I broke the water tank!

June 6: pretty normal day, turn tap on to put fresh water in the tank, turn the washing machine on, and forget about the water tap.

Bad idea. 

Our tanks are not designed to hold mains pressure. The tap was left on for so long, the overflow couldn't keep up, and BOOM! broken water tank. It made one heck of a noise, twice. We figured out the first Boom was the internal baffle letting go, and the second Boom a few seconds later was the seam across the top of the tank splitting open. Cue water pouring everywhere and my sudden realization that I had left the tap on and forgotten about it. At least the washing was clean?!?! 

Hard to tell from the angle of the photo, but the metal support bar across the front of the tank was bent outwards, the force was so great. 

Our tanks were made to be removeable. Not without a bit of mucking around, but we got it out. 

We found someone in New Plymouth who was able to fix it for us. He took the top off, re-welded the internal baffle to the front side, and replaced the top. More mucking around to reconnect the pipe to the pump, but we got there. 

Lesson learnt: when filling the fresh water tank, don't walk away from the tap!