Expansion Tanks

Expansion Tanks – quick review

What Are Expansion Tanks? These little heroes of the plumbing world are attached to water heaters to help handle the increased pressure that occurs when water is heated and expands. They are essential for maintaining the longevity and efficiency of a home’s water system.

Why Are They Necessary? Imagine the strain on pipes and water heaters if the expanding (heated) water had nowhere to go. Not a pretty picture. Expansion tanks provide a safe, pressure-regulated space for this extra water, thereby preventing potential damage to the system.

Securely Installed Tanks: It’s important that these tanks are properly installed and securely fastened, often vertically, on the cold-water line leading to the water heater. A poorly installed tank can stress the piping, which can be an important point when evaluating a property.

poorly secure expansion tank

Quick Functionality Check: Here’s a quick tip: a working expansion tank should sound solid at the top and hollow at the bottom (think of a drum). If it sounds solid all over, it may be full of water and not functioning correctly. This can be a good first-line check for any properties you’re showing.

Proper Sizing: The size of the expansion tank should match the size of the water heater and the home’s incoming water pressure. To size an expansion tank for a water heater, calculate the expansion volume by multiplying the water heater’s capacity (in gallons) by the temperature increase (usually 40°F) and dividing by the system pressure. Choose an expansion tank with a capacity equal to or greater than the calculated expansion volume. Consulting a professional or referring to local plumbing codes is advisable for accurate sizing.

Signs of a Failing Expansion Tank: Look out for signs of increased water pressure in the home, a water heater that seems to be constantly running, or a leaking pressure relief valve. Any of these could indicate a problem with the expansion tank.

By understanding the importance and basic workings of expansion tanks, you can more effectively inform your buyers, ask more informed questions during home inspections, and request necessary repairs. Remember, an educated agent is an effective agent!

 Morning. I wanna show you something I see fail a lot. It is something a lot of people don’t necessarily even understand what it does. But I’m gonna start in a different location. I’m gonna start here actually at the main shutoff for the house, brand new house main shut off. And then you got a pressure regulator installed here.

And. In most municipalities, or at least in a lot of ’em, they’re putting a pressure regulator on, or they’ve got they’ve got like a, a a backflow preventer there at the meter. But what that does is it creates a closed system, right? So that you can, you can move water into the house, right? But it can’t flow back towards the city or the county or, or whatever.

And so, When they started doing that, they started making us put expansion tanks on top of the water heater. That’s this guy right here, and expansion tank. The purpose of this is say everybody takes a shower, it drain all the hot water outta the water heater. It fills up full of cold water, and then it heats to 120 degrees, or in this case, 135 degrees.

A lot of pressure builds up, right? It the, as the water expands, it’s gotta have somewhere to go. And since it’s in that closed system, it can’t go anywhere. So we put this on here, expansion tank. There’s a bladder in here, an air bladder, and a shrader valve on the top of this. All right? And so there’s air in here and it will absorb that pressure change.

And then when you open up a valve, it’ll push all that water back out of it. And then it’ll cycle again and, and do that. These fail a lot. They really do. When, when we’re doing our inspections, we

we’re looking for that change in sound. We know down here at the bottom that we’ve got a little bit of water, but as we get to the top, it should be that teeny kind of sound that tells us that it’s air in there. If it sounds kinda like that all the way through, Then we know that the bladder’s probably failed.

You can double check that it’s failed by pushing in on the Schrader valve. A lot of times they leak, so be careful doing that cuz you’ll start a leak that you can’t necessarily fix right away. So I’d say every year, maybe even more, come down and check ’em. I’d say one out of every. Six has probably failed, maybe even more than that.

Probably, you know, a quarter of the ones we check have failed. And so when they fail, a couple different things can happen. One is you’ll get, your TMP valve will start to absorb that pressure and it will leak slowly. And so you’ll get slow leaks here and you’ll think the problems here when it’s actually here.

And then when these tanks fail, usually the bladder fails in there, then they’ll start leaking into the tank, and then you’ll start to get rust and they’ll rust through and they’ll leak. And plus it’s all got all that kind of nastiness inside there at that point. And so that’s kinda leaching into your water as well.

So just wanted to show what an expansion tank was and, and, and, and kind of what to look for, what to check. And like I said, do it about every six months. If you got any questions or need me, come take a look at it for you. Feel free to reach out, give us a call, whatever works. All right, thanks.

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