Draining the Plumbing System
When you are carrying out repairs or alterations to your plumbing or wet central heating system, you will usually have to drain water from the parts you are working on.
Here’s what you’ll have to do.
Virtually all major and many minor plumbing operations demand the partial or total drainage of either the domestic hot or cold water supply. If you have a “wet” central heating system you’ll also have to drain that before carrying out repairs or alterations. Before attempting this – long before the need for drainage arises, in fact-you should make yourself thoroughly familiar with the design and layout of these systems in your home. Here are some questions to which you should know the answers:
• Are all cold water draw-off points supplied direct from the rising main, or are the bathroom cold taps and the WC cistern supplied with water from a main cold water storage cistern (probably situated in the roof space)?
• Is the hot water system “direct” or “indirect”.
• If the system is direct, is the domestic hot water heated solely by means of an electric immersion heater, solely by means of a domestic boiler (gas, oil or solid fuel), or are both means of heating available?
• If hot water is provided solely by means of an immersion heater, is there a drain-valve at the base of the cold supply pipe from the storage cistern to the hot water cylinder?
• If hot water is provided by means of a boiler, is there a drain-valve on the pipework beside the boiler, or possibly incorporated into the boiler itself?
• If the system is indirect, is it a conventional indirect system (indicated by the presence of a small feed-and-expansion tank in the roof space, feeding the primary circuit) or is it a self-priming indirect system such as the Primatic?
• Is there a “wet” central heating system provided in conjunction with hot water supply?
• Where is the main stop-valve, and is there any other stop-valves or gate-valves fitted into distribution or circulating pipes in the system?
• Are there drain-valves at low points in the central heating circuit?
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