Isolating hot water cylinder.

[amfisted]

Simple question, hopefully.

I want to replace the flexible pipe connectors to my bathroom basin and bath taps, because they're looking a bit rusty and knackered. Might fit new taps as well, depending on the condition of the threads on the old ones.

I know where the mains stop tap is, but I'm less sure about identifying a means of isolating the hot water supply, because we have a hot water cylinder; something I haven't shared a house with since about 1979. There are no isolating valves on the bathroom pipework, unfortunately.

The tank is just a handful of years old and is heated by a modern boiler, and it has two pipes on the right hand side near the bottom, both with isolating valves. One is about 12 inches above the bottom of the cylinder and is warm, which I assume makes it the hot water supply pipe, the other is about six inches below the first pipe and is cooler, which hopefully makes it the cold feed.

Is it safe to assume that the higher, warm pipe is the one that I need to isolate to turn off the hot water supply to the taps in the bathroom?

One further question: how good are the pipe freezing kits? Would there be any sense in purchasing one for only occasional use?

Thanks.

 

[kidgreen61]

If you follow the pipe that fills your hot water cylinder (usually at the bottom), there should be a valve of some sort between the cylinder and the cold water storage tank in the loft.

Turn off valve, job done

However, they are normally seized solid, so you may have to bung the out let of the loft tank to do what you want.

As plumbers, we would change the seized gate valve for a lever ball valve.

 

[Newboy]

The two pipes you have identified sound like the flow and return from the boiler (to heat the cylinder).

The cold feed you are looking for is usually on the opposite side of the cylinder and enters a couple on inches up from the base. Follow the cold feed up towards the roofspace and with luck there will be a control valve on it within the airing cupboard. If not then it's a visit to the loft to find a means of isolation on the feed from the cistern.

If no luck or the valves are inoperable then drain down the loft tank and fit isolators on all the pipework (basin & bath taps & WC cistern and cold feed to the cylinder)

 

[amfisted]

Thank you both.

The pipework was so much simpler when we had a combi boiler, but so far, having the water programmed to heat up and store just once a day seems to be saving money. Which is a big surprise to me, being one of those who was well and truly sold the advantages of combis over storage tanks and cylinders, and never expected to be converted back.