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plumbing devis hep needed


Keni

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Hello folks, been a while since I managed to get to the site. We have just received a devis for a small problem that occured during the Christmas Holidays. Our gas water heater blew up (naturally - on the coldest day of the year), then I could hear water running and discovered the expansion tank had a hole in it. The thing we cannot figure out from the devis is that although we understand the bit about installing a chauffe eau gaz LM10PU (we think that is a standard gas water heater), the expansion tank we believe is the vase ouvert inox 22 litres. The mystery is the next bit - raccordement vase ouvert chauffage et raccords et calorifuge + mise antigel dans le circuit. - Charge is 400 euros.We have no circuit so why do we need antifreeze? The water is heated off the Rossiere thingy that you guys helped us with last year - it does heat the water to the tank, as we found out and the plumber says it should also heat a load of radiators! We have none.The final bit is the charge for 30 litres of antigel - 90.00 euros. So are we being ripped off - he is a local plumber. Any help as to what we are being charged for would be good.

Thanks, Keni

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...Our gas water heater blew up (naturally - on the

coldest day of the year),...

You don't think it might have frozen up on account of not having any antigel, do you?

... the expansion tank we believe is the vase ouvert inox 22

litres.

Agreed

The mystery is the next bit - raccordement vase ouvert

chauffage et raccords et calorifuge + mise antigel dans le circuit. -

Sounds like connections to the tank and connections to the water heating circuit + adding antifreeze

We have no circuit so why do we need antifreeze?

You must have, surely?  How exactly does it heat the stored water?

The final bit is the charge for 30 litres of antigel - 90.00

euros.

3 E/litre Sounds cheap enough/litre, but also sounds like a lot of antigel,  Dave/Olive will know better than I. I'm just about to test, flush the swarf out of my system and add antigel so I'll be interested in the reply. Why can't you just use automobile antige, I wonder?

Good luck with it anyway

p

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Thank you for that, this is Keni here again. The gas water heater is the old type above sink LM Leblanc. It is an instantaneous water heater with no tank attached. The water tank is heated from the water of the oil-fired Rosiere cuisiniere. The gas water heater is completely separate to the cuisiniere. The water from the cuisiniere is heated and sent up a a tank (fully lagged) which has an expansion tank attached (also lagged). There are no radiators whatsoever, although the cuisiniere is capable of running them. Do you know why there would be antifreeze needed therefore? The water heater draws the water directly from the main and as I say, has no tank attached.

Hope this is clearer,

Keni

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hi

         will  have a go but not sure of your system!!!!! the only help i can give you from the above info is you say you have 2 tanks,, one being a top up or expantion tank ,this makes me think it`s not a direct system as you think it is, so the need for antifreeze in the primery system

         dave

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OK, my turn again.....

So the kitchen water heater is what in UK terms would be called a multipoint: it's plumbed into the cold main and the output goes to the hot tap. It's a grown-up version of what I grew up with, when it was called an 'Ascot' and it ran or dribbled according to the temperature you selected. At a dribble, it was actually near enough to boiling to make tea with! However I digress.......

So the cuisiniere sits in the kitchen and glowers quietly. Heats up a tank full of domestic hot water (DHW) Could heat rads but doesn't. Also in the mix is another expansion tank....

Right, this expansion tank. Are we talking a small square plastic thing, open-topped and sporting an attractive ball valve and an overflow? Or is it a round(ish) red thing with a pipe coming out of the top? in which case, let's call it not a 'tank' but a vessel - or better yet, 'un vase'.

If it's a vase, is it connected directly to the tank, or to either the flow or return between the cuisinier and the tank? Are there two groupe de securities?

If the answers to the last para are "the latter" and "yes", then the DHW is heated by a coil in the tank, the water in the coil is quite separate from the mains-fed contents of the tank. Does it need antigel? Well if any of the pipework is ever likely to be exposed to sub-zero temps then, 'yes'. Certainly if the cuisinier is cast iron and the piping is copper then it needs anticorrosion stuff.

How are we doing?

If the answers are "the former and "no, just the one" , then my guess is that mains-fed water fills the entire system, and it circulates by gravity feed between the cuisinier and the DHW tank. In which case - Er NO, the antigel will come out of the taps and 90E will go down the drain (literally!)

However, my guess is option one, esp. if your plumber said it could heat rads: you certainly can't put mains water through them!

best wishes,

p

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