Tips on General installations and repairs of Hot water system
By Metropolitan Plumbing|August 19, 2009
In this article, we provide some of the tips necessary for the installation of hot water systems. This article would be useful for the plumbers and the house-owner himself in order to know the efficient installation and repair procedure of hot water systems. First we give general tips for this purpose.
- When installing instantaneous hot water units Bosch continuous flow electronic units are the preferred brand by us. However, you can have a look for a good brand.
- All Hot Water Heaters must be commissioned setting gas pressures.
- Override the time clock on electric hot water jobs to confirm that you have a full circuit on the hot water service and the heater is heating.
- On the pulse time clock heaters, ask the tenant or owner to ring AGL or other company they are with to have their heater heated.
- When inspecting burst hot water services, the burst unit must be drained. This is for safety reasons, and ensures less time for installation of new hot water system.
- Serial numbers are to be recorded when all hot water systems, stoves and room heaters are installed for future reference.
- While installing, remove all brass from all hot water system the nipples which can be reused on the new ones.
- For repairing, you need to change both the thermostat and elements on heaters mainly.
- For gas hot water heaters, thermocouple must be replaced and pilot cleaned.
- On CCB’s for mains pressure gas hot water services where the pilot and thermocouple have previously been done, you need to change the unitrol only. Do not change thermocouple again as this only creates a 3rd CCB.
- When changing elements on Electric hot water system, replace the element while the tank is still full of water. Do not drain the tank and stand by waiting for the tank to empty. The thermostat must also be changed when replacing the element.
- When changing elements on real estate, for example the plumber must drain via the element. Do not wait for the drain clock to drain the heater.
- On sheath element, sheath is always to be replaced. However the hot water service may split when loosening.
- For electric hot water system If you come across a burnt out mounting block and wires in electric hot water heaters, this implies that the wires were not tightly screwed into the mounting block.
- Replace complete ball valve on hot water heaters and cisterns – no rubber changeovers.
- On instantaneous hot water services, replace water section kit if water is lukewarm – do not adjust the slide or adjust the summer/winter controls.
- For Bosch Hydro hot water unit, you have to check the on off switches clearly. Check the tempering and pressure reduction valve is installed, also the cold feed to the temp valve is plumbed up after the pressure reduction valve. E.g. hot is 500kpa and cold feed is 500kpa on the temp valve.
- However for Rheem integrity units, when you get CCB’s for fluctuating water check, you need to make sure first the customer is not opening the tap fully on the hot side. Secondly, we need to remove a shower restrictor in the shower rose. Finally, we need to install a 500 kps pressure limiting valve as the pressure is too high.
- On mains pressure hot water system when attending a CCB for the pilot going out – if the pilot is going out after gas pressures are ok and we had cleaned the pilot and the thermocouple changed then it is a Unitrol problem. In that case, you need to contact the real estate and advise them the Unitrol needs replacing.
