I have a problem with a toilet tank sweating because of weather transients. We usually have winter and spring days (central MS) that are abnormally warm and humid, and the water supply is quite cold, resulting in puddles of condensate under the tank. I was once told that there are thermostated hot/cold water mixers that will warm the tank supply. Anyone familiar with these?
A note of self intro – I am retired, a bit over sixty, fixed income, wife as a helper. I have had a fair amount of home building experience (summer jobs in college) and refurbishing through the years. I am redoing a 3/1 that was built in 1954 in the style of a summer home – lots of windows, minimal insulation. I have finished totally rebuilding the bath from floor joist up in sections so that it was in service the entire time. Never again!
HarryD
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I've seen the toilets with mixing valves and they seem to work, but seems like a waste of hot water to me. There are tanks available that are insulated (may have to buy the whole toilet--don't know if you can get just the tank). There are retro-fit kits you install yourself too. I installed a retro-fit kit myself once. Not real hard to do, but not exactly easy--have to drain the tank and so on, and then with mine, the glue didn't stick and the insulation started floating.
The tempering valve will solve your problem. The main problem with them is you have to have access to the cold supply to the toilet as well as a hot water line. Then it's 'simply' a matter of cutting the cold supply and sweating/installing the TV, then pipe up a hot water line.
I've tried all the options, from installing tank insulation (doesn't work that well, and it will eventually pull away from the tank) to installing new tanks lined with insualtion (better than self-installed kits, but the tank will still sweat, though maybe not as bad) and the tempering valve performed the best at minimizing sweating tanks.
As an aside, air conditioning will also prevent sweating tanks, as it removes the moisture from the air that would otherwise condense on the tank.
Good luck
A lot of folks here have the mixing valves, but not on a thermostat. The mixer is adjusted with a valve and remains same.
There is also an inline heater that llows the cold water to flow through an electric coil and preheat to room temp as it flows into the tank. I have not seen that one, but one of my plumbers told me about it.
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When it does this, have you have opened the windows in the house? I know this may not sound appealing, but you can prevent this to some extent by keeping the bathroom door and windows closed. If the delta temp between the water and the air is less, you get less condensation. Cheaper than dumping hot water.
The mixing valve approach worked fine for us. It uses a tiny amount of hot water and is adjustable. Only few joints to sweat, you should pardon the expression.
Have seen a Florida solution. Groundwater is in the mid 60s F. In humid weather the toilet tank sweats.
Their solution was to crawl under the house, where the plumbing is run, and install a coil, looked to be about 20' or so in 1' diameter loops hung from a floor joist, in the line feeding the toilet.
The air warms the water and while the coil does drip the toilet tank doesn't. The crawl space is closed enough that the pipes don't freeze but open enough to allow the condensate to evaporate.
I like this idea on several levels. First it uses no hot water. It also has no moving parts. It was relatively cheap and easy to install.
Sounds reasonable. The problem occurs here only in transient weather. The water mains are only about a foot under the ground and get quite warm in the summer. When we have a warm spell in the winter and spring the dewpoint is often in the high 60's and the water supply is about 50. Being that there is only the two of us most of the time the water usage is small and a copper coil should provide adequate storage.
I greatly appreciate all the interest and advice from everyone. Much obliged.
HarryD