How to remove water from an almost empty metal water tank in the ceiling?

[jollyyau]

Hi all!

My partner and I recently moved into a house with a very old gravity fed hot water system. We asked a company to decommission it and they've cut off all the pipes and installed a new hot pump water tank.

Gravity fed water tank in the ceiling     Pipes decomissioned

However this left us with 5cm of water left stuck at the bottom of a big metal barrel and it was leaking through and staining our ceiling. We have tried calling plumbers but they said it's not really a plumbing job and unless we want to remove the entire tank, they suggested we try remove the water ourselves. We're not looking to remove the tank.

So since then, we have cut a hole in the tank with metal sheers and managed to remove most of the water with a manual hand pump, but the issue now is that the water that's left is too little to be pumped out. What should we do? There's only like 5mm of water remaining but it's very muddy and clumpy.

A few ideas:

• Cut the hole bigger and use rags to soak up the water (what fabric materials would be good?)
• Use absorbant material like diatomaceous earth (other material suggestions welcome)
• Use a wet-dry vacuum to suck up the rest of the water (this might be hard to get in the ceiling)

[EricL]

Hello @jollyyau 

Thanks for sharing your question about removing the remaining water in your water tank. I propose going with the third option and that is to use a wet and dry vac to suck up the remaining water in the tank. You can modify the end of the vacuum hose by attaching a 25mm clear hose or garden hose to increase the sucking pressure and make it easier to slide the pipe into the tank. 

My second choice would be to use rags to soak up the water in the tank. Any cotton-based fabric should work nicely and absorb the water very well. It will be just a matter of rinse and repeat until the tank is empty. 

I don't recommend putting anything else in the tank as it becomes difficult to empty the tank out.    

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[jollyyau]

How do I attach the clear pipe to the vacuum? I have an Ozito 1250W 12L Stainless Wet And Dry Vacuum. Thanks!

[EricL]

Hello @jollyyau 

I suggest bringing the vacuum hose with you and testing out the various Toro Barbed reducers available at the store. I also recommend going to the plumbing area and see which PVC fittings might work with your hose. You also have the option of using Norton Bear 50mm x 4.5m Black Cloth Tape and taping the clear pipe to the end of the vacuum hose and sealing the gaps with the tape into a shape of a cone.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[Noyade]

As per the suggestions above.

What's the diameter @jollyyau ?

Can it be tilted to the right and then rolled towards the camera?

Lowered down the ceiling access?

[Shane]

We've also got one of these in the ceiling. Given the crazy prices of scrap metal these days, is it worth the effort of removing from the roof?

[jollyyau]

@Noyade The water tank is quite big, approx 0.8m tall and 1m diameter. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to fit through the ceiling access. I've heard that people remove cut a hole in the ceiling and replaster to remove the tank, but we've just plastered and painted all our walls so we're not really keen to do that.