by heathcote123 »
Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:35 am
Thanks for all the replies. It's been a while as I have been discovering the joys of cutting down the jungle in the backyard, and painting, painting, and more painting.
Getting a bit more settled now, so time to focus on this issue and stop having to boil 10 kettles of water for a bath. Had a look at it tonight.
Firstly good news, the hot water pressure just needed on of the twiddly things moved *all* the way. Plenty of pressure now.
Now the bad news.
Firstly, there is no lid on the hot water cylinder (yes I mistakenly refferred to it as a boiler). Just a 6" diameter hole where it looks like something should be.
Next, If I stick my hand in it, theres a solid wall about 6" beneath the surface. I can't see it, but scraping it, it does indeed appear to be a calcium-like deposit. Thing is its completely solid - from side to side of the cylinder. Is there something in there that this has formed on top of, or is the cylinder just absolutely solid with the stuff?
I've tried to drain it by turning a little screw thing that disables the feed activated by the ballcock (excuse my technical terms please :) ), but after leaving the hot taps running for a while its not going down - I think another pipe also feeds it (looks like the 'in' and 'out' pipes are linked?- (maybe I need to post a pic), so think I need to figure out how to the turn the water off entirely.
I'll have a go over the weekend at getting it drained and go from there.
If it is completely solid with the stuff, is it salvagable or am I looking at a new cylinder? - saw some stuff called fernox ds3 which looks suitably noxious, but can it work miracles?