Two weeks ago I noticed a cylinder union was leaking on our vented copper domestic HW cylinder. I booked a plumber to come, and (supposedly) he is due to arrive this afternoon. The long wait was essentially them clearing their new year break backlog.
About one week ago I noticed that the leak appeared to be growing so with 7 days still to go for the plumber's visit I decided to see if tightening the nut might help compress the washer a bit better. That just made things worse, as the whole fibre washer just crumbled to dust and a lot of the water stored in the cylinder came out, so I drained the cylinder completely and have left it like that for the last 7 days waiting for the plumber's visit today. The main reason I called a plumber here, rather than fixing this myself (as I usually do) is mainly laziness and getting older. I didn't really think of it as a tricky job.
However yesterday, thinking it may be useful for the plumber to arrive prepared, I sent the attached photo of the union, and got a message back this morning implying that there was no way the system could be re-commissioned without installing a new cylinder.
Is that really so? While I do believe that to fix it "well", so that it could last another 10 years, then indeed, replacing the cylinder would be right and proper.
But I had (perhaps naively) believed that [since we only need to make the system work for the next three months (or so) until it can be entirely replaced by a new system altogether], there must surely be some way that either "hemp and boss white" or sufficient PTFE tape could be used to bodge the system just for long enough to get us to March...
And furthermore, I had presumed that there may even be a non-bodgey way of solving it, such as completely disassembling that connection and reaching through the immersion heater hole to insert a new/replacement flange from the inside which would allow a new waster to appear on the outside?
I was hoping that having a plumber do the thinking (rather than me) would save me some time and provide some useful employment locally.
But now I'm not so sure I've just waited 14 days for someone to visit, yet am about to be visited by a professional who doesn't think they can fix something I think I could fix as a DIYer.
That leaves me confused as to why I bothered to call a plumber!
To be clear, I appreciate that I'm perhaps asking the plumber to do something a bit bodgey temporary fix, but only because that's (to me) an acceptable/tolerable way of getting us DHW up to March. I really don't want to have to pay for a new copper tank and all the associated fitting if it will only be there fore two months when it gets replaced again! But I do also appreciate that no plumber should have to do any work he or she is not happy with leaving behind as their calling card!
Ideas for creative approaches I could suggest to the plumber if/when he arrives this afternoon?
