Expansion vessels on amzn.to/35dF1m4
After a week of dishwasher, washing machine, boiler, and other appliances afflicted by various malfunctions and above all 5 degree showers, I decided to remedy this tedious situation also because I became a popularizer of the miraculous properties of cold showers, which can make you a better and winning person, it seems to me disrespectful towards those who to solve problems, perhaps even of an existential type, prefer to use a drill, saw, screwdriver, hammer, perhaps computer and rattle off the rosary appealing to all the saints of the calendar passing also to the blessed if the first courses were not enough.
So I slipped into the first brico that I crossed on my way, I took the expansion tank for the autoclave that to the eye seemed more similar to the one that, certainly no longer working perfectly, is the cause of all these other aforementioned malfunctions, regardless too much to the technical specifications, on the other hand to go back to replace it or with the exact technical specifications, it would not have made a difference.
The pressure that a regular household appliance operator guarantees is between about 2 and 4 bars and in buildings with autoclave tanks the pressure regulator is the expansion tank.
An autoclave system is essentially composed of a cistern where the water from the aqueduct flows, a pump that takes the water from the cistern, an expansion tank where the water taken from the pump is pressurized, a pressure switch that controls the pump according to at the minimum and maximum pressure reached by the water and two non-return valves, one located before and one after the pump which serve respectively to prevent the water from returning to the tank and to withdraw the water from the autocave when aqueduct is insufficient or nil in the absence of water.
In this way the autoclave system has the dual task of maintaining the ideal water flow rate and water reserve proportional to the size of the tank.
All the components of the autoclave system are related to each other in terms of size and power and on the whole they must satisfy the users to be served.
To choose the size and the type of expansion vessel, it is mainly necessary to refer to the power and capacity of the pump.
To replace an expansion tank, just unscrew the old one counterclockwise and screw the new one clockwise again, taking care before proceeding to drain all the system water after disconnecting the pump from the current, covering with plastic electrical components potentially exposed to any splashes of water, having closed all the general taps of both the aqueduct and the cistern, having garnished the thread with a little hemp to avoid leaks and having checked the vacuum pressure of the expansion which must be the same as that reported on the technical specifications.
If the new expansion tank is identical to the old one, it will probably be sufficient to reopen all the general cocks, reconnect the pump to the electrical network and test that everything is working correctly, otherwise the pressure switch intervention interval will have to be re-calibrated.
Usually the pressure switch looks like a plastic box attached to the pump, once the cover is removed, two screws are accessed which are used to adjust the pump connection and disconnection pressure, turning the screw on the left clockwise increases both the pressure minimum than maximum and vice versa while turning the screw clockwise to the right raises only the maximum pressure and vice versa, but for safety it is better to check the specifications of your pressure switch.
In my case I calibrated the pressure switch to turn on the pump just before 2 bar and turn it off at about 2.5 bar, so that with a fully open tap the pump works for about 10 seconds and remains disconnected for about 20 seconds, if the pump never switches off, the intervention threshold must be lowered.
During the assembly operations it is necessary to pay attention to incrustations which, detaching themselves, can create problems with the non-return valves or clog the nozzles on the taps.
If the malfunction of the expansion tank depends on the breaking of the lung, i.e. the internal rubber bag, it is possible for some models to find a compatible spare part and replace it only, saving a few tens of euros and above all polluting much less ...
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