Hot Water Cylinders East and Coastal Christchurch

Hot water cylinders in the east: quake repairs, river flats and salt air

The eastern suburbs went through the hardest ground damage of 2010 and 2011, and that history shows up behind the cylinder cupboard door. In Linwood and Burwood, many homes were repaired rather than rebuilt, and a cylinder may have been reinstated with tired straps or none at all. When we replace one here, we fix the new cylinder to the framing to G12/AS1 and fit flexible connections where the maker specifies them, because ground on the flats has a record of moving.

Woolston sits beside the Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River, which floods in heavy rain, so a cylinder standing on a garage floor there is worth raising when it is replaced. Woolston is also where LPG for parts of Christchurch is stored after being piped from Lyttelton Port, and gas water heating in the east, as elsewhere in the city, runs from bottles, a bulk tank or a piped LPG street supply. Parklands' homes from 1963 onward are often due another cylinder, and where they are still on low pressure, replacement is a natural point to look at mains pressure.

On the coast, New Brighton and Sumner add salt air to the list. Outdoor relief drains, valves in exterior cupboards and LPG fittings corrode faster near the beach, so we choose parts suited to that setting and look them over on any later visit. Sumner's hillside homes on Clifton Hill and Scarborough Head bring steep paths, which means planning how a full-size cylinder reaches the house.

Local tip: If your eastern home was repaired after the quakes, open the cylinder cupboard and confirm the cylinder is strapped to the wall framing.