Hot water storage tank All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[solberg]

Hi,
I have a thermostatic mixer shower quite close to the hot water tank, hot water is from the top of the tank with 22mm pipe. Cold is taken from the cold feed to the tank in 22mm, so pressure is nicley balanced.
The problem is the mixer valve is being heated by the hot water rising from the tank and is causing the o rings in the valve to perish quicker than expected.

Is there any valve I can put in between the main feed off the tank to the shower unti to prevent the hot water getting to the shower when its turned off I am guessing that it would be some sort of pressure valve that would remain closed when the shower is turned off but would open when turned on.

[rosebery]

"The problem is the mixer valve is being heated by the hot water rising from the tank and is causing the o rings in the valve to perish quicker than expected."

Can't say I've heard of that before. What temperature is your tank stat set to? Normally you'd expect 65 degrees. If its higher than that I'd turn it down because a) your water is too hot and b) you are burning up far to much energy keeping it that way.

If you wanted to isolate the mixer valve totally from the hot source I guess you could fit a blending valve that would take in both hot and cold and regulate the temperature of the hot supply whilst your cold feed to the shower would remain in plavce as well. Factory setting for these is normally iro 43 degrees. Blending valves are not cheap though - expect to pay iro £ 65 for a half decent one.

HTH

Cheers