Does your hot water system valve leak?
You would want to know the hidden reason behind this valve leak.
It could be that the valve needs replacement. But before replacing it, there is something you need to check first.
Stay tuned!
Why does the valve leak?
One of our clients called us about a leaking valve on their hot water system. It is meant to leak, but not all the time like in this case. The valve was attached to a hose that was attached to the pressure relief from the solar hot water system. And that hose went all the way to the pool. So the previous owner thought it was a great idea that when the water overflowed, it could fill up the pool.
The trouble is, it was very dangerous, because if that hose was ever kicked, or malfunction, or if someone put a rock over it, the pressure wouldn’t be able to get released from the solar. You can’t control the sun so it would keep steaming the water, and you would have a bomb on your roof.
The pressure relief valve is releasing 700 kpa pressure, and it would be very easy for us to just replace the leaking valve and see how it went. But since the hills have greater pressure than normal, we thought we’d check water pressure first.
And we’re glad we did.
Because the pressure was way over 1000 kpa while the recommended standard in Australia is 500 kpa. So we suggested to reduce the pressure of the whole house to normal first and see if it stopped the leaking. If not, then we would know for sure it was the valve that needed replacement.
So we installed the Pressure Limiting Valve and got the pressure back to normal. The maximum pressure of the whole house won’t go over 5o0 kpa. And the leak stopped. It was great that we didn’t have to replace the valve. And now it’s all protected.
If you live up the hills with a great pressure, make sure you call us or local plumber to check for you that your house doesn’t have an excessive water pressure.
It is an easy fix. Don’t delay. It would be so much trouble if one of your pipes burst and starts to flood your house. We don’t want that. So make sure you check this!
