Topic: How safe are wetbacks?

How safe are wetbacks? 

Being new to our house, I am wondering how safe the wetback system is.

There is a 2004 'Peter Cocks Low Pressure'' 180l cylinder connected to a pot belly stove with a wetback. Once the stove has been running for a few hours we get into a cycle where the cylinder makes lots of noise, groans, sounds like its bubbling inside. That obviously does something to the water in the wetback pipes, as the sound of the fire changes. Then it all repeats again and again. The only way to stop it is to let the fire go down, or, run the hot taps to dump out a bunch of heated water.

The pipes that connect the stove to the cylinder leak a bit - maybe its air getting in which is causing this issue?

I researched online but the only issue I could find is where wetbacks should not be connected to pressurized cylinders. Any suggestions from other wetback users appreciated.

Re: How safe are wetbacks? 

Your water is boiling. Do you have an electric element in your too? It will be keeping your water @ 60deg which means you have only 40deg of extra heating before it boils. Turn off the electric element when you run the fire.
Provided your system is open vented it is safe, but banging etc is not especially desirable.

Re: How safe are wetbacks? 

Thanks for the tip. Turning off the element works nicely. Only two of us here, so water usage is not high. Keeping the element off has worked out fine providing we run the fire for a few hours each night, that seems to keep the cylinder topped up nicely.

I also found a comment online which advised against dumping out too much hot water too fast from the system if it was overheating (in case the cold going in could not replace it fast enough, which would cause the cylinder contents to steam and get even hotter). They said better to release some then hot water slowly - like taking a shower.