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When Udam woke up to get ready for the day he didn’t need a coffee to wake him, as when he jumped into the shower he was unpleasantly awoken by the freezing cold water coming out of the shower. Udam went outside to have a look at the Hot Water Heater (HWH) and found it was leaking profusely and causing water to flood his backyard.
Udam quickly ran to the water mains and turned this off, consequently shutting off water to his entire house. Once the water stopped running he looked up phone numbers for a plumber and found positive reviews for O’Shea Plumbing. He contacted Lawrie, who advised him to shut off the duo valve (HWH water isolation valve). Lawrie said so long as the duo valve was in good working order and shut off the water properly, Udam could then safely turn back on the water to the rest of his property.
Lawrie organised an O’Shea Plumber to investigate the HWH issue. Adam (an O’Shea Plumber) arrived shortly afterwards. After a thorough investigation, Adam had to deliver the unfortunate news that Udam’s existing HWH had split and would need a replacement ASAP.
Adam gave Udam options of replacing the HWH with the same brand storage units, alternative brands and he also gave options to install a continuous flow HWH.
The benefit of a continuous flow HWH is that they are far more efficient and you won’t run out of hot water (provided you have a supply of power and gas and you keep the heater serviced). The only time that this unit will use gas is when the user turns on a hot tap which allows water to flow through said unit, starting up and heating the water to a set temperature of 60-degrees Celsius. The 60-degree water is connected to a pipe leading to the kitchen and laundry, and then a high-performance tempering valve set at 50-degrees Celsius is installed to reduce the water temperature to the bathrooms. The continuous flow HWH’s counterpart is a storage HWH, which has a pilot light that stays on permanently. These units need to keep the temperature of water in the storage cylinder above 60-degrees to ward off Legionnaires’ disease, in order to do this the burner needs to fire up regularly to keep the water above this temperature especially when the temperature drops over the cooler nights.
Udam liked the idea of changing to a continuous flow HWH. He was also fully aware that this unit required an increased capacity of gas to function, meaning a short section of larger pipe would need to be laid to allow correct gas consumption.
Adam ordered the material to be sent from the Plumber Supplies Co-op in Cheltenham and organised Daniel our trusted electrician to fit an external powerpoint. He then proceeded to carry out pressure testing the gas installation for gas leaks.
Later that day the job was all completed, within a short time of Udam’s initial phone call his water supply was back up and running with a brand new Rinnai 26 Infinity. He could now enjoy a great reliable, energy-efficient hot water heater.
Whether it’s a heater tank leak or an entire hot water heater that needs repair, O’Shea is committed to providing hot water maintenance Melbourne wide. Contact us today for a fast quote on (03) 9888 2887.