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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has urged all homeowners, landlords and tenants to watch out for warning signs that might indicate a problem with their home hot water system.
This follows the tragic death of Rhianna Hardie, a baby who died after being scalded by water heated by a faulty immersion heater.
Warning signs include:
- Excessively hot water coming out of the hot water taps.
- Excessive noise or a ‘bubbling’ sound coming from their hot water cylinder.
- Hot water coming out of any of their cold water taps (some storage cisterns also feed cold water taps in the bathroom).
- Steam/moisture in the roof space.
If any of these signs are detected:
- The householder should switch off their immersion heater immediately.
- Tenants should contact their landlord.
- Warwick District Council tenants should ring the Customer Service Centre on 01926 456456 and state they suspect there is a safety problem with their immersion heater.
- Homeowners should seek advice from a competent person such as qualified plumber.
At risk properties are those with:
- A cylinder with an immersion heater.
- A backboiler or other water-borne heating system which has a cold water storage tank in the roofspace.
Visit the HSE website for further information on the scalding risk from domestic hot water systems.
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