Geyser question

Y

yellowyeti

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
180
Reaction score
42
Hi
I stay in an apartment block of 20 units 5 unit a side and 2 floors.
The water to the geysers is a single line running one to the next.
I had a shower put in and an offshoot run for the cold water on that geyser water line just before it entered the geyser.
The other day I was replacing a valve on the cold water side of the shower.because of having no way to turn of the water to my unit alone I had to turn off the entire building supply while I did the replacement.

Any way all of a sudden this rush of hot water started spurting out as my alongside neighbour had opened there hot water tap is that normal?Is it because of the water been turned off that this hot water was able to escape from the ass end of the geyser?Or is this a sign of a problem with that geyser and if so what problem would cause that?

Thx for any info
 
Is this not as simple as a mixer tap feeding hot water back through the cold pipes when the pressure is off?
 
Mine use to do this, bad installation. You run the risk of running your geyser empty and burning out the element should the water be cut off to your premises for whatever reason and you decided to open the 'cold' tap in kitchen for example.
Something like this, I remember the plumber telling me 10 years ago when I had to replace my geyser.

Im not rocket scientist on this subject but I would install a 1 way valve on your incoming line to the geyser so that water cannot flow out of the inlet. If that makes sense
 
Our complex was similar, there were no non-return valves installed on the geysers so whenever the water was cutoff we would have hot water coming out our cold water taps since we were at the lowest point in the whole complex.
 
yellowyeti said:
Hi
I stay in an apartment block of 20 units 5 unit a side and 2 floors.
The water to the geysers is a single line running one to the next.
I had a shower put in and an offshoot run for the cold water on that geyser water line just before it entered the geyser.
The other day I was replacing a valve on the cold water side of the shower.because of having no way to turn of the water to my unit alone I had to turn off the entire building supply while I did the replacement.

Any way all of a sudden this rush of hot water started spurting out as my alongside neighbour had opened there hot water tap is that normal?Is it because of the water been turned off that this hot water was able to escape from the ass end of the geyser?Or is this a sign of a problem with that geyser and if so what problem would cause that?

Thx for any info
Click to expand...
simple as everyone said no non return valve installed on geysers.
i imagine this happens whenever water is cut off - people end up inadvertently emptying their geysers
 
Yup, exactly as you guys have quoted here
Thats what happened to me

Now you risk your geyser running dry and your element burning out. But i have heard some geysers have protection against this. But still, it isnt a chance I wanna take
 
we have a 1 way valve so that the geyser doesnt dump all the water out if theres no cold water.
 
My new geyser from 10 years ago doesnt have the 1 way valve.
Plumber said it isnt needed as the pipes are above the geyser and therefore gravity blah blah

Well he is wrong, I have noticed hot water in my cold water tap when the incoming pressure is low.

I guess I better have a one way installed soon
 
Pineapple Smurf said:
My new geyser from 10 years ago doesnt have the 1 way valve.
Plumber said it isnt needed as the pipes are above the geyser and therefore gravity blah blah

Well he is wrong, I have noticed hot water in my cold water tap when the incoming pressure is low.

I guess I better have a one way installed soon
Click to expand...
Now is the perfect weather in Cape Town to muck about with pipes.

Reminds me of when in our first house the connection between the pipe and the mixer hose sprung a leak on a cold winter morning.

Thats when I realised it would have been nice to have a shutoff valve right there. Started installing them.

On my current house, same issue, every time I have to replace a mixer cartridge I install a cold and hot water shut off valve.
 
rh1 said:
On my current house, same issue, every time I have to replace a mixer cartridge I install a cold and hot water shut off valve.
Click to expand...
lol i do the same - annoys me that this isn't a standard.
like anything there is an issue have to shut off the whole house (except the toilet that's the only thing that seems to come with a semi decent shut off valve standard)
 
I would think a non-return valve would be a built in feature.Thx guys good to know.
 
yellowyeti said:
I would think a non-return valve would be a built in feature.Thx guys good to know.
Click to expand...
Most people don't think about putting a NRV on the cold water supply line. Being on a farm it is common to have supply problems and having hot water running backwards and out the cold tap is not uncommon and I have changed many an element that burned out because the geyser was empty. Every house I have moved into I have put a NRV on the cold water supply to the geyser and the main water supply to the house.
 
I may be mistaken, (I'm not a plumber but had the same issues in the block I'm in) but a NRV on the main incoming is all that you require.
This is what I fitted, one with a strainer.
 
I asume non return valve need to be before the presure regulator, as cold water expand when heater up.
NRT will prevent excessive presure to be released by presure regulator.
 
Pineapple Smurf said:
Mine use to do this, bad installation. You run the risk of running your geyser empty and burning out the element should the water be cut off to your premises for whatever reason and you decided to open the 'cold' tap in kitchen for example.
Something like this, I remember the plumber telling me 10 years ago when I had to replace my geyser.

Im not rocket scientist on this subject but I would install a 1 way valve on your incoming line to the geyser so that water cannot flow out of the inlet. If that makes sense
Click to expand...
One way valve on the incoming line to a geyser is apparently not to code. Had them on my solar geysers to prevent the pumps running dry when the water flowed back. When my plumber came to change my one geyser (as it had burst), he informed me that the one way valves would have to be removed from all of my geysers as it was not allowed... sigh.

edit: Judging by the amount of people in this forum that have installed them, i can only assume that my plumber was misinformed or that their was something else wrong with the installation of my valves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X