Having a bit of a problem with my overflow pipe spilling warm water. i have been in the attic and had a look. now, i have a hot water tank in my cupboard downstairs, when i look in the tank in the loft there seems to be water coming bk in from the pipe that goes to this tank, i can see the waves from the hole at the bottom of the tank, also causing the water to become warm. i have tried everything from turning the temp down on the tank and keeping the hot water off but it still comes bk in, also the ball shuts off the water at the right position so it's not that what is making it overflow. any one have any ideas or help me fix the problem?

Chris, August 2009

cheers il get my plumber round to have look, thanks guys

Chris, August 2009

if your smaller tank is lower than the large one the problem doesnt lie with the cylinder coil. It is more likely that Richards diagnosis is correct. Can you isolate your new mixer taps one at a time to see if the back flow stops, if you can prove it to be one of the mixers you could perhaps ask your plumber to replace it.

Bored Plumber, August 2009

i have just had new bathroom up stairs and down stairs installed and both sinks and bath have mixer taps. if it is a back feed how do i stop it?

Chris, August 2009

yeah i have 2 tanks, the smaller one is below the large one, the small one doesn't seem to fill at all the water level in it is only about 6inches. if it is the coil how much roughly is it to fix?

Chris, August 2009

you are getting a back feed from the cold water back in to the cylinder, check any mixer taps have you changed any? they oftern have a non return valve on the hot. check washer/ dish washer

richard, August 2009

Do you have 2 water tanks in your loft/attic? and is the smaller of the 2 installed higher above the larger tank, if so does the small tank keep filling via the ball valve, if so the small tank could be filling the large tank because the coil in your hot water tank(cylinder) could be fractured, never seen it before but possible.
If this is the case I would stop using the hot water for bathing or cooking etc. would love a response

Bored Plumber, August 2009