# Hot water overflow.



## packard (20 Oct 2009)

Hi, when my boiler is turned on and the house gets nice and warm the overflow pipes start running water at a nice pace.Haven't noticed it before.Also i've notice the pressure on my solar panel system has dropped to 0 bar, could the two be related or is there a nasty bug in the system


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## DavyJones (20 Oct 2009)

unlikely to be related. Whomever fitted your solar will need to repressurise it. A specail pump is needed for it.

The overflow go be a thermostat fault at boiler. best to get it checked out.


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## packard (21 Oct 2009)

Thanks Davyjones


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## villa 1 (21 Oct 2009)

If it's the overflow pipes from your storage tanks it may be the following presuming you have a open vented heating system installed:

1. If the feed and expansion cistern is overflowing it may be pump over(silent pitch) caused by the cental heating pump taking a short cut and sending water up into the cistern. It may also be caused by too high a level of standing water in your expansion cistern. When your heating system expands this high water level may result in water overflowing.
Get this problem fixed immediately as fresh/oxygeneted water will lead to sludging up and corrosion of steel radiators.

2. If water is overflowing from your main cold water storage cistern there may be a leak in the coil/heat exchanger in your hot water storage cylinder. Heating system water will leak directly into your hot water supply and fing it's way up into your cold water cicstern and subsequently overflow. This heating water is not good for one's health or body!

If your system is sealed this overflow water may be discharging from a pressure relief valve. In this case there is either too much standing pressure in the system, the expansion vessel has failed or as Davy says the boiler thermostat may be faulty


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## packard (21 Oct 2009)

Thanks for the reply villa1, it's an open vented system. When i go home tonight i'll turn on the heating and see what goes on.

(If the feed and expansion cistern is overflowing it may be pump over(silent pitch) caused by the cental heating pump taking a short cut and sending water up into the cistern. It may also be caused by too high a level of standing water in your expansion cistern. When your heating system expands this high water level may result in water overflowing.)

If this turns out to be the problem is it a huge job to fix it? Can't understand why it's causing problems now, it's worked perfect for months


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## villa 1 (21 Oct 2009)

It should'nt be a huge problem to fix. Have a look at the attic plumbing first and see what's happening up there. If you have zones run them all together, then shut some of them down and see what happens to the water levels in the system. How old is the system and can you call back the contractor who installed it.


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## packard (21 Oct 2009)

Hi Villa1, turned out to be something simple. went into the attic this evening and looked into the small tank, the ballcock was set to high and the water level was just lipping off the bottom of the overflow pipe, so when the heating came on and there was some expansion there was an immediate overflow, so i took a jugfull out and bent the bar of the ball cock and the water level ended up being about an inch under the overflow hole, so it seems to have sorted the problem. Thanks for the help. Hopefully thats the end of the problem, seems to be grand so far.


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## villa 1 (22 Oct 2009)

In relation to the level of water in your Feed and expansion cistern, there should only need to be approx. 100-150mm depth of water in this cistern.
Happy heating!!


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