I Have Mains Supply But Attic Tank Isn't Filling

Southern Comfort

I have mains supply coming into the house. Working fine but my attic tank won't fill. I have no water coming into the cylinder so I have no hot water and the toilets aren't filling either. It's not the end of the world really. I can fill the toilet cisterns with a dish but we can't use the shower unless I get a hose and pipe water from the kitchen tap to the tank.

But I'd really like to know the reason for the problem. The attic trap door is open and there's plenty heat going up there. The pipes are insulated and the ballcock isn't frozen. Quite a few houses around here have the same problem. Has anyone any idea what has caused this situation? Thanks.

Buford T Justice

The pipe going up the wall could be frozen, or there could be a bit of dirt in the ballcock stopping the water flow.

irelandspurs

ballcock frozen shut

Bruthal

yes almost certainly the mains feed to the attic tank frozen. I had the same yesterday. I heated the water in the cylinder with central heating to warm, then blocked kitchen mixer tap, turn on hot then cold taps at sink, this will force water into the attic tank via the hot water cylinder, in the reverse direction to normal. I kept an eye in the level and when full i unblocked the tap. The warm water thawed out the frozen mains which was frozen near the ballcock valve. Also leave your attic door fully open to allow some heat into attic.

Southern Comfort

Lads, thank you all for taking the time to reply on Christmas Eve. Much appreciated. I've since discovered that my mains comes into the house, under the kitchen floor to the sink and the mains feed to the attic goes up just inside the external wall which isn't insulated. Roll on the thaw!!!!!!

IrishHomer

Southern Comfort wrote: »

Lads, thank you all for taking the time to reply on Christmas Eve. Much appreciated. I've since discovered that my mains comes into the house, under the kitchen floor to the sink and the mains feed to the attic goes up just inside the external wall which isn't insulated. Roll on the thaw!!!!!!

I had the identical same problem fo rthe past couple of days.

Tonight i fixed it by leaving a hairdrier on full power at the point where the ppipe enters the wall.

I left it on it for 45 mins and then the water came back, was so thrilled to get it going , the hairdrier was powerfull and it was generating a lot of heat into the pipe and the wall.

finnigan

had same problem yesterday morning.

pipe is running up just inside the wall of the house, and it had frozen behind the tile,d wall of the bathroom

lucky it is that black flexible pipe as i had to disconnect pipe from tank and pull it out into the kitchen to get to the frozen section with a hairdryer

working now, tank jasus

nifheorais

I have no water at all.The tanks are empty in attic. Is this an external problem? With the rapid thaw will trhis solve itself?

Bruthal

nifheorais wrote: »

I have no water at all.The tanks are empty in attic. Is this an external problem? With the rapid thaw will trhis solve itself?

If you have water at kitchen cold tap then its likely frozen between there and the attic tank. If no water at kitchen tap then its probably frozen outside.

I had the first problem above and attic tank emptied, mains water was frozen in attic. Sorted that. Now water main into house is frozen probably in the ground with no water at kitchen sink. It will clear itself during the thaw, how long it takes is hard to say.

rondeco

For the last few days my tank in the attic was empty due to the feed pipe being frozen. This meant the heating didn't work either (oil fired) So I lugged bucket after bucket of water up into the attic until it was full again. Anytime we flushed the toilet i filled the tank again. But this morning the feed to the attic thawed and the ball cock was letting the water flow into the tank again. Only problem is the tank has emptied and isn't filling. The water is still coming in from the feed but the tank isn't filling. It's exiting out of the other pipes but to where I do not know. Any ideas?

Buford T Justice

rondeco wrote: »

For the last few days my tank in the attic was empty due to the feed pipe being frozen. This meant the heating didn't work either (oil fired) So I lugged bucket after bucket of water up into the attic until it was full again. Anytime we flushed the toilet i filled the tank again. But this morning the feed to the attic thawed and the ball cock was letting the water flow into the tank again. Only problem is the tank has emptied and isn't filling. The water is still coming in from the feed but the tank isn't filling. It's exiting out of the other pipes but to where I do not know. Any ideas?

Have you taps on somewhere in the house / cisterns filling / showers on etc....

If its not one of the above, the I would suspect a leak, except for the fact that this wasn't an issue before today.

P.S. No water means you can still use you're boiler for central heating.

Bruthal

rondeco wrote: »

For the last few days my tank in the attic was empty due to the feed pipe being frozen. This meant the heating didn't work either (oil fired) So I lugged bucket after bucket of water up into the attic until it was full again. Anytime we flushed the toilet i filled the tank again. But this morning the feed to the attic thawed and the ball cock was letting the water flow into the tank again. Only problem is the tank has emptied and isn't filling. The water is still coming in from the feed but the tank isn't filling. It's exiting out of the other pipes but to where I do not know. Any ideas?

As fingers says,, you should be able to use heating alright,

Could also have connected kitchen cold tap to hot tap and turn on hot then cold to fill attic tank and save the filling with buckets. Or if it was a mixer tap just block the outlet of it and turn on hot then cold to fill tank.

Tank not filling means you must have another outlet on somewhere. A burst pipe would be unlikely to release water fast enough to empty tank faster than mains is filling it. Maybe a toilet cistern is letting water out into toilet which happens sometimes when they are flushed when half full, have a look in toilets for that, they can sort of continue to release water into toilet, and so the cistern ballcock never cuts off water, but even this would usually just slow the attic tank from filling.

If the mains pressure is lower than normal of course then the attic tank would be slow to fill and something in the house releasing water will stop the attic tank filling.

MKEOGHAN

robbie7730 wrote: »

yes almost certainly the mains feed to the attic tank frozen. I had the same yesterday. I heated the water in the cylinder with central heating to warm, then blocked kitchen mixer tap, turn on hot then cold taps at sink, this will force water into the attic tank via the hot water cylinder, in the reverse direction to normal. I kept an eye in the level and when full i unblocked the tap. The warm water thawed out the frozen mains which was frozen near the ballcock valve. Also leave your attic door fully open to allow some heat into attic.

Hi, I have tried this and it has worked to some extent. I have an additional mains feed in the kitchen sink (Untreated) the mains is continued into the shed and treated with salt then back into the house and on into the attic - This is frozen outside somewhere. When I forced the additional (Untreated) mains feed into the kitchen hot tap (Fed from the attic). I had hot water in the cold taps and cold water in the hot taps all over the house. When I removed the additional mains feed the pressure in all the taps dropped and stopped. So when I have pressure back to the attic I'm hoping everything will be back to normal. Hopefully

Xpro

While at the subject im looking for some advice.
Finally we got water back and my attic tank is back full. The problem i have now is that my 2 toilets in the house are filling up very very slow. Pressure around the house is perfect, no issues, its just the toilets are taking ages to fill?? what could that be? cheers

VOG

Xpro wrote: »

While at the subject im looking for some advice.
Finally we got water back and my attic tank is back full. The problem i have now is that my 2 toilets in the house are filling up very very slow. Pressure around the house is perfect, no issues, its just the toilets are taking ages to fill?? what could that be? cheers

I am having the same issue myself.

I would love some advice

Xpro

VOG wrote: »

I am having the same issue myself.

I would love some advice

Fixed mine since. Had to take the valve in the toilets apart and clean them. When the attic tank got emptied loads of dirt went into the valve and blocked the flow. Just take it apart and clean it, should do the job