All about… hot water cylinder inspections and remedial actions
A hot water cylinder is a well-insulated tank which stores water after it’s been heated. Water is heated through your boiler system and is then stored, at a set temperature, ready for you to use whenever needed.
These need to be inspected regularly, using a borescope, and sometimes, when damaged by scale, replaced.
What is a Borescope?
A borescope is an optical tool used to view areas that would otherwise not be visible – such as inside pipework. A borescope is inserted into the item being evaluated without destroying the item of interest.
A Borescope can consist of a flexible working length with a light source on the end, to illuminate the target under inspection. It will also have an eyepiece or monitor attached to enable the user to view and capture the image.
So, what do hot water cylinder inspections involve?
To start, we isolate the cold supply and drain some water to release the pressure to enable safe working; particularly important when dealing with water cylinders situated in high-rise buildings. This is done before opening the hot water flow pipework prior to inspection if no access panels are available.
We then take the hot flow from a cylinder out, by disconnecting the pipework, to use a CCTV camera inside. Following this, we take photographs inside the hot water cylinder vessel. The purpose behind this is to check the scale levels, and to determine any remedial action or if the system requires replacement.
“Swiftclean is able to complete all scope of works regarding the maintenance or installation of hot water cylinders, regardless of size,” says Ryan one of our in-house plumbers, “I have even installed a commercial 2000L hot water cylinder- basically larger than the size of a medium office room!”
“In some situations, if the scale has only mildly built up, we would recommend a descale, but if required, we can recommend and install replacement water heaters too,” adds Ryan. Swiftclean can also do this work out of hours to minimise disruption.
If a hot water cylinder has a high level of scale, it won’t achieve high temperatures, and this could also affect the flow pressure within the system (meaning the flow rate will be reduced). If hot water temperatures aren’t achieving above 50 degrees, this could mean a higher risk of legionella bacteria building up.
“In serious cases, where scale has built up over long periods of time, it would start to corrode the material of the cylinder, which could lead to pinhole leaks,” says plumber Ryan, “and then this would require a complete replacement of the cylinder, so best to get checked regularly before it reaches this stage.”
Swiftclean plumbers recently attended a high-profile site in London, Old Bond Street to complete some overnight work, replacing two unvented hot water cylinders, this caused minimum disruption for our client. This remedial action was carried out following an inspection of the hot water cylinders during routine water monitoring.
If you’d like our help then please contact us on 0800 243 471 or info@swiftclean.co.uk
