Hello to all. This is my first post, and would appreciate some advice from the experts who I know are out there. My vented hot water cylinder is between 15 and 20 years old. I would like to fit an Essex flange to it. For a couple of reasons, a Surrey flange would be too difficult. As I'm in a hard water area, I was wondering if this may be a problem. I'm thinking that maybe the inner surfaces of the cyl walls may have limescale deposits on them, which may make the surface uneven. Will the surfaces in the area where a flange have scale deposits/coating? If yes, will this cause a problem with the new flange's seal on the inside of cyl? If there may be a problem, can a scale deposit be removed easily from around the hole I make for the flange? Does anyone have experience of fitting flanges to older cylinders? Thanks for any help.
If I was doing the job I would hand you a disclaimer to sign warning that the cylinder is likely to spilt whilst carrying out this task. Not that Id be too happy working on an old cylinder in the first place. For the sake of £170 to £200 you could buy a Gledhill stainless steel cylinder which has a factory made shower draw off incorporated in it, plus the benifits of a new pre-lagged fast recovery cylinder.
And a 25 year guarantee. Slightly off course, they offer the only approved Domestic Horizontal Unvented Cylinder in the market. http://www.gledhill.net/pdf/spec 103 stainless lite.pdf
Can't see a thanks button to press, but thanks to all. Now I'm slightly confused. My cyl will either split and end in disaster, or it will be fine. I might as well give it a go anyway, and if it splits, then a s/s cyl will be on my shopping list. Just to confirm, is there likely to be scale inside my cyl? If yes, what's the best way of removing it through the small hole I will have cut for the flange? Also, why is a copper cyl likely to split?
It won't split by just installing a Essex flange as you will only be drilling a hole, once hole is done just clean off burs on inside and fit flange piece of cake.
Any lime-scale in there will depend upon how hot your cylinder has been, below a certain temp the scale wont dissolve out of the water, above that temp it will, chalk I seem to remember dissolves out at 160oF (one of the youngsters will convert that for us). If you've got it it will be difficult (but not impossible to remove). The copper gets brittle because it will have heated up and cooled down over its life a hundred thousand times so drill carefully and with a new cutting tool. I'm with Dave on this one - the Gledhill even have all the brass fittings with them as well. I've fitted these flanges but cannot guarantee success on an old cylinder.
Thanks for your reply. I've always kept it at 55 degrees, can't comment on previous owner. Will go carefully with the cutter. If it breaks, will have to fork out for the Gledhill.
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