Totally OT: Water tank weirdness

From	Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>
Newsgroups	aus.cars, aus.electronics
Subject	Totally OT: Water tank weirdness
Date	2022-05-17 12:37 +1000
Message-ID	<jegg3pF5dflU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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The problem started with the appearance of dust and grit falling into 
the bath. It was not at all obvious where it was coming from. With 
showers being preferred, the bath is little used, so this wasn't coming 
from the taps. I climbed into the roof space above the bathroom, but 
nothing was apparently amiss.

In the roof space there is an old tank, which I surmise was once the hot 
water tank. It has long been unused, and was presumably left there 
because it would be difficult to remove, and there was no compelling 
reason to do so. There is also some pipework that I had originally 
presumed was unused.

It's very dusty up there, and I have to wear a proper filter mask. As I 
was returning the mask to the garage area below the living area of the 
house, where I keep such things, I heard a noise coming from the hot 
water tank. Turned out there was a leak from where the heating element 
goes in. Given that the tank is under pressure, the leak was making a 
hissing noise.

Now, some years ago, I tried to trace the origin of the water-hammer 
noise, searching under the house without success.

My visit to the roof space made me wonder whether that pipe was really 
unused. Indeed it appears to have been sealed off. I now think that one 
part of it goes down the wall into the garage area to join the hot water 
output, with the other part heading down to the laundry. And where it 
goes down the wall is close to where the dust and grit is falling into 
the bath.

All of which makes me think that the dust and grit in the bath and the 
leak in the hot water tank are not unrelated. My theory is that this is 
the pipe that makes the water-hammer noise, given that it's not well 
attached to the framework, and that the tank leak changed the hammer 
pattern enough for the pipe to disturb different dust/grit in the roof 
space which is then able to enter the bathroom through a small gap in 
the ceiling trim.

On one level, this seems rather far-fetched. Yet the coincidence in 
timing is remarkable.

Sylvia.

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Thread

Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2022-05-17 12:37 +1000
  Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Noddy <me@home.com> - 2022-05-17 12:53 +1000
    Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2022-05-17 13:39 +1000
      Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Noddy <me@home.com> - 2022-05-17 20:30 +1000
    Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Xeno <xenolith@optusnet.com.au> - 2022-05-17 15:57 +1000
    Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2022-05-18 11:24 +1000
  Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Daryl <dwalford@westpine.com.au> - 2022-05-17 14:10 +1000
  Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2022-05-18 11:08 +1000
    Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2022-05-18 12:46 +1000
      Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness Peter Jason <pj@jostle.com> - 2022-05-18 13:43 +1000
      Re: Totally OT: Water tank weirdness "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2022-05-18 14:32 +1000

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