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the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:21 pm
by haze
warning - story/rant :P

So i had a hot water system with what i believe is a 300l tank located inside the roof and solar panels on top. I was told it was a Smalls ?system. She sprung a leak and messed up my ceilings to a couple rooms. It popped one morning after a shower and there was water streaming out the downlights. That was a stressful morning ill tell ya! SHittttt gotta drain 300l out before it ruins all me ceilings. The thing was, i knew it was a ticking time bomb up there but i just wanted to wait till i got a new roof before i replaced it. Bugga :(

anyways heres the damage. Im trying to save it as best i can. crap thing was that we have that shit blow in insulation in the roof and it had absorbed the water and made it a PITA to clean up.
a6.jpg


So ive got a new HWS now. And the old one was just in the way up there. Like right at the manhole and you have to climb over it. gotta come out. Only benefit is getting that copper tank :)

There it is. POS

a1.jpg


No way im gonna get that out, too big. Start cutting the shell off. and pipes.

a2.jpg


Fast forward an hour of messing around in my horrible roof. Ive been in 100 roofs, mines the worst for sure. hey this may actually come out.

a3.jpg


ooh so close. Gonna have to to bash the sides of the tank in a bit to get it out. Didnt want to but i was so over it by this point.

a4.jpg

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:30 pm
by haze
heres where it split. pretty small but gushed out at a decent rate

a5.jpg



and me tank

a7.jpg


I will be building a bubbler in future and i dont know how this will fit into plans yet, but it will somehow. any ideas? Do yas reckon this would have been lead soldered?

Cheers for listening to me rant. Thought it might be interesting to someone :) I know that my neighbor has the same tank in their roof and my sister does as well. Saying that though.. I dont think ill be doing this again!

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 12:09 am
by Andy
300L hey... reckon she will b big enough? 8-}

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 12:49 am
by haze
Yeh i wish :D I think my still would be hitting the roof sitting on this thing anyways

she might be lead soldered. which i guess would mean cutting it up and re soldering so i guess i could cut it down to a 100lt if i had to. Or maybe it could be a water recirc tank. liquor storage. rain water tank. dunno yet

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 1:06 am
by Andy
haze wrote:Yeh i wish :D I think my still would be hitting the roof sitting on this thing anyways

she might be lead soldered. which i guess would mean cutting it up and re soldering so i guess i could cut it down to a 100lt if i had to. Or maybe it could be a water recirc tank. liquor storage. rain water tank. dunno yet


if ur gonna use it as a recirc tank, storage, or rain water, i think people on here will trake you down, slap you and steal it hahaha

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:20 pm
by Lowndsey
Hope you were careful mate they used to use asbestos is the insulation of some of those old hws

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:20 pm
by Zak Griffin
I've been thinking of a way to use my 250L copper HWS, and I think it's gunna have to be for a coolant recirc system... Hadn't even thought of that.

I'll cut down one of my 180L ones for a boiler, and maybe cut the third one down into a thumper...

So much copper.

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:39 pm
by Yummyrum
Zak Griffin wrote:I've been thinking of a way to use my 250L copper HWS, and I think it's gunna have to be for a coolant recirc system... Hadn't even thought of that.

I'll cut down one of my 180L ones for a boiler, and maybe cut the third one down into a thumper...

So much copper.


Bragga :teasing-neener: :teasing-neener: :teasing-neener:


Haze , that's one happy ending to a shitful beginning . :D

Love the way it just fitted between the roof trusses :handgestures-thumbupleft: and the thoughtful way you removed the battern :-B

When our house was relocated many years ago,the dogdy arse house mover worked out a cunning way to remove our old one as he decided it wasn't needed since we had an electric one elsewhere.......he just stole it while the house was cut in half :violence-smack: wasn't too upset then but recently thought Hmmmmmm :think: I could have used that

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:40 pm
by haze
Lowndsey wrote:Hope you were careful mate they used to use asbestos is the insulation of some of those old hws


This is a good point to anyone doing this. I dont know if it was asbestos but i treated it like it was. P2 class dust mask minimum. The stuff inside mine looked exactly like my blow in roof insulation.

atm Im thinking ill chop it down to 150lt's and see if i can solder it back together again for a boiler

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 7:44 pm
by BernardLuna
haze wrote:warning - story/rant :P

So i had a hot water system with what i believe is a 300l tank located inside the roof and solar panels on top. I was told it was a Smalls ?system. She sprung a leak and messed up my ceilings to a couple rooms. It popped one morning after a shower and there was water streaming out the downlights. That was a stressful morning ill tell ya! SHittttt gotta drain 300l out before it ruins all me ceilings. The thing was, i knew it was a ticking time bomb up there but i just wanted to wait till i got a new roof before i replaced it. Bugga :(

anyways heres the damage. Im trying to save it as best i can. crap thing was that we have that shit blow in insulation in the roof and it had absorbed the water and made it a PITA to clean up.
a6.jpg


So ive got a new HWS now. And the old one was just in the way up there. Like right at the manhole and you have to climb over it. gotta come out. Only benefit is getting that copper tank :)

There it is. POS

a1.jpg


No way im gonna get that out, too big. Start cutting the shell off. and pipes.

a2.jpg


Fast forward an hour of messing around in my horrible roof. Ive been in 100 roofs, mines the worst for sure. hey this may actually come out.

a3.jpg


ooh so close. Gonna have to to bash the sides of the tank in a bit to get it out. Didnt want to but i was so over it by this point.

a4.jpg

Your hot water tank is in pretty bad condition..I will now check mine. I am really worried..

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 1:00 pm
by tickle
I'm not 100 percent how you guys do solar down under...BUT, if I were to guess...if they used a copper tank, it's directly heated and tied into your domestic hot water system, which would make it unlikely to have been lead soldered, like I said, around here anyway....I think I would keep it horizontal and use it as a boiler, under a bubbler...but I am biased....I like big boilers and big bubblers. Maybe I am compensating for something, eh? :laughing-rolling:

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 10:30 pm
by Yummyrum
These Aussie hot water tanks just ooze sex appeal......its the rounded top that beckons the addition of a tappered copper section followed by a 90 deg into another tapered section finally ending in a nice long coiled condenser bathing in a cool bath of replenished water.....I can taste the Schotch now..



BTW tickle ...they used these as hot water tanks in a lot of Aussie homes years ago. Some had connections to wet back fire places...this was AFAIK well before the idea of solar heating caught on .
Many of these now lie dorment in cielings having been "bypassed " years ago .

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:09 am
by haze
is there any way to know for sure if its lead?

any yeh they are quite common. i know 2 other ppl with dormant units in their roof

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:29 am
by Brendan
haze wrote:is there any way to know for sure if its lead?


You can buy lead test kits, like this one Bunnings - Lead Test Kit

Re: the adventures of a hot water tank

PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:10 am
by haze
:handgestures-thumbupleft:

ill post results