Water leakage very severe

[Deleted member 97605]

Hi all, I need some advice from people here to help me repair a serious leak and water damage. I have a well that supplies a water tank, this then seems to supply other tanks alongside this one for other water outlets. It looks like one tank fills the hot water tank, down below, another one runs the cold taps to taps in the house.
The central heating system has a hot open end pipe going into what I will call an overflow for now, into one of the holding tanks.
I am losing about a gallon of water a day right now, coming through the kitchen roof and obviously ruining the ceiling and joists which will have to be fixed afterwards but not major as the water leakage is more serious.
It happens when I turn on my central heating system to use the oil boiler to heat all the rads in the house.
It is like the hot water is returning to this outlet pipe into one of the tanks and is over-flowing the tank.
I have to strip away a lot of stuff to get to all the tanks as it appears the plastic tanks were put in a lot of years back, but all seem good condition and I cannot see any problems with joins or plumbing together of them so far.
I tried turning down the water pump pressure from the boiler for the rads by one notch, this has slowed the amount of water spilling over, so now I am down to about 1/2 gallon per 24 hours, but still no use.

I turn off the heating system, and no water leaks, so somehow the heating system pump is allowing water to flow back into a tank and over-flow it, does this sound like what is happening? I still have to get to the last tank as there are 4 in total, and three so far are all tight and no leaks,

I can see wetness on the 4th one at the bottom level, behind the rafter/joist but getting to it is severe and may involve me having to remove the other three to get access which is not going to be fun. I have started stripping away all the insulation and coverings to get access.
I can take images of the tanks and set-up if this will make it easier for someone to offer me help?

 

[Best]

Has any recent work been carried out on the heating? Like new circulating pumps, zone valves or any pipe alterations?
Some systems are designed wrong and need a decent heating engineer to take a look at it all.
But you might have a blocked pipe.
The heating supply tank (feed & expansion tank) should only have a small amount of water in it to allow for it to expand. The overflow pipe should be capable of taking enough water away, so something is wrong with that also

 

[Deleted member 97605]

Has any recent work been carried out on the heating? Like new circulating pumps, zone valves or any pipe alterations?
Some systems are designed wrong and need a decent heating engineer to take a look at it all.
But you might have a blocked pipe.
The heating supply tank (feed & expansion tank) should only have a small amount of water in it to allow for it to expand. The overflow pipe should be capable of taking enough water away, so something is wrong with that also

I am actually working right now to see what is happening. The day before I moved in a boiler engineer came in, serviced the boiler and re-charged the system as no water was reaching the upstairs rads and I could not bleed them as only air. I am actually annoyed now as I have managed to get to see more of the tank at the rear of these tanks, and I can see a soaken wet tank at the bottom, which means there is a pipe feeding this tank to the other tank and it has given way. If you saw the crawl space I have you would not belive it. I am having to use feel to get to it and am still trying to find a way to get to it with-out removing the other tanks.
The water is not coming over the tank lid like I thought, which means the part I cannot get to is where the water is pouring out it seems.
Hence I think the lower down connection that I cannot see or get to is the culprit.

 

[Deleted member 97605]

Has any recent work been carried out on the heating? Like new circulating pumps, zone valves or any pipe alterations?
Some systems are designed wrong and need a decent heating engineer to take a look at it all.
But you might have a blocked pipe.
The heating supply tank (feed & expansion tank) should only have a small amount of water in it to allow for it to expand. The overflow pipe should be capable of taking enough water away, so something is wrong with that also

I will make this easier for all. I will take images of the entire set-up, this then lets you see what I have in front of me this end and it will hopefully make it easier for help. All I know so far, is when I turn off the central heating, the water stops pouring through the ceiling, so something with the pressure of the heating is causing an overflow, but the tank it flows into is almost empty as I can now see only the top. I am still trying to get to the tank bottom as it seems to be soaken down below, leading me to think a pipe has come adrift or lost the sealing capacity of said pipe when I finally get to it. This makes me believe the overflow or expansion for the heating is not filling up the tank, so it is not pouring out through my ceiling. I pray it is one single pipe causing this leak. or a split in expansion tank, where the water level drops enough not to leak any more.

 

[Chalked]

Sounds like a split coil on the cylinder

 

[Deleted member 97605]

I am slowly getting to the tanks up in this little loft. I have removed all the wooden panels, jackets and insulation, but as you can see the leak is what appears to be in a connecting pipe, but I have to work my way in from the back and above to get any nearer. I poked the camera through but no space for even my head down there.
I am making a little wooden walkway above and behind the tanks as this is the only way I can get near the tank that is leaking. the water damage is more severe than I thought as the walls here are all two feet thick solid welsh stone and slate, so it has gone down the other side and now penetrated behind the tiles in my bathroom, again, will fix when water leak is sorted. The images will help, but I now need to only get on top of these units to finally see the pipe that appears to be doing all this damage, or at least let you all see what is wrong.

 

[Best]

All a bit strange to me.
Firstly, you have a sealed heating system, so if the water leak was coming from the heating then the pressure would drop to zero on the gauge at red vessel. Do have that filling loop tested though to see that it is not passing water when valve supposed to be off and also have the pressure relief valve at vessel checked for operation. I assume the boiler service engineer checked and recharged the air in the red vessel?
The tanks in your photos look very poorly done and should have proper fully supported base and vent pipe should rise much higher above top of tank before bending down.
For testing for where leak is, use a decent sized telescopic mirror and strong torch to view leak.

 

[Deleted member 97605]

I assume the boiler service engineer checked and recharged the air in the red vessel?
The tanks in your photos look very poorly done and should have proper fully supported base and vent pipe should rise much higher above top of tank before bending down.
For testing for where leak is, use a decent sized telescopic mirror and strong torch to view leak.

I have no option but to gain full access now as the leaking tank is the one at the rear and in the smallest space.

The red tank on the boiler was recharged as this is how the water was able to get to the upstairs radiators. The boiler was looked at, other than this, I can say no more on what kind of service was actually carried out.
Later today, I will get a full on view of all tanks as I have to take in a bigger ladder to now get further into loft so I can get my body above the tanks. Every rad has been fitted to only internal walls with the pipes just pushed through each room from centre room, instead of chasing pipes around walls to mount them on external walls and under windows.

I have turned off the main water now and shut down the heating system, as this is too dangerous to keep running now until I fix it as too many electric sockets are under this entire wall and ceiling for this amount of water to be only inches away from it.

 

[Deleted member 97605]

I have finally striped away the set-up and now you can see what I have in front of me this end. The last tank, No.5 is the one with a serious leak as I can now see. Access is still tight but it has to be fixed. How do I drain the water in all the tanks? I need to turn off water at mains which is done. do I then simply scoop then out till empty?
The tank number 5 has two pipes also coming out, as in where will the water go in these or do I have to fix the tank in place without removing these?

I also have to question why so many little tanks connected to each other, and still I have almost zero water pressure at the cold taps.

 

[Chester]

Sorry to say but thats a mess. depending what no 5 feeds just drain enough out to work on it.

Personally i would look at changing that lot altogether and properly supporting it.