How To: Water Heater Repair
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How To: Water Heater Repair
Many simple repair jobs around the house can be done safely and efficiently if you only know how the pros do it. This video shows how to troubleshoot a leaky hot water heater by testing the pressure valve.
I would like to introduce you to an unvented direct hot water cylinder. Now, some people call it a water heater, but it's an unvented hot water cylinder. One of the common things to goes wrong with the cylinder is that they tend to drip from the safety valve when the water is overheated or there's a fault with the safety valve.
One way that we can repair it is first of all we have to turn the water off and then drain the water out through the cylinder. You open the tap at the highest point and also you can let the water out though the safety valve by turning the safety valve on till the water runs out through the drainpipe. After it stops draining then you disconnect the pipe work.
First of all you undo the nut at the bottom of the safety valve using a flat edge adjustable spanner. You pull the pipe out, move it to one side, and you get a larger spanner. Again, a nice flat edge so you don't damage the surface of the valve.
And then you give it a little turn, turn it right out, take it out, check to see where the problem is. There's nothing wrong with that. If it's faulty, you'll get a new one and replace it and then you put it back in the same way as you took out the old one.
Again you tighten up with the spanner until it's tight. Put it in the right position always looking down then you move the pipe back into position. Make sure that the owlet is on properly.
Push it all of the way up into the valve. It should go up until it stops by hand before you start using your adjustable spanner to tighten up the nut. The reason why I do that is to stop the nut cross threading.
So you tighten it right up until it stops and then you give it a little extra turn just to tighten it up to hold the pipe in position. Then you turn the water back on, let the system fill up, and no water should drip out through the pipe. If you want to test it to make sure it's working just give it a little twist and some water will run out through the overflow pipe and then it should stop.
Once it stops, you know the job is safely done.