Hello peeps.

Upstairs bathroom has instant hot water when I turn the tap on… which is great… but it’s a long way to the hot water tank which has me worried that there is a leak somewhere which is letting hot water get very close to this tap. There is no obvious sign of water pooling or dripping anywhere?

The kitchen is much closer to the hot water tank but takes a while to get hot water – this is more in line with what I would expect.

Any suggestions on how best to tackle the leak detection… I could rip up carpets etc and try to trace the pipes but is there an easier way?

if the tank is closer to your kitchen than your bathroom is it downstairs? in which case perhaps it’s thermo syphonining up the bathroom pipe from the tank so you have hot water in your pipework.

The pipe from the top of your tank should only go vertical for a few inches before going horizontal at least 450mm to prevent this thermo syphoning.

But it’s not a majkor problem, just a bit of inefficiency

is the tap ‘up’ from the hot water tank? Could just be convection curtrents warming the water in the pipe?

You’re assuming the plumber who installed the system did it in a logical way. Sometimes the water has to find its way up into the ceiling, across and down then back to the kitchen taps because the major supply favours another part of the house.

You will soon know if there’s a leak especially if it’s hot water; a smell of damp plaster followed by a deluge.

Try checking the water meter when everything is off, no washing machine or taps, then again later. They are very sensitive and will move with any water movement.

Hmmm, never heard of “thermo syphonining”. I moved into the house a few weeks ago and have little idea where all the pipes are. Looks like I’ll be under the floor and in the loft again tonight to try and figure out where they all go… and listening to the walls with a glass as I leave taps running etc etc.

I know a couple of rooms have had sinks removed so there will be some dead ended pipework beyond the bathroom, could this be causing the thermo-syphonining/convection-currents???

Pretty sure the hot water has to go past the kitchen to get to the upstairs bathroom… but I guess there could be two (or more) supplies from the hot water tank into the house… I know from my last house that 100+ year old houses tend to have bizzare pipe arrangements.

I hope it’s not a leak, and as I have said, so far there has been no evidence… and there was nothing in the home report about damp (but I know that home reports a waste of paper… as were most surveys but that’s a fight for another day!).

Any other suggestions?

the bathroom supply can go past the kitchen but still allow hot water to go all the way up to the bathroom whilst the supply (horizontal) to the kitchen stays cold. thermo syphoning works in vertical supplies. I can’t see n how you can have a leak that causes hot water to be at the bathroom tap but not be sloshing around in tons of water . it would need a constant supply of leaking hot water to maintain the temp.

I can’t see n how you can have a leak that causes hot water to be at the bathroom tap but not be sloshing around in tons of water

My thoughts too 😕

Pipe straight up from hot water tank about a meter, then along a few meters and streight up to the bathroom. Looks to be thermo-siphoning. Thanks for the advice, much better than ripping up carpets

No worries. BTW, here’s a scan from my course book on it: (clicky biggy)

its possible its an instant hot water type tap