Due to age and scale, this school’s hot water system had slowed down to a trickle.

How we discovered the leak

This school building, dating from the 1970s, suffered a small water leak (known as a ‘pinhole’ leak) from a section of galvanised steel pipe. Since leaks of this type in plain pipe sections usually indicate a problem with the installation, Aster Maintenance investigated in order to establish the root cause. This was found to be an under-sized hot water secondary (return) pump which had insufficient power to return the water to the calorifier.

​Hot water system repairs

Our remit was to replace the pipework along the affected section so as to take the flow back up to its designed level, which also restored the secondary hot water ‘loop’. This not only meant an improved flow on the system, it also meant that the water in the loop would be hotter and a potential source of Legionella bacteria was removed. We also replaced the under-sized pump with a correctly-sized one.

These two relatively simple changes transformed the performance and effectiveness of the hot water system in the affected area. The client was very satisfied with the results achieved, which were carried out during a half-term holiday.