No water upstairs and tank very low.

chabsey

Our water upstairs is supplied from a tank in the attic and normally (last 15 years +) this has never been a problem.

Today the taps in the sink and bath stopped providing cold water. This morning I'd left the hot water in the bath run for a long time, forgot about it and presumably emptied the hot water tank probably completely. It didn't overflow but filled the bath much more than I normally would.

Anyway, I then noticed the cold tap wasn't working. Went up to the attic and the tank was very low but there was a flow refilling it (albeit sloooowly).

Now, an hour or so later we still have no cold water.

Is it likely that the tank in the attic is first refilling the hot water cylinder before then refilling itself?

jmBuildExt

chabsey wrote: »

Our water upstairs is supplied from a tank in the attic and normally (last 15 years +) this has never been a problem.

Today the taps in the sink and bath stopped providing cold water. This morning I'd left the hot water in the bath run for a long time, forgot about it and presumably emptied the hot water tank probably completely. It didn't overflow but filled the bath much more than I normally would.

Anyway, I then noticed the cold tap wasn't working. Went up to the attic and the tank was very low but there was a flow refilling it (albeit sloooowly).

Now, an hour or so later we still have no cold water.

Is it likely that the tank in the attic is first refilling the hot water cylinder before then refilling itself?

Tank in the attic would usually feed your hot water cylinder. The cold water upstairs comes straight from the tank itself.

If the tank level is below the hole where the cold water supply comes out, you will get no water in the taps. But the fact that the hot water cylinder is below the attic tank, means you may still be able to get water from the hot water cylinder.

Sounds like your mains water is off or very low pressure. OR your ballcock in your attic tank is stuck closed.
Is your mains cold water in the kitchen at normal pressure?
If so, the ballcock in your attic tank is the culprit. Maybe its just stuck closed. Might need replacing.

chabsey

Thanks for the quick response. Mains flow is fine (I mean it's weak but it always is since the snows) downstairs.

The tank in the attic is refilling but the flow is bad (possibly a combination of the already weak mains flow combined with gravity?

In any case I don't think there's a problem with either the mains or the ballcock. I'm going to leave it for a couple of hours and see if it's refilling at all.

BENDYBINN

Just talk to a neighbor and ask him how is his waterworks.
This should pinpoint the problem.

Glass fused light

Check with your neighbours re the pressure off the mains, has it dropped for them too?
It's possible that your pipes developed a slow leak between the mains and the house, and it's just got worse over time

jmBuildExt

Yeah so it looks like your bath is able to empty your tank quicker than your mains can fill it. I wouldn't just leave it. As mentioned, see if your neighbours have same problem. If everyone has same problem, its something you can go to irish water about.
If its isolated to you - you could have a major leak somewhere on your property, unfortunately that would be your problem.

Sleeper12

You most likely drained the tank & it sucked in air. Then it started to fill up again & you saw a half tank of water in the attic.

So you might have an airlock & possibly the ball cock on the attic tank needs replacing if it's not filling fast enough

chabsey

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You most likely drained the tank & it sucked in air. Then it started to fill up again & you saw a half tank of water in the attic.

So you might have an airlock & possibly the ball cock on the attic tank needs replacing if it's not filling fast enough

Oh...an airlock might be possible. If it is airlocked, what do I need to do to get it working again?

EDIT: This guide seems to cover it. I'll try it later.

https://www.water.ie/support/questions-and-answers/how-to-check-for-and-clea/

Outkast_IRE

chabsey wrote: »

Thanks for the quick response. Mains flow is fine (I mean it's weak but it always is since the snows) downstairs.

QUOTE]

The comment above about the snows has me worried, i am not sure what part of the country you are but down in my direction a good few people who experienced decreased pressure following the "big freeze" actually had burst pipes underground on their property that was resulting in the loss of pressure in the house and taps.

chabsey

The pressure decrease I think in our case was part of Irish Water's attempts to limit usage after the snow. Certainly it coincided with that more than the snows themselves. I'm not that worried about a leak, although that would be a kick in the head if it was the case.

John.G

chabsey wrote: »

The pressure decrease I think in our case was part of Irish Water's attempts to limit usage after the snow. Certainly it coincided with that more than the snows themselves. I'm not that worried about a leak, although that would be a kick in the head if it was the case.

If you have a water meter observe it when the tank is full and there is no one using water elsewhere in the house, if you have a leak then the meter will keep turning, the last digit on the right measures in litres.

Sleeper12

chabsey wrote: »

The pressure decrease I think in our case was part of Irish Water's attempts to limit usage after the snow. Certainly it coincided with that more than the snows themselves. I'm not that worried about a leak, although that would be a kick in the head if it was the case.

Irish water will be delighted to come to your home & check the pressure for you. This is a free service & can benifit them if they find a leak. They get to you same or next day & I repeat it's totally free

chabsey

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Irish water will be delighted to come to your home & check the pressure for you. This is a free service & can benifit them if they find a leak. They get to you same or next day & I repeat it's totally free

That's very handy to know, thanks.

I fixed the issue in the end, followed the steps in the linked article. Took a few tries but eventually full flow on both taps returned and crisis was averted.

Thanks to all who responded. Luckily not a leak this time.

jca

I think you've cured the symptoms but not the disease. The tank shouldn't take hours to fill. With everything working as intended the water should lash in and fill the tank in minutes. When I moved into my house first I had terrible problems with the tank running empty. I had several different plumbers trying to sort it to no avail. Myself and the missus fixed it ourselves in the end. I took the pipe off the ballcock stuck it down in a bucket got the missus to turn on the water for a few seconds and lo and behold out popped the nicest rounded pebble into the bucket. Everything was perfect after that.

John.G

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Irish water will be delighted to come to your home & check the pressure for you. This is a free service & can benifit them if they find a leak. They get to you same or next day & I repeat it's totally free

Irish Water have reduced the water pressure in my area from a "lifelong" 2.6/3 bar down to 1.8 bar static at their meter (1.9 bar as measured by myself adjacent to cold tap).
The cold tap now flows 7.62 LPM (which is no problem) but at a pressure of 0.95 bar. This means that there is a 0.95 bar pressure loss in the 17 meter run between the meter/stopcock and my tap. The supply to my house is in hydrodare with a internal diameter of 11.5 MM, theoretically, the pressure drop under these conditions should only be ~ 0.3 bar. In a 1972 built house, is it possible that some silt/crap has built up in this pipe over 47 years? to give this large pressure drop?.

Incidentally, like jca above, I did find a tiny pebble partially blocking the attic header tank ballcock nozzle about a month after moving into the house but nothing remotely like this afterwards, even the mains electric shower filter is spotless when I inspect it every few years.

Sleeper12

Irish water have been tinkering with water pressure & flow in Dublin since they were founded. Several times a week we get calls from people with "broken" mains fed showers. We ask a lot of questions over the phone because no one will want to pay us to visit & say shower is fine it's the water pressure, now you owe me a call out fee! In a lot of cases we end up converting the pipework & fit a tank fed shower. I had one in Ringsend a few weeks back. 100 year old workmans cottage. I went out to convert to tank fed only to discover he had no tank. Everything was off the mains. He's close to sea level & has less than 1bar on the ground floor! I reverted back to the management company. Someone was going to have to fit a tank or try fit a mains booster pump & it's not work I do.

Water pressure in Dublin has always been bad but Irish water have reduced it to shocking levels now. I have heard Irish water tell a homeowner that mains fed electric showers are illegal or at least it's illegal to connect them to mains water in Ireland when questioned why they no longer have enough pressure to run their shower. I suppose this is what we get when we wont pay for our water.

John.G

I'm in Cork and the reduction in pressure is to reduce the volume of leakage!! however I think their philosophy is that they supply sufficient water pressure to fill a attic located storage tank in a two storey house so 1 bar should be sufficient with adequately sized pipework. The guy who checked my pressure told me that they do try and maintain 1.5 bar.

Strangely enough, my 13 year old Mira sport is still running OK with this reduced pressure, the pressure loss is 0.45 bar @ a flow rate of 4.3 LPM, 1.45 bar at ground level. If I didn't have this large pressure loss then I reckon 1.5 bar (static) would still keep my mains fed shower happy but 1 bar most certainly would not.