Plumbing problem

The Waxbill

I had a problem with my plumbing yesterday. the lid on the cold water tank in the attic fell into the tank ( it was a flimsy plastic thing with fibre glass on it) and it held down the ball cock, stopping the tank filling up. obviously the water stopped in my upstairs bathrooms. i removed the lid from inside the tank and immediately the tank started filling again. however there's still no water coming from my taps. could there be an airlock and if so how do i get rid of it?

davidoco

There is an extensive post on this if you do a search.

If you have a mixer tap somewhere with a single spout (do it in kitchen and bathroom preferably), turn it on full mix and hold your hand over the outlet for say 10 seconds a time then check the cold tap.

The Waxbill

Ok thanks but aren't the taps in the kitchen mains fed?

JamesM

The Waxbill wrote: »

Ok thanks but aren't the taps in the kitchen mains fed?

If you have no water coming out the hot taps and you have a mixer in the kitchen, turn on the hot tap in the kitchen, put your hand over the spout and then turn on the cold tap. This will force the cold mains water up the hot pipe and hopefully clear the airlock. If there is no water coming out of the cold taps upstairs, flushing the toilets might help to clear the airlock - it all depends on the system. A hose from the cold mains into the bathroom cold tap also might help - but a bit messy.
Jim.

The Waxbill

Hi James, I tried the method you suggested yesterday evening but no joy. I turned on the hot water tap in the bath and held my hand over it. I had the cold tap in the bath open too. i had the cold tap in the sink closed whilst doing this, is this correct? I did this for a few minutes. When i turned on the cold tap in the sink i think i heard some air coming out but still no water.

I also tried attaching a hose to the kitchen tap downstairs and the cold tap in the bathroom sink upstairs but i couldn't really get a the hose to fit round either tap, very messy lol. It's actually in my sister in law's house and at the end of it all i had to tell her to call in a plumber today. a bit disappointing after spending a few hours on it last night. Thanks for your suggestions though.

davidoco

The Waxbill wrote: »

I also tried attaching a hose to the kitchen tap downstairs and the cold tap in the bathroom sink upstairs but i couldn't really get a the hose to fit round either tap, very messy lol.

It's a hit a miss job, no two houses are the same.

It's a pity when you were at the kitchen sink that you didn't attach the pipe from the kitchen cold to the kitchen hot water (if they are seperate taps).

The Waxbill

Very confused now! lol. Isn't the kitchen sink downstairs mains fed and the toilets upstairs tank fed? If so what would be achieved by attaching the hot tap to the cold tap in the kitchen? my problem is upstairs in the bathrooms. Thanks for your help.

Davy

If you can’t get it using the normal method, very handy and quick way is 2 spanners and a cork. Turn off the mains to the tank, there should be a valve if not im guessing you don’t have a key for outside this wont be of use.

But cork the feed from the tank to the bathroom, properly 3/4" and remove from the tank, then connect direct to the mains. Using the pressure from the mains should clear it. You would want to be a little to handy to do this but its fairly straight forward.

davidoco

You have air in the pipework feeding the taps (hot and cold) to the bathrooms.

You push water from the cold incoming mains up through the hot water pipework into the cylinder and that in turn will push any air in the feed (A) to the cylinder back up to the cold storage tank. You should then have hot water back at the taps. You might also have cold water at the taps as some systems only have one feed (A) from cold storage tank serving the cylinder for hot and the cold taps and the restarting of the hot water may draw out the air.

JamesM

davidoco wrote: »

You have air in the pipework feeding the taps (hot and cold) to the bathrooms.

You push water from the cold incoming mains up through the hot water pipework into the cylinder and that in turn will push any air in the feed (A) to the cylinder back up to the cold storage tank. You should then have hot water back at the taps. You might also have cold water at the taps as some systems only have one feed (A) from cold storage tank serving the cylinder for hot and the cold taps and the restarting of the hot water may draw out the air.

This is what I was trying to say Use the pressure of the cold mains to clear the air in the hot water pipes.
Jim.