Hot Water coming from Cold Tap All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[Don Dadda]

Hi All

Yesterday I received a call from the wife stating that there is hot water coming from the cold tap in both the ground floor kitchen and the upstairs bath and sink. Earlier that day my daughter discribed a sound from the loft of 'like a bath running' that lasted quite a while.

When checking the airing cupboard I notice that a bag of loo rolls had also fallen down and was resting on wires connected to different parts of the storage tank. These are connected to a wiring block that is now hanging off the wall

Throughout the evening the water began to cool but I am confused to say the least. It is an 80s built house and has, as far as I can tell, the original boiler and heating system.

1 What could cause hot water to come from every cold tap in the house?
2 What might cause the running bath sound upstatirs?
3 To get the radiators to work we need both the heating and hot water turned on. Is this normal?

I am not very technical but help would be appreciated. Thanks

[jondeau]

You need to be careful here.......although there are other causes it does sound as though whatever gadget is heating your water is overheating it.

This will cause very hot water to rise up the expansion pipe from the cylinder and start to heat up the storage tank in the loft. This tank supplies cold water to your cylinder and to your bathroom cold taps.

This is potentially a very dangerous situation as plastic loft storage tanks have been known to collapse due to the heat and release scalding water down through the ceiling.

I would ensure that whatever is heating your water is switched off at the mains switch, and you get this checked out as soon as possible.


JD.