Hot Water Cylinder Installation and Repair in Birmingham

Before we quote for any hot water cylinder repair or replacement, we identify exactly what you have. The type decides which parts fit, what the regulations say and what pressure you can expect at the taps.

• Open vented cylinder: fed by gravity from a cold water storage cistern in the loft, with an open vent pipe looping back over the tank. Pressure depends on how high the tank sits above the outlets.
• Unvented cylinder: fed directly from the cold main through a pressure reducing valve, with an expansion vessel and a set of safety devices. Strong flow to showers on every floor.
• Indirect cylinder: heated by a coil carrying boiler water, usually with an immersion heater as backup.
• Direct cylinder: heated by immersion elements only, common in flats without a gas supply.
• Combination unit and thermal store: less common, but still found in some flats and older conversions.

An unvented cylinder installation gives you mains pressure hot water without a loft tank, which frees up the airing cupboard and the loft. It suits homes with good incoming mains flow and pressure, so we test the supply at the kitchen tap before recommending one. A weak main, common on long shared supplies in older terraces, can make an unvented cylinder a disappointment.

The job involves more than connecting pipes. An unvented system needs a pressure reducing valve, an expansion vessel or internal air bubble, a temperature and pressure relief valve, an expansion relief valve and a tundish with a discharge pipe run to a safe, visible termination point. The discharge route is often the hardest part to plan, especially in mid terrace houses where the cylinder sits in the middle of the building. We also check that the old loft tank and vent pipes are properly capped or removed so nothing is left half connected.

Most hot water cylinder repairs start with a symptom, and each symptom points to a short list of parts.

No hot water, but the heating works

This usually means the motorised zone valve for hot water is not opening, its actuator head has failed, or the cylinder thermostat is not calling for heat. We test each part with the programmer set to hot water only.

Water dripping from the tundish

On an unvented cylinder, a drip or trickle into the tundish is a warning. The expansion vessel may have lost its air charge, the pressure reducing valve may be letting through, or a relief valve may be worn. It should be looked at promptly rather than left.

Other faults we deal with include burnt out immersion elements, lukewarm water from a scaled coil, discoloured water from an ageing copper tank, and weeping joints around the cylinder connections.

Unvented cylinder manufacturers generally ask for an annual service, and some make it a condition of their own product terms. A vented cylinder needs less attention, but a periodic look still catches problems early.

• Checking and recharging the expansion vessel air pressure with the system isolated.
• Manually testing the temperature and pressure relief valve and the expansion relief valve.
• Inspecting the tundish and discharge pipe for blockage, scale or poor routing.
• Checking the pressure reducing valve and cleaning its strainer.
• Testing the cylinder thermostat, the high limit cut out and the immersion heater.

Birmingham's mains water comes mostly from the Elan Valley and is soft, so scale is rarely the main issue in the city itself. In parts of the Black Country and further north, harder supplies do leave lime scale on immersion elements and coils, and we look for it during the service.

A hot water cylinder replacement makes sense when the tank itself is leaking, when repeated repairs are adding up, or when your household has outgrown it. Copper cylinders often fail at the seams or around the immersion boss, and once a cylinder body weeps there is no lasting repair.

When replacing, we consider a few things with you:

• Size, based on the number of bathrooms and how many people shower back to back.
• Like for like vented, or a change to unvented if the mains supply supports it.
• Whether a combi boiler would suit better, removing the cylinder altogether.
• Better factory insulation than old spray foam or jacketed tanks.
• Whether the cylinder is ready for a heat pump or solar coil later on.

We explain the trade offs honestly. A combi is not right for a house with two bathrooms in constant use, and a cylinder is not always right for a small flat.

Every cylinder job is quoted after we know what is involved, because two jobs that sound the same can differ a great deal on site. The main things that move the price are:

• The cylinder itself: vented or unvented, capacity, and whether it has one coil or two.
• Access: an airing cupboard off a landing is easier than a cylinder boxed into a loft or a tight cupboard under the stairs.
• Pipework changes: moving from vented to unvented usually means new cold feeds, a discharge pipe run and removal of loft tanks.
• Controls: new zone valves, a cylinder thermostat or a programmer change.
• Notification: unvented work has to be notified to building control, which is part of the job.

For a repair, the deciding factor is usually which part has failed and whether it is in stock for your cylinder make. We tell you what we have found before any work goes ahead.

Unvented hot water storage is covered by Part G of the Building Regulations, and section G3 deals specifically with its safety. Because an unvented cylinder holds heated water under pressure, the regulations require that it is installed by a person competent to do the work, that the correct safety devices are fitted, and that the discharge pipe is routed so hot water can escape safely if a valve lifts.

In practice, the law expects the installer to hold a recognised unvented hot water qualification, and the installation must be notified to building control, either directly or through a competent person scheme. You should receive paperwork confirming this, and it is worth keeping for when you sell the house.

If you are having unvented work done by anyone, it is reasonable to ask how they meet the G3 requirement and how the job will be notified. Vented cylinder work is not covered by G3 in the same way, but it still needs to meet water regulations on backflow and cold feeds.

A leaking cylinder or a relief valve discharging hot water needs attention quickly, and urgent jobs are prioritised. While you wait, a few steps keep things under control:

• Switch off the immersion heater at its switch and set the boiler programmer so hot water is off.
• For an unvented cylinder, close the cold mains isolation valve feeding it, usually near the pressure reducing valve.
• For a vented cylinder, close the gate valve on the cold feed from the loft tank, or turn off the stopcock to stop the tank refilling.
• Do not touch the discharge pipe or tundish if hot water is coming out; it can scald.
• Put towels down and move anything valuable from below the airing cupboard.

If water is coming through a ceiling near light fittings, switch the lighting circuit off at the consumer unit. If you cannot find where the leak is coming from, our leak detection page explains how hidden leaks are traced.