Megaflo cylinder leaking from immersion

[bunglecat77]

Hoping someone who knows more about plumbing can help me.

We've got an unvented cylinder (Megaflo) that we've had for seven years. For the first four years it was brilliant. Since then it's sprung a small leak six times... our plumber has replaced the immersion panel twice, and we've called out the manufacturer (now owned by Baxi) three times - coughing up their enormous call-out fee. They diagnosed the same problem as our own plumber and replaced the immersion panel, each time saying we must have had a faulty part, and each time saying they'd never seen one go wrong like this or heard of one going wrong more than once...

It started leaking for the sixth time last week, and I'm at the end of my tether. Baxi's customer service say they won't come and repair it again as apparently it's out of warranty – even though they quote a 25-year lifetime for the cylinder.

I suspect a fault with the cylinder, but could it be something else? Why did it work fine for the first four years? We never even use the immersion heater, so why's it leaking from there?

I wonder if we're going to have to get a new cylinder, but if it's faulty I feel as though the manufacturer should at least contribute to the £700+ cost.

And meanwhile we're using Huggies bed pads to catch the drips!

All ideas and suggestions welcome – we're stumped.

Not much help from me either. They are usually very reliable and a leaking joint is not to be expected. I'd expect them mostly to be still sound when it is ripped out and thrown in the skip after many years use. Maybe aggressive water quality might affect it, but I believe it will be built of stainless steel, hence the long warranty.

I would start to suspect a misshapen or damaged mating surface on the cylinder, since it has leaked with several replacement parts, all of them presumably using the manufacturers correct seal.

I think you are into "not of merchantable quality" here. I know that expensive articles are expected to have a longer life than cheap ones. Maybe try the brains of consumer protection experts, not so much the diyers and builders.

Thank you PigletJohn. I agree – something's not right with it, and since it's outfoxed both our plumber and their engineer I think I'll see if I can put a rocket under their customer service team today.

I am having a similar issue with my mega flow, it has been fine for more than 10myears and now I have this problem. I noticed if I rebuild airgap the leak stops for about 3 to 4 weeks and it comes back again. Plumber has already replaced the immersion heater. I know the easiest fix is to replace the whole tank but I believe something is increasing the pressure to a level that causes the leak. I told my plumber to replace the T&P valve but he seems to think this is not the cause. While I get it fix I keep rebuilding the airgap, it only takes 10mmins.

Is your water running down from the underside of the panel on the bottom part of the tank...where the immersion is hidden? Ours is doing this after 2 years and we've just had our plumber confirm that the tanks have problems with the rubber seals around the immersions so we'll be onto Megaflo in the morning as I seems it could be an inherent problem!