Leaking cold water expansion valve.

This cold water expansion valve was constantly discharging and creating a violent shudder when discharging.

The discharge pipe for the Cold Water Expansion Valve (CWEV) is the one above the red bucket. A CWEV is designed to discharge cold water from the bottom of a high pressure Hot Water Cylinder (HWC), preventing the HWC from over pressurising. Whilst a drip is ok they should not have a constant flow. In this case the discharge was also going up hill. This keeps the discharge pipe full and over time has caused the valve to fail. I remedied this by diverting the outlet pipe to the relief pipe on a gradient to allow waste water to drain away.

If you think you have a problem with valves around your HWC and are not sure, give me a call. Meeting your plumbing needs.