Potable Water Expansion Vessel. It's fooked. Reccomend me a gud'un PLZ:

[Iceverge]

 

 

This has lasted the miserable total of 4 years. 

95% of my underwear is older. 

 

Now the kids are bathing in grimy brown water which for once isn't of their filthy doing. 

 

Can someone please suggest one that I can swap in that will outlive the next ice age please. 

 

 

[dpmiller]

is it not a replaceable bladder?

[Alan Ambrose]

I wonder how important the compensating charge pressure is? I’m thinking that if the water & air pressure are v different the bladder will be stretched to ….y. And we all know what that feels like. It probably shortens its life. I’m thinking a lot of these get installed with the factory 3 bar precharge - which could be way off. 

[Iceverge]

6 hours ago, dpmiller said:

is it not a replaceable bladder?

Yes although @Nickfromwalessuggested just replacing the whole thing in a previous thread due the lightly hood of internal corrosion tearing the new one. 

[Iceverge]

2 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

I wonder how important the compensating charge pressure is? I’m thinking that if the water & air pressure are v different the bladder will be stretched to ….y. And we all know what that feels like. It probably shortens its life. I’m thinking a lot of these get installed with the factory 3 bar precharge - which could be way off. 

 

 

Our multibloc is preset to 3 bar so I just matched that with the vessel. Was this wrong?

 

 

 

[Alan Ambrose]

Probably ok then. Would be interesting to measure tho.

[Alan Ambrose]

Which reminds me ... I was going to put a pressure guage below mine so I could at least keep an eye on the pressure of the water side.

[Nickfromwales]

On 16/12/2024 at 22:28, Iceverge said:

 

 

This has lasted the miserable total of 4 years. 

95% of my underwear is older. 

 

Now the kids are bathing in grimy brown water which for once isn't of their filthy doing. 

 

Can someone please suggest one that I can swap in that will outlive the next ice age please. 

 

 

Was it commissioned properly? Has it been checked / inspected annually / bi-annually?

 

I don’t abuse my underpants so they last a long time. Expansion vessels get fitted and forgotten about, until they die….

[Nickfromwales]

18 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Which reminds me ... I was going to put a pressure guage below mine so I could at least keep an eye on the pressure of the water side.

Do it! I’ve never installed one that doesn’t have a fudge on the ‘pressure reduced’ side. Even if the mains pressure is low, you never know if network pressure will go higher or peak at over 5/6 bar overnight or midday. 

[Iceverge]

19 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Was it commissioned properly? Has it been checked / inspected annually / bi-annually?

 

 

I don't know if you remember. 

 

The plumbers originally installed it horizontally and didn't install the multibloc at all. 

 

I got them to "fix" it but the water system still wasn't satisfactory. After a year I took it all apart and put it all back together with Hep2O. 

 

I've been doing my own servicing. G3 doesn't seem to exist in Ireland. 

 

Annually I've. 

 

1. Cleaned the strainer in the multibloc.

2. Tested the over pressure valve. 

3. Tested the over temp valve. 

4. Got a bicycle pump and topped the accumulator back up to 3 bar. 

 

Have I missed anything?

 

 

 

Anyhou I've bought a cheap Chinese stainless steel unit from eBay. Will see how it fairs when it turns up. 

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, Iceverge said:

4. Got a bicycle pump and topped the accumulator back up to 3 bar. 

 

Have I missed anything?

What’s the static cold mains pressure? 
 

1 hour ago, Iceverge said:

I don't know if you remember. 

👀. lol. 

[Iceverge]

52 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

What’s the static cold mains pressure? 

 

It's a bore hole pump. Think it's about 3-4bar, will check . 

[Nickfromwales]

Probably wants the pre charge set at around 2.0 then with a pressure reducing valve set to 3.5.

 

The water has to stretch the bladder and compress the pre charge gas / air, needs a bit of headroom to do so. 
 

https://pumpexpress.co.uk/explaining-cold-water-accumulators/#:~:text=The air pressure inside an,bar below the mains pressure.

 

Scroll through that for a bit more info