Floating ball water tank - can the mechanism break?

[thuisinthailand]

Is it possible to 'compromise' or break the floating ball mechanism in the water tank?

 

Let me explain....

 

We are on Samui, and are having severe water shortage right now. Government water is off, so the tank is not automatically refilled unfortunately. A few days ago we had our water tank  refilled from our neighbors water well (very friendly neighbors we have...), but I put in a little bit too much. The floating ball (which, when the tank is full, is about horizontal normally) was a bit more 'up', maybe 20 litres too much or so. It was a bit tight, although not too long once we started to use the pump again.

 

Now my question is: could this 'too much filling' have compromised the floating ball in our tank or somehow ruined the mechanism, or is there nothing to worry about?

(Note: we cannot check if it works, because government water is still off...).

 

The reason I am asking this is that we are about to leave for a family visit in Europe and we get guests in our house in about 10 days from now, and I don't want to leave them with a tank that will not refill automatically once the government water is up and running again. Otherwise I would just have waited until the water was running again and see what happens...

 

All your advice will be much appreciated!!

Edited October 21, 2016 by thuisinthailand

[steve187]

I doubt that you have broken the ball valve, you may have bent the arm a little, which could affect the level of water in the the tank on refilling from the government supply.

[Kwasaki]

They can fall apart and can fail depending on quality.

Don't see why you can't check to see if the ballcock mechanism is all together.

[johng]

12 hours ago, steve187 said:

I doubt that you have broken the ball valve, you may have bent the arm a little,

 

I agree with that  very little chance of damage from over filling.

[thuisinthailand]

Seems I was over-concerned... This morning there was enough water pressure from the government water and the tank refilled. All by itself :)

 

Thanks for your comments.

[JetsetBkk]

4 hours ago, thuisinthailand said:

Seems I was over-concerned... This morning there was enough water pressure from the government water and the tank refilled. All by itself :)

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

Make sure that the pipe that feeds the water into the tank (and is located inside the tank) is strong enough to take the force of the floating ball when the tank is overfilled.

 

My pipe broke off inside the tank after the ball cock allowed a trickle of water to overfill the tank. The leverage of the floating ball snapped the pipe to which it was attached. Water then poured in with such force that it blew the lid off the tank and washed away a lot of top-soil into the drain that surrounded the garden.

 

I believe this was caused by the town water pressure being ridiculously high - over 7 kg/cm2.

 

I now restrict the flow into the tank by using a shut-off valve that is barely open. The problem could still occur again, but at least the water flow would be minimal, and save the garden.