Lotta frozen pipes in the area, but that is not this problem.
DW flushed toilet on 2nd floor, heard loud bang like a china dish being dropped and then water dripping on floor – how come??
Had this system for over 30 years. (attached)
Had a big fire Friday night so had lots of hot water at about 180 F in the water heater pre-heat heat exchanger, forgot to close X2 when I did maintenance on the system summer of 2005.
Had just really stoked the fire 20 minutes before, so lots of hot pre-heat water available.
Hot water mixed with previously room temp water hot enough to cause toilet tank to crack .
Gotta pull a toilet out of a shed for replacement tomorrow, at least DW heard it right away and closed the shutoff before any leaks thru the floor.
Replies
Hey Junk, I'll take a crack at it......No pun intended. :-)
If that valve was left open and you had very hot water there may have been a lot of pressure at the toilet tank. When she flushed the pressure coming into the toilet tank cracked the tank. You have a lot of piping during the "normal" travel of hot water through the system which creats a pressure drop. You may even have a regulator of some sort. Not sure from the diagram. Just looking at the diagram I would feel during normal setup it wouldn't occur again.
Look at it another way, you could open the top to the toilet and dump a pot of boiling water in the tank and I would bet it wouldn't crack the tank. I would look at the pressure doing this. You basically by-passed the system straight to the turlit.
Semper Fi
"To be young and a conservative, you have no heart"
"To be old and a liberal, you have no mind"
Winston Churchill
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, 1985
Been there done that. Yep, hot water will crack a cold toilet tank.
Heat went out for 24 hours while I wasn't home during 0* cold snap about 13 yrs ago. Water in toilet tank froze, couldn't flush. Got heat going again, had to go potty. So, bright idea.... I heated some water on the gas stove and poured it into the tank. CRACK!!
Very pizzed off at myself, cause I had just previous month "rebuilt" the whole toilet guts with new valve, tank gaskets, bolts etc etc. And I still had to go potty.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Man, hate that! That's why I live in the south or warmer climate. I can almost see it in your situation due to the extreme difference in the temps, boiling water versus frozen. I am just glad I don't have to deal those issues! :-) Semper Fi
"To be young and a conservative, you have no heart"
"To be old and a liberal, you have no mind"
Winston Churchill
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, 1985
Definetely thermal expansion crack, no pressure.
68F to start, warm water mix in tank when cracked at only 106F. The tank probably was 80% or more full when crack occured.
That is wild, I wouldn't have guessed that, especially eighty percent full. It is a pain seeing you already replaced the guts!Semper Fi
"To be young and a conservative, you have no heart"
"To be old and a liberal, you have no mind"
Winston Churchill
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, 1985
Just though about this too, if you just fired up the hot water there might have gotten vapors in the line. Those vapors would have been at the toilet, when she flushed the water hammered to the extent the tank cracked.
Semper Fi
"To be young and a conservative, you have no heart"
"To be old and a liberal, you have no mind"
Winston Churchill
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, 1985
Entirely possible for the hot water to have cracked the tank. If the toilet sits in a "cool" room the dramatic temperature change could cause porcelain to crack.