Gravity fed system – shutting off hot water

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

Hi,

I have a very old gravity fed hot water system in my roof (no idea of model). I need to shut off the hot water to change some tap washers. How do I do this????

Shutting off the mains does no good, there is an input tap to the system, but turning this off is no good. I cannot find any tap on the output of the heater. The only thing I can think of is turning off the input tap to the heater and draining the system, but this seems like a pain.

Is this normal with an old system or is there an easier way??? Any advice is appreciated. BTW I am in AUS.

Thanks,
James

[SelgasParticipant]

James

You should have a valve somewhere on the inlet line coming from the supply tank in your roof space that allows water to flow into your cylinder – if you can locate this then all you have to do is shut that valve down and once the “head” of water has fallen the hot water will stop flowing at the tap.
If you do not have a control valve from the header tank then you can put a cork or equivalent in the outlet pipe in the header tank feeding the cylinder this will do the same thing.

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Selgas Services Ltd
Craftsman Gasfitters, Plumbers, Electrical Service Technicians

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