Airlock in pumped system

wicky9

We appear to have some sort of airlock in our pumped water system. The pump is located in the shed outside and recently the water upstairs (either hot or cold) will not come on without one of us having to go downstairs and turn on a downstairs tap to start the pump. Once the pump has started the supply remains upstairs and the tap downstairs can be turned off. Once tap/shower upstairs is turned off then it's back to square one. This started a couple of months ago sporadically so I tried to flush out the airlock with all sorts of combinations of taps on/off but no joy. The pressure in the system would appear to be around 2 bar,I had increased it slightly to that but it didn't change a thing. The ensuite upstairs had started to continually fill a while back and the only thing that I could do to solve it was to half close the valve on the supply pipe. I'm wondering if that led to a continuing air lock.

Has anyone got any ideas on how to fix this or maybe it's a bigger issue with the pump or sensor?

Would hate to call out a tradesman if it's a simple fix but similarly happy to do so if it could be a myriad of issues.

Thanks in advance

K.Flyer

Its very unlikely that you have an airlock from a pump pushing out 2 bar.
I have seen similar issues in the past and it turned out to be a faulty pressure switch.

whizbang

The ensuite upstairs had started to continually fill a while back and the only thing that I could do to solve it was to half close the valve on the supply pipe.

The toilet ? -get this sorted first.

Theres no attic storage tank ?

K.Flyer

whizbang wrote: »

The toilet ? -get this sorted first.

Theres no attic storage tank ?

Could have a storage tank on ground floor level, hence the pump.

whizbang

Pressure vessel ?

If flow to upstairs is restricted, it just may not be enough to trigger the switch; thats presuming there is enough pressure remaining in the system to trigger any sort of flow in the first place.

Is it hard water ? may have valves gunked up.

wicky9

Thanks for the replies. Upstairs in the attic there's a solar panel water storage tank which presumably stores the water heated by the panels and the water heated by the immersion? Would any water heated by the boiler be pumped in regularly by the pump?? Hard to figure where the problem is then as all pipes and valves obviously work at some stage but they need the tap downstairs to be turned on to allow the cold or hot feed to be activated upstairs where the feed would be weakest?? With regards to the ensuite toilet problem - I had inspected the mechanics of the cistern and nothing I could do would stop the supply from trickling in. I'll have to investigate a bit more. Strange they kind of coincide

John.G

You may have a negative head pump which has a little pressure vessel mounted on top, can you post the pump details.
The toilet cistern probably only needs a new ballcock assembly.

wicky9

Hi all, Sorry for the late reply and thanks for all your help so far. Was working late so only getting out to the shed now to get details of the pump. Pump in the shed is a "Walrus Pump - Hot Water Pump" - genuinely no other model numbers visible on it other than frequency and voltage figures. Its in a very hard to reach place and hard to light at night so Ive taken a few pics as best I can. If anyone thinks better pics would help them diagnose the problem I'll try get around to it tomorrow evening before it gets dark. Hopefully have a local plumber calling by the end of the week, I'm just afraid he might not have come across this problem before either.