Tundish leaking water.... advice sought

[Jonna]

Hi All,

First post...

I bought a new Bellway house last year and have had a few probs with it since moving in. After around 4 months (December 2010) I noticed damp in the kitchen ceiling below the cylinder. On inspection the water (cold) appeared to be leaking from the tundish, which tuned out to be the result of a frozen blow-off waste pipe outside. The plumber stopped the leak (no idea what work was carried out), and added lagging and a cover to the external pipe.

On Sunday, I noticed water dripping from the ceiling again in the kitchen... same issue as before, water appears to have been leaking from the tundish. No blockage in the external blow-off drain however, in fact there are signs that a large amount of water has been draining outside. Plumber came, but suggested he'd need to take the ceiling out in the kitchen to locate a fault in the blow-off drain - he advised he'd have to come back later.

Came in tonight and noticed more water in the ceiling and more outside. There's also evidence that water has been overflowing from the tundish...

I'm waiting for a call back from Bellway regarding the plumber, but was hoping you guys could clarify...

1. Why the tundish? This thing doesn't appear to be capable of managing a heavy flow of water, and when a heavy flow (i suspect) does ensue, water pours out, down the outside of the pipe onto my kitchen ceiling.

2. Any ideas what would cause a constant dripping of cold water through the tundish? (faulty blow-off valve perhaps, or too high pressure in the system?)

Thanks. :cry_smile:

 

[Jonna]

Meant to say, I have an unvented system in place... an OSO indirect 210 cyclinder with an aquasystem pressurised cylinder above....

 

[stani]

is the tundish from an unvented hot water cylinder, and a photo would be good.

 

[mikegas]

It could be a few things that is causing the safety device to activate but the tundish should be capable of taking the flow can you post any pics?

 

[GrahamM]

An unvented system should not be spilling water from tundish if properly designed/installed by a competent fitter. This immediately sound alarm bells. These system are dangerous if incorrectly installed. My advice would be switch it off and have a qualified Engineer with his unvented qualification look at it.

 

[Jonna]

Images below - thanks for the prompt replies fellas.

There are three feeds running to the tundish (two visible in the pic, lower hot, upper appears cold) and a third running to the pressurised vessel above the cylinder.

Ignore the white band below the openings on the tundish - this is just a folded piece of bog roll I taped on temporarily last night to determine if the tundish itself is spilling water. This was soaked when I got in from work tonight, so I assume it 'is' spilling water.

Looking through the opening on the tundish, water often appears to be dripping slowly, though not always... that said, I'm convinced that on occassions, large quantities of water are p!ssing out of this thing.

As mentioned earlier, I'm still waiting on another visit from the plumber in the next day or so...

 

[Jonna]

Should also add, it's been operating fine since December last year... though it's entirely possible that water has been running through the tundish unnoticed.

 

[Jonna]

It could be a few things that is causing the safety device to activate but the tundish should be capable of taking the flow can you post any pics?

Hmm... perhaps the pics will help. I simply can't see how this thing could possibly cope with a large flow of water?

 

[stani]

can you show a photo of the 3rd pipe into the tundish

 

[Puddle]

Thanks for pics

The discharge pipework and tundish is undersized,maybe leaking out from tundish as upper rim scaled as been leaking through a while,need to get a qualified plumber in to trace which safety valve is leaking,why,correct problem ,check installation ok and run correct sized discharge pipework

imho