Thermal Expansion Water Tanks Service

Warranties and Guarantees | Licensed | Over 42 Years of Experience

Warranties and Guarantees
Licensed
Over 42 Years of Experience

Maintain Your Water Pressure in Your Pipes

How It Works

When water is heated, its density decreases and volume expands. Because water is not compressible, the extra volume created by expansion needs somewhere to go. During no-flow periods in a system, pressure reducing valves, backflow preventers, and other one-way valves are closed, thus eliminating a path for expanded water to flow back to the system supply. That is when system pressure increases, causing a number of undesirable and potentially dangerous problems.

Thermal Expansion:

- Always a consideration when you are storing heated water.

- When your street pressure is over 150psi.

- If you have a check valve in your system.

- Thermal Expansion tank – properly sized – 10psi more air than water.

What is Thermal Expansion:

It is the build up of water pressure within the plumbing system caused by the heating of the incoming cold water. Every commercial and residential plumbing system with a water heater has thermal expansion.

What causes Thermal Expansion:

As the water heater heats the incoming cold water, the water expands, building up water pressure within the system. Depending upon the size of the building, a 1 to 3 bath home can take 2-3 hours for the system pressure to build up to 150psi or more.

Example #1- A single family residence with incoming street pressure of 100psi and a regulator

set at 60psi. Thermal Expansion starts occurring and when the house pressure exceeds the street pressure, 100psi, pressure leaks backwards through the regulator to the street. House pressure will never exceed 100psi in this example.

Example #2- A single family residence with incoming street pressure of 180psi and a regulator set at 60psi. Thermal Expansion starts occurring and the plumbing system builds up and exceeds the setting of the T&P Valve/150psi because of the high street pressure. Residence has high pressure in their plumbing system and the T&P starts leaking. First thing the owner and plumber think: BAD REGULATOR!