You might have seen the term “Water Hammer” or this might be the first time you have seen it and wonder what is it?

Water hammer is defined as: “a knocking noise in a water pipe that occurs when a tap is turned off briskly” below you can see a visual representation of this.

 

As you can see once you turn the tap off suddenly the water doesn’t have anywhere to go but backwards which causes the thumping noise and echo throughout the house. This can lead to leaks where water meters are placed or in the worst case scenario it can even damage the boiler. This has serious repercussions as Ideal have now said the warranty will be void if the boiler damage is due to water hammer. It won’t be long until more boiler manufacturers start to follow the same action.

 

Fear not there is a cost effective way to prevent water hammer and that is using a shock arrestor. This is a chamber that is attached to the system using a T-Piece and gives the water some extra room to flow back into preventing water hammer from damaging the boiler or causing any leaks.

 

We stock the zilmet shock arrestor at only £29.88 inc VAT and can be seen here.

 

 

The zilmet shock arrestor has been specifically designed to combat the problem of the expansion of water in the cold supply pipe (Water Hammer) in combi boiler installations that are fitted in close proximity to a water meter. What the zilmet shock arrestor does is give the cold water supply some extra space to expand into and stopping it from entering the boiler and voiding the warranty

If you want to fully understand how the zilmet shock arrestor just imagine an expansion vessel that’s used in a copper cylinder. The chamber has a membrane that when extra pressure comes back through the system will expand into the empty chamber. The advantage of this styled shock arrestor over a piston one is that the membrane will last longer opposed to a piston which has rubber seals that can slowly degrade.

 

Not only is the zilmet shock arrestor cost effective and will help protect has your entire had heating system but it also come with a 2 year warranty. It is suitable for both new and retro fit installations.