Old Gravity Fed Hot Water System

Troubleshooting can be tricky.

Old gravity fed hot water system. The arrangement is a little different as the main hot water tank is under the house with a 40l cold water header tank in the roof. Those old timers were clever weren t they. Came up to house about 1 hour later and top of my water filter original was cracked and water spewing and had flooded my basement. In those days you could liken the difference between a gravity how water system and a steam system to that of an open simmering pot of water and a pressure cooker gone berserk.

It sounds like such a simple theory too. If power is a problem gravity may be your best bet for a reliable water supply. There may be places in the system where hot and cold water pass each other in the same pipe. Several weeks ago i had a problem with one of the lower frost proof hydrants.

Is it difficult to troubleshoot gravity hot water systems. I have to wait 15 20 seconds each morning for hot. And today in many parts of new zealand where access to power is uneconomic or impossible gravity fed water systems are still used to keep water flowing to troughs and homes. As the water cools at the end of the loop where the last part of the loop is not insulated it is thermo siphoned back into the hot water heater dear tim.

Long before there were complicated electric pump systems for rural properties there was gravity. Like many houses built in the mid 60s in melbourne it has gravity feed hot water which is still going. Tried to turn on it was hard then dirty water. As the header tank was leaking to the outlet pipe i asked a plumber about its replacement.

A gravity hot water system works because the heated water which is lighter rises through the loop. Hot water systems on the other hand were open to the atmosphere and relatively safe because the old timers usually limited them to a high temperature of 180 degrees f.