Unvented Hot Water Cylinders

[shaunbhoy]

Am currently in a bit of a dispute with manufacturers over said item. It was fitted 8 years ago and has a 10-year warranty. Recently noticed that the top of this "sealed unit" had developed a wide opening and there was a slight leak as a consequence.
Now I was led to believe that these types of cylinder can be lethal if too much pressure builds up, and that as a result they have a number of inbuilt safety features to prevent any dangerous build-up of pressure. However, my contention is that these features have patently failed to work in my case.
The manufacturer have tried playing the old "Ah but you don't have paperwork proving you have had it serviced every year since it was fitted, so we are not liable".
As it happens it has been serviced, although not every year. It was brand new FFS!!! However, I do not remember any pressure stress testing during the servicing, so my point is that it would not have spotted this weakness in any event. Furthermore, I doubt that stance would hold up in court if a few of these were to explode and cause injury or death. "Not our problem the house collapsed when the tank exploded like a cluster bomb M'lud. The service window was 3 weeks out of date!!"
Anyone got any experience of similar? And before anyone asks, this has nothing much to do with bleeding the chuffing radiators.

[Xenophon]

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilmsloooooooooooooooo oooowwww..........

[sasguru]

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilmsloooooooooooooooo oooowwww..........

<<<<cannned laughter >>>>

[DiscoStu]

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilmsloooooooooooooooo oooowwww..........

<<Canned laughter>>

[shaunbhoy]

So................nothing too telling thus far.
Plus ca change!!

[sasguru]

Well whatever you do get a professional in and don't try any analysis or DIY with your pea brain. We don't want to hear of you on the Darwin Awards.

[doodab]

Well whatever you do don't get a professional in. We want to hear of you on the Darwin Awards.

FTFY

[DimPrawn]

DWLLWGAS?

Hth

[conned tractor]

I am not that aware of your type of system, but having googled its type I'm struggling to find what part of it is actually servicable.

Its a tank with cold in, hot out to taps, a pressure vessel (probably with built in mechanical pressure release for safety), a coil as in an a normal indirect cylinder (heat exchange to rad), a pump for the rads and an immersion heater. Not a huge amount of difference between this and a normal cylinder except it's under pressure.


But then I found this:

In an unvented system you will be storing a large volume of hot water under pressure. For reasons of safety such systems must be installed by qualified technicians with relevant experience, CITB training and G3 certification.
As a precaution, pressure-relief pipework and valves must be installed to protect against unsafe pressure build-up within the vessel which could result in explosion.
Your Local Authority (Building Control Dept) will need to be advised of your intention to install an unvented system.
For reasons of safety, your system will require annual maintenance to ensure safety equipment is functioning correctly (BS2870).
An unvented system must be commissioned and certified by the installer.

So another load of form filling and regs (comment removed) by the looks of it which then leads to get outs by the installing company if something goes wrong and you haven't got it serviced. (Then again if it was 100 bar or so I don't think you would want to touch it, but assuming it isn't pumped into the system then mains water is only generally around a couple or three bar). Screwed by the legislation by the looks of it but I wouldn't leave it there, how often did you get a qualified plumber in check if it still existed and wasn't pissing out steam?

[TheFaQQer]

Am currently in a bit of a dispute with manufacturers over said item. It was fitted 8 years ago and has a 10-year warranty. Recently noticed that the top of this "sealed unit" had developed a wide opening and there was a slight leak as a consequence.
Now I was led to believe that these types of cylinder can be lethal if too much pressure builds up, and that as a result they have a number of inbuilt safety features to prevent any dangerous build-up of pressure. However, my contention is that these features have patently failed to work in my case.
The manufacturer have tried playing the old "Ah but you don't have paperwork proving you have had it serviced every year since it was fitted, so we are not liable".
As it happens it has been serviced, although not every year. It was brand new FFS!!! However, I do not remember any pressure stress testing during the servicing, so my point is that it would not have spotted this weakness in any event. Furthermore, I doubt that stance would hold up in court if a few of these were to explode and cause injury or death. "Not our problem the house collapsed when the tank exploded like a cluster bomb M'lud. The service window was 3 weeks out of date!!"
Anyone got any experience of similar? And before anyone asks, this has nothing much to do with bleeding the chuffing radiators.

Your contract is with the people that you bought it from - did you buy it directly from the manufacturers, or somewhere else?

Since you have had it for less than the warranty period, they should rectify the fault or replace it if necessary. If the manufacturer is refusing to do this, get two or three quotes to get the work done. Write to them as a final piece of courtesy and tell them that if they do not fix it, you will have the work done and then seek to recover the costs through the courts. Give them a deadline to respond / get the work started.

If they still do nothing, get the work done and then file a small claims court action against the manufacturer - dead easy to do online.

Best of luck (and have you tried bleeding the radiators?)