Remote Diagnosis

[Onoff]

More images. In the loft one big and one small tank.

 

She's said:

 

"Hot water is coming out of overflow into the driveway whenever I turn on the boiler"

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by Onoff

[ProDave]

More about them here http://www.gasboilerforums.com/primatic.html

 

The point is you can;t tell just by looking at the cylinder, it has the same number of ports in about the same place. Look in the loft at the number of header tanks, that will tell you the type of cylinder. 

[Onoff]

11 minutes ago, ProDave said:

More about them here http://www.gasboilerforums.com/primatic.html

 

The point is you can;t tell just by looking at the cylinder, it has the same number of ports in about the same place. Look in the loft at the number of header tanks, that will tell you the type of cylinder. 

 

She says only one small tank in the loft.

 

So according to your link it could still be a Fortic type?

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by Onoff

[Onoff]

From reading Dave's link then this could be simply replaced by an indirect tank?

[ProDave]

If it is a primatic tank, there is probably nothing "wrong" with it.  Just drain the whole system, give it a good flush through, and re fill it. That will re generate the air bubble that keeps the heating water and hot water separate and it will probably return to normal service.

 

If you do want to swap the tank there will be some re plumbing to separate the heating circuit and put it on it's own new header tank.

[Onoff]

17 minutes ago, ProDave said:

If it is a primatic tank, there is probably nothing "wrong" with it.  Just drain the whole system, give it a good flush through, and re fill it. That will re generate the air bubble that keeps the heating water and hot water separate and it will probably return to normal service.

 

If you do want to swap the tank there will be some re plumbing to separate the heating circuit and put it on it's own new header tank.

 

Cheers.

 

As I understand it there's two tanks in the loft, one big, one small and both with ball cocks feeding them.

 

Isn't that small tank already the header tank?

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Were primatic tanks ever made with sprayed foam insulation?  IIRC they stopped making them in the late 1970's, but I can't remember when tanks first started being supplied with green sprayed foam.  I thought the green foam was a much later thing, introduced to show that the insulation was CFC free.

 

With a separate header it sounds to me like it's a normal indirect cylinder.

[PeterW]

Coil is fecked I think or at least one of the valves has gone. The boiler on and water from the overflow doesn’t make sense unless there is some weird setup with valves though. 

 

I would tell her to budget a grand and get it swapped out. 

[ProDave]

Yes 2 header tanks and it's an indirect tank, and rusty hot water means leaking coil. Time for a new tank.

[Onoff]

55 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Yes 2 header tanks and it's an indirect tank, and rusty hot water means leaking coil. Time for a new tank.

 

No, one header tank. 

[ProDave]

2 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

No, one header tank. 

You need to determine that for sure,  see your previous answer a few posts up.

 

Can you sketch out the plumbing, in particular the heating circuit to see if the heating circuit has a pipe (or 2) going up to a header tank. If it does not, then it is getting it's water from a primatic tank.

[Jeremy Harris]

7 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

Cheers.

 

As I understand it there's two tanks in the loft, one big, one small and both with ball cocks feeding them.

 

Isn't that small tank already the header tank?

 

 

 

This indicates to me that it's a conventional indirect cylinder, topped up from the small header tank, with the other, larger, tank being the gravity cold water tank.