No hot water from taps ?

Usjes

Hi,

My hot taps stopped working a couple of days ago but I can't figure out why. My hot water comes from an immersion tank upstairs which is on a timer to give hot water in the morning. When I turn on the hot taps though all I get is cold water even though when I feel the tank it is hot. Any ideas why this would be ? I remember after the water cuts in January we lost hot water but in that case when I turned on the hot tap nothing came out. I ultimately fixed it by connecting the hot and cold taps together and forcing cold water into the hot taps to free an airlock. Could this be a similar thing ? I just can't figure out why I'm getting cold water this time rather than nothing.

Any ideas ?

Thanks.

Outkast_IRE

Im assuming you have had no work done in the last few days ?
Is it possible that the vent from the hot is actually dipping into the water in the tank in the attic and siphoning water back through it that way and bypassing the cylinder?

Usjes

No I have not had any work done recently. I don't know about siphoning from the cold tank in the attic, but is that not how things are supposed to work. Cold tank in attic (or mains ?) feeds the cylinder where it gets heated and then pumped out the all the hot taps ? I could understand if the cylinder was cold that I would get cold water from the hot taps but given that the cylinder is hot to the touch its odd that the hot taps give cold water. Anyway one other thing I have noticed is that the pressure on the hot taps is much weaker than on the cold ones. I can block the hot tap indefinitely with my thumb no problem but I need to press very hard on the cold tap and water may still shoot out the side. Looking at the cylinder itself is a bit odd also. I was expecting to see just two pipes, one feeding cold water in and the other supplying the heated water out to the taps. What I see however is three pipes. One on the top face and then a further two one at the top of the side and another at the bottom of the side. Now that I think about it I think when we got the central heating installed they routed it through the cylinder also to give a second mechanism for heating water but even if this is the case I would expect four pipes ie. an additional in/out pipe for the central heating circuit. Three pipes is very odd though but perhaps there is another pipe that I can't see from the base of the cylinder maybe. Anyway I'm still stuck with the problem of hot water in my cylinder but not in my taps, any ideas ?

Thanks,

Outkast_IRE

The cylinder is supplied from a connection near the bottom of the tank in attic , the vent pipe will go above the tank and bend over it , if its dipping into the actual water thats a problem.is should end above water level

If you turn on the central heating do you have hot water then after a while?

Are you sure there isnt 4 connections to cylinder
1. At the top hot water out of cylinder to taps
2. at very bottom at the side for cold water to enter cylinder
3. mid way high central heating flow
4. mid way low central heating return.

Usjes

Hi,

I had a general 'handyman' in for some job in the garden and I mentioned my problems with the hot water and he said he'd have a look at it. After some rooting around he went and turned on the hot taps in all the rooms. After a minute or two the hot water started to flow. I thought it must have been some sort of air lock and that turning on all the taps had flushed it out. Over the past few weeks however the hot water seems to go every couple of days. I can get it back by turning on all the taps for a while but clearly this isn't satisfactory long-term. There must be something ,anyone have any ideas? What could be wrong with the heating system that would be fixed only if I let ALL the hot taps run for a while ?

Thanks,

sullzz

there is nothing wrong with your heating system it is a problem with your plumbing , if your cylinder is hot and you get hot water flowing after letting your taps flow for a while you know that it is heating ok , did you check the expansion pipe as outkast suggested , that is the first thing i would do , has the pressure of your hot water decreased since this problem started