Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jan 11, 2013 6:16 am Hi everyone, We have been in our house for 2 months and never heard this from our rainwater tank until a few days ago when it reached 42C. Every hour or so there would be a banging/pounding sound from the water tank. It sounds like someone is banging from the inside to get out. It's a 5000L tank. We are not sure why it's been doing that and the sound can sound like construction from far away! Any idea as to what's going on? Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 2Jan 11, 2013 11:05 am Probably the little fellas air is running a bit low...drop a new air tank in and see what happens !!! On a more serious note, my first thought turns to expansion and contraction in this hot weather. Is the tank in direct sun ? What material is it constructed of ? I'm thinking along the lines of Rolph Harris's wobble board, and the sides of your tank are flexing in the heat. Am absolutely no expert in this but those thoughts sprang to mind... Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 3Jan 11, 2013 12:29 pm That's a new one! I assume the tank is near empty. What is it made of? I am assuming it is metal. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 5Jan 11, 2013 7:29 pm it is made of metal, just a run of the mill slimline 5000L tank. My partner climbed up and took a look down, only around half a meter of water in the tank. (so he guestimated) so maybe that's the thing? no rainfall for melbourne as of late! the hot weather was the initial guess of mine but it still made these noises when it was in the 20s. haven't heard anything today, what a mystery! Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 6Jan 11, 2013 7:44 pm Impossible to say from here and it is a problem that I haven't come across before but I am wondering if you have an automatic mains switching device (a Rainbank for example) and a submersible pump. Yes? No? The half metre of water does confuse things a bit but parts of Melbourne did get rain the other night. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 7Jan 12, 2013 8:41 am We have an auto mains/Rainbank/submersible system which makes no noise apart from a hum when pumping from the tank, (well, so far at least !). A really strange one ,this... Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 8Jan 12, 2013 9:08 am PADAMS2012, Some mains switching devices prime the pump with mains water everytime the pump turns on. I have no time for them, most plumbers are unaware of cheaper solutions and I started a thread about this in the ECO living forum. There must be some form of contact as the tank should not be flexing and I can only think that maybe because slimlines are narrow and IF you have a submersible pump, then perhaps the mains switching device is located very close to the side wall and something is causing the pump to move when it primes. Apart from this, I have no idea. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 9Jan 12, 2013 8:31 pm Thanks saveh20 We are going to get boutique maintenance to look at it. Another observation,is that this sound only comes up at nig time,starting around 8pm. Haven't heard anything during the day. How weird is that, which means when plumber comes it won't make that sound. We aren't handy enough to go poking around the tank! Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 10Jan 12, 2013 8:49 pm Experiment: turn off pump for a few hours to see if the loud banging noises stops as well........ Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 11Jan 12, 2013 9:00 pm I have absolutely no idea! It is obviously something moving around. How does the water get into the tank? If it goes in through a side inlet, is it meshed? The same goes for the overflow outlet, this should be meshed but I have come across some that have had the meshed removed, particularly on slimline tanks because the top meshed inlet is often at the end opposite the overflow outlet, making cleaning the mesh impossible unless the overflow pipe is taken off. You know what they say about a rat up a drainpipe although he would have to be a damn good swimmer to still be there now. Maybe it's an Anaconda? 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 12Jan 12, 2013 9:02 pm Get this, turned off pump...no more banging noise! Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 13Jan 12, 2013 9:06 pm Is it a submersible and do you have a mains water switching device? 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 15Jan 13, 2013 12:17 am Can you see the pump if you remove the top inlet and is there an automatic mains water switching device? 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 16Jan 13, 2013 3:05 pm PADAMS2012 We are going to get boutique maintenance to look at it. Boutique maintenance is not a registered business or company name. I have asked the same question 3 times now without a reply and I won't be wasting any more of my time. I have figured out the cause by the way. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 17Jan 14, 2013 9:38 pm Sorry saveh20 but my days are pretty full and I don't have much time to check back on forums. My partner says we do have an automatic main switch device.Boutique maintenance are the people that take care of problems with the house, from boutique homes. They are coming out to fix the tank. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 18Jan 14, 2013 11:12 pm I suspect that it is either a loose pipe connection between the automatic switching device and the pump that allows the pump to move a little and hit the side of the tank or else the pump is too close to the wall of the tank and the connecting pipe has some movement when an outlet is quickly opened. Re some automatic mains water switching devices priming the pump with mains water every time the pump starts, they don't all do this but a loose connection between the device and the pump could cause some movement if yours does but it is more likely to be the former scenario. It should be easy to diagnose by removing the top meshed inlet and looking at what happens when a tap is quickly turned on. Were you made aware that there are other options for fitting mains switching devices? It isn't only the cost of these things, there are also additional plumbing costs. This thread that I started quotes the applicable regulations and some options. viewtopic.php?f=35&t=61491 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: rainwater tank banging pounding noises 19Jan 15, 2013 6:15 am Thanks SaveH10, No we were not made aware of other options for fitting mains switching devices. We were just given one option for a rain water tank and since we know nothing about water tanks, we didn't know enough to ask. Thanks for your help, I will pass this on to the partner and maintenance guy when he comes. Cheers Hi, I have a steel frame house which was built 2 years ago. When you are down stairs you can hear clunking noises when someone is walking around. We were told if you… 0 3030 18 74805 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair But if it is a ground level open pit, then it is not a charged system. No surprises there. The pipes have obviously been altered and there would be a reason for this.… 3 25152 |