure, plumbing work and maybe include strengthening the floor it would stand on, I placed an order for a comparably sized new cylinder to take its place. Order placed and delivery promised within 24 hours I set about the removal phase.
From a technical stand-point this was straight-forward. Disconnect the cold feed and the outbound hot water supply/expansion pipe and the feeds to and from the internal coil after isolating and disconnecting the electricity supply. What could be easier to a man with a comprehensive collection of appropriate tools? Well…. nothing, if one discounts basic physics.
Fircroft is a 16th Century cottage and attached barn to which internal running water was only added in the late 20th. The airing cupboard in which the hot water cylinder was installed would abysmally fail in any effort to host a kitten, never mind a full grown moggie, swinging contest! Fortunately, there was/is sufficient headroom between the height of the door frame and the top-most coil feed pipe to confirm that I should be able to lift the empty cylinder over these, thus avoiding the need to cut those pipes to provide egress. The probable efficacy of my plan was seemingly confirmed by the early – it sometime happens – arrival of the new stainless steel cylinder from Screwfix. The lone delivery guy, who seemed to be just a little younger than myself, literally ‘bounded’ up the twenty meters of steps and paving to my front door with no obvious strain on either his muscles or his respiratory system, whilst easily clutching the awkwardly boxed new cylinder.
Taking heart from his demonstration, and aware of the difference in mass between copper and stainless-steel I felt that my plan would soon bear the wanted fruit. Sadly, this proved to be my first mistake insofar that I completely overlooked the first principles associated with any plan of action – no plan survives first contact with the enemy and also that Murphy’s/Sods are pretty common.
The first enemy force to be encountered when I returned to the airing cupboard was the lack of any means to simply get hold of the old cylinder to lift it. Realising that a simple ‘bear-hug’ approach would merely result in my upper arms and shoulders being jammed against the door frame I was left with no choice but to resort to the insertion of fingers into the now vacant orifices provided for the immersion heater and the top-most coil attachment port as the only available points of purchase. Suitably gloved I was fairly confident I could lift and manoeuvre the old cylinder out. So, using upper body only, I tried. And it was at this point that the first copper penny dropped to thwart my plan - it would not budge, I could not lift it at all. Concluding that the residual water below the height of the drain cock and the bottom of the cylinder would not be heavy enough to resist my efforts, out came my endoscope again to see if some clown had found a way to fix the damn thing to the floor or, perhaps more likely, I had overlooked a solid connection of some unknown kind.
Nope, nada! Bowing to the inevitable I was forced to cut the coil feed pipes to perhaps allow sufficient room for me to shimmy the cylinder out, thus avoiding the worst-case alternatives of either cutting up the old cylinder in-situ or demolishing part of the airing cupboard wall!
It was as this ‘shimmying’ progressed, inevitably accompanied by some spillage of residual water, that the second penny – more like a lead nickel – dropped! The inertia I was observing could not be explained by residual water alone and it had to also be – the twenty plus years of scaled off lime deposits that that had accumulated in the bottom of the cylinder together with an amount of sand dredged up from our bore-hole water supply, circa 10-15 kilos by my estimate ; (best Homer impression – Doh!)
After avoiding a hernia getting the old one down the narrow stairs and installing the new cylinder with suitably amended plumbing the house is now tidy and appreciably warmer.
Oh, and I rapidly let the First Lady know that there’s no need to check into one of her favourite spa hotels.
By the way; I subsequently discovered that the roughly comparably aged delivery driver from Screwfix is a frequent competitor in Iron Man contests :shock: – so much for judging a book by its cover!
Unfortunately, this took a little longer to remedy than I had at first anticipated. Not least because, after I had shut down the in-bound cold supply and drained the system, I took a little time to consider an opportunity I had been toying with. This being, to replace the traditional copper cylinder with a thermal store as perhaps a foundation step in a grander plan to use solar and/or ground-heat sources to supply some/all of the energy input.
The First Lady, noting that my ponderings had wandered slightly from the immediate challenge, announced that, given the as yet undetermined lead times for….
A: me to make a decision regarding what to purchase,
B: how long it may take the chosen supplier(s) to deliver the products, and;
C: how long it may take me to install the new kit and to clean up the inevitable mess I’d made while doing so.
…… she would be de-canting to her parent’s home while I got on with it and, if the job was not finished by the time they asked her to leave, she would be taking up residence in the nearest and most expensive hotel she could find between there and here.
As I know to my cost there are some seriously expensive hostelries between Bath and Ludlow so the economic benefits argument underpinning my aims would very quickly go down the pan. Maybe too revealing for this forum but this, of course, highlights one of those fundamental differences between our respective personalities and characters that both add and subtract from the quality of our relationship – what I call ‘Planning and Preparation’ the First Lady calls ‘Procrastination’. I suspect that I am not alone in this regard and that many other contributors may share the dilemma.
So; as the First Lady would (disparagingly) say – ‘time to practice some GOYA’.
Focusing on the immediate needs while parking my long-term ambitions I decided that the first course of action, having already established using my trusty endoscope, that the leak was not from a failed pipe or connection to the cylinder I should first get the old cylinder out. However, concluding that the root of the leak was a split seam and that installing a suitable thermal store would require considerably more expenditure, plumbing work and maybe include strengthening the floor it would stand on, I placed an order for a comparably sized new cylinder to take its place. Order placed and delivery promised within 24 hours I set about the removal phase.
From a technical stand-point this was straight-forward. Disconnect the cold feed and the outbound hot water supply/expansion pipe and the feeds to and from the internal coil after isolating and disconnecting the electricity supply. What could be easier to a man with a comprehensive collection of appropriate tools? Well…. nothing, if one discounts basic physics.
Fircroft is a 16th Century cottage and attached barn to which internal running water was only added in the late 20th. The airing cupboard in which the hot water cylinder was installed would abysmally fail in any effort to host a kitten, never mind a full grown moggie, swinging contest! Fortunately, there was/is sufficient headroom between the height of the door frame and the top-most coil feed pipe to confirm that I should be able to lift the empty cylinder over these, thus avoiding the need to cut those pipes to provide egress. The probable efficacy of my plan was seemingly confirmed by the early – it sometime happens – arrival of the new stainless steel cylinder from Screwfix. The lone delivery guy, who seemed to be just a little younger than myself, literally ‘bounded’ up the twenty meters of steps and paving to my front door with no obvious strain on either his muscles or his respiratory system, whilst easily clutching the awkwardly boxed new cylinder.
Taking heart from his demonstration, and aware of the difference in mass between copper and stainless-steel I felt that my plan would soon bear the wanted fruit. Sadly, this proved to be my first mistake insofar that I completely overlooked the first principles associated with any plan of action – no plan survives first contact with the enemy and also that Murphy’s/Sods are pretty common.
The first enemy force to be encountered when I returned to the airing cupboard was the lack of any means to simply get hold of the old cylinder to lift it. Realising that a simple ‘bear-hug’ approach would merely result in my upper arms and shoulders being jammed against the door frame I was left with no choice but to resort to the insertion of fingers into the now vacant orifices provided for the immersion heater and the top-most coil attachment port as the only available points of purchase. Suitably gloved I was fairly confident I could lift and manoeuvre the old cylinder out. So, using upper body only, I tried. And it was at this point that the first copper penny dropped to thwart my plan - it would not budge, I could not lift it at all. Concluding that the residual water below the height of the drain cock and the bottom of the cylinder would not be heavy enough to resist my efforts, out came my endoscope again to see if some clown had found a way to fix the damn thing to the floor or, perhaps more likely, I had overlooked a solid connection of some unknown kind.
Nope, nada! Bowing to the inevitable I was forced to cut the coil feed pipes to perhaps allow sufficient room for me to shimmy the cylinder out, thus avoiding the worst-case alternatives of either cutting up the old cylinder in-situ or demolishing part of the airing cupboard wall!
It was as this ‘shimmying’ progressed, inevitably accompanied by some spillage of residual water, that the second penny – more like a lead nickel – dropped! The inertia I was observing could not be explained by residual water alone and it had to also be – the twenty plus years of scaled off lime deposits that that had accumulated in the bottom of the cylinder together with an amount of sand dredged up from our bore-hole water supply, circa 10-15 kilos by my estimate ; (best Homer impression – Doh!)
After avoiding a hernia getting the old one down the narrow stairs and installing the new cylinder with suitably amended plumbing the house is now tidy and appreciably warmer.
Oh, and I rapidly let the First Lady know that there’s no need to check into one of her favourite spa hotels.
By the way; I subsequently discovered that the roughly comparably aged delivery driver from Screwfix is a frequent competitor in Iron Man contests :shock: – so much for judging a book by its cover!