New house, no water :(

mapera

Hi There,
We've just moved in to a new house which has been vacant for a good few months.

The water from the mains is working fine (cold tap in kitchen is working away, as is cold tap in bathroom which was a little surprising as i thought it would only be the kitchen)

The toilet cistern seems to fill up very very slowly (like over a night) so it does appear that a liitle water is getting through to the tank.

Around the hot press there are 2 valves like this one: http://images.colourbox.com/thumb_COLOURBOX1620958.jpg
One is on a pipe than run behind the hot water cylendar up the the tank in the attic and the other is on a pipe runing down from the bottom of the hot water cylander.

The valves look in good condition, I have tried turning them counterclockwise as far as they will go but they only move about a quarter turn in either direction and the red piece on both values eventually just came off in my hand. Im not really sure if a quarter of a turn is enough to open them, or if they need replacing?

Any ideas of I'm doing the right thing here, or how to fix it, or maybe I'm looking in the wrong place altogether!?

Thanks for any help.
Al

gdavis

the handle should not come off there should be a nut holding it in place.check the tank first to see if its full in attic and can proceed from there