J
jas88
Just had an unvented hot cylinder installed this morning, replacing a gravity-fed system ... now waiting for the bathroom floor and kitchen ceiling to dry out.
Apparently, the push-fit hot water connection on the bathroom sink wasn't up to the higher pressure, so it burst and flooded the house an hour after the electrician left (he connected the new cylinder's thermostat, having some difficulty, so he was left for a while after the plumber had moved on to his next job).
The cylinder change was suggested by the guy fitting a new en suite shower (17mm pipe, gravity fed, not much pressure) - who found a plumber (Gas Safe, I know - the cylinder's heated by a gas boiler) and specifically told the guy to test all the fittings to be sure they could handle the higher pressure. He said this would mean taking the side panel off the bath etc, to check all the fittings were OK.
When called back to fix the leak, I was assured the 1.5 bar air pressure test was enough, there was no need to inspect the fittings and no way to know one of them would fail an hour or two later, it's an "act of God" (as the plumber's boss put it). He reckoned the mains head is about 3 bar, but blanked me when I asked "why only test at 1.5 bar then?"
I'm no plumber - I've done some wiring, the day job's computing - but it seems to me you should test with more pressure than the expected load, not half! Is it just hindsight, there was really no way he could have known the fitting would fail later and a higher pressure test would be pointless? A quick search on here brought up mention of much higher test pressures, so I wanted to ask more specifically in this case.
Apparently, the push-fit hot water connection on the bathroom sink wasn't up to the higher pressure, so it burst and flooded the house an hour after the electrician left (he connected the new cylinder's thermostat, having some difficulty, so he was left for a while after the plumber had moved on to his next job).
The cylinder change was suggested by the guy fitting a new en suite shower (17mm pipe, gravity fed, not much pressure) - who found a plumber (Gas Safe, I know - the cylinder's heated by a gas boiler) and specifically told the guy to test all the fittings to be sure they could handle the higher pressure. He said this would mean taking the side panel off the bath etc, to check all the fittings were OK.
When called back to fix the leak, I was assured the 1.5 bar air pressure test was enough, there was no need to inspect the fittings and no way to know one of them would fail an hour or two later, it's an "act of God" (as the plumber's boss put it). He reckoned the mains head is about 3 bar, but blanked me when I asked "why only test at 1.5 bar then?"
I'm no plumber - I've done some wiring, the day job's computing - but it seems to me you should test with more pressure than the expected load, not half! Is it just hindsight, there was really no way he could have known the fitting would fail later and a higher pressure test would be pointless? A quick search on here brought up mention of much higher test pressures, so I wanted to ask more specifically in this case.