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Robinaphl · Apr 25, 2013, 09:00 AM

I have a 1945 rowhouse in the Germantown/Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. These houses have unique features in them, like a little built in door in the bedroom that opens out to the bathtug fixture.

In the other bedroom clothes closet, on top of a shelf and connected to the ceiling of the closet by a pipe is a small round tank. It sometimes leaks water. What is this thing?

Milo Dolezal · Apr 25, 2013, 10:41 AM

Can you take a pic of it an post it for us ? Thanks. Milo

massplumber2008 · Apr 25, 2013, 10:41 AM

Hi Robin

I can't be 100% sure without seeing a picture of the tank, but in my area when we see these tanks on a shelf in a closet on the top floor they are usually tanks (resevoirs) of water for a gravity feed STEAM or forced water boiler system.

Depending on changes that have been made to your heat system over the years you may not even need this tank anyome... hard to say from here.

Let me know what kind of heat system you have and see if you can post a picture to the site and we'll see hat we think, OK?

Mark

speedball1 · Apr 25, 2013, 11:29 AM

The opening behind the tub is called a access panel,
How large is this tank? In some of my jobs I was directed to add a large air chamber on the top floor to absorb water hammer, If that's the case and it's leaking then you have to repair the leak and recharge the tank. Regards, Tom