No water into toliet

Wexford96

Hello
I was replacing a part in the cistern so turned off the water mains. I replaced my part in the cistern and turned back on the water mains. No water coming into copper pipe at floor under toilet! The water was pumping out of here this morning before I turned off at mains. All other taps/bath etc have water flowing into them. But not to this toilet?
Might there be an issue with tank in attic?
Thanks for reading.

Bass Reeves

If there is cold water to the sinks and bath then the problem is at the toilet with what you did
Or you created a blockage in the pipe. The water leaves the tank through one pipe which is branched to toilet, sink bath etc

Generally you do not turn off the main if working on baths, sinks or toilets except for kitchen or utility sinks which have mains cold water direct.

Unless your house is very old there should be valves in the hit press that will turn on and off your hot and cold water. This means you do not need to completely drain your system to work on bathroom ware

Wexford96

Bass Reeves wrote: »

If there is cold water to the sinks and bath then the problem is at the toilet with what you did
Or you created a blockage in the pipe. The water leaves the tank through one pipe which is branched to toilet, sink bath etc

Generally you do not turn off the main if working on baths, sinks or toilets except for kitchen or utility sinks which have mains cold water direct.

Unless your house is very old there should be valves in the hit press that will turn on and off your hot and cold water. This means you do not need to completely drain your system to work on bathroom ware

Thanks for all that info, much appreciated. There is a red tap in hotpress which Ill use anymore. Do you recommend anything I can do now to solve my toilet with no water coming into it? Is there any point in taking off the 2 parts I replaced and putting them back on again? Cheers.

greasepalm

Sounds like your toilet is mains fed and if it flowed before you shut the mains off something is stopping the flow to the cistern.If your kitchen sink has cold water then the mains is not shut off and flowing.

I would remove what you fitted and see if it flows?

What was replaced?

Bass Reeves

Wexford96 wrote: »

Thanks for all that info, much appreciated. There is a red tap in hotpress which Ill use anymore. Do you recommend anything I can do now to solve my toilet with no water coming into it? Is there any point in taking off the 2 parts I replaced and putting them back on again? Cheers.

There should be at least 2 if not 3+red valves. Check before you do anything that they are nearly fully turned one way as it might be a balancing valve. After closing or opening a valve fully turn it back half a turn to stop them seizing. Work on one valve at a time. Turn it off and run your cold water at the bath or sink tap, bath is best as it is at a lower level. You should see the pressure decreasing on the water after a minute or two. Turn on both hot and cokd taps in bath or sink as if the valve you turned off is the hot valve you will know it.

When you find the cold water valve switch and have it turned off ( normally you would flush the toilet to release as such water as possible) take off you fittings. A small bit of water should come out. In that case the piece you replaced is the issue either in the fitting of it or the part itself. If there is no water turn your valve on a half a turn and see if water will dribble out of the toilet pipe after a while. Ideally if you can get someone to stand at the toilet you can turn it on a bit to see water flowing out if pipe.

If it is main fed the same process works

Wexford96

greasepalm wrote: »

Sounds like your toilet is mains fed and if it flowed before you shut the mains off something is stopping the flow to the cistern.If your kitchen sink has cold water then the mains is not shut off and flowing.

I would remove what you fitted and see if it flows?

What was replaced?

I replaced the upright plastic piece frominside the cistern. Not the flusher, the other part. The one that water flows up. I also replaced a piece of flexible piping that connects from cistern to the copper pipe that comes up from floor. Its approx. 9 inches long with a nut and washer on each end. Hope I'm clear enough. Don't know the words for these parts.

Wexford96

Bass Reeves wrote: »

There should be at least 2 if not 3+red valves. Check before you do anything that they are nearly fully turned one way as it might be a balancing valve. After closing or opening a valve fully turn it back half a turn to stop them seizing. Work on one valve at a time. Turn it off and run your cold water at the bath or sink tap, bath is best as it is at a lower level. You should see the pressure decreasing on the water after a minute or two. Turn on both hot and cokd taps in bath or sink as if the valve you turned off is the hot valve you will know it.

When you find the cold water valve switch and have it turned off ( normally you would flush the toilet to release as such water as possible) take off you fittings. A small bit of water should come out. In that case the piece you replaced is the issue either in the fitting of it or the part itself. If there is no water turn your valve on a half a turn and see if water will dribble out of the toilet pipe after a while. Ideally if you can get someone to stand at the toilet you can turn it on a bit to see water flowing out if pipe.

If it is main fed the same process works

Thanks for all that info. Ill go and see if I can apply any of the advice you've given now. Cheers.

Wexford96

Not sure if its relevant but there was one small piece in the new part that I could find a place for. Its a small thin plastic coil piece called a "flow restrictor". Couldn't figure out where it had to go so I just left it out.

Curious_Case

Wexford96 wrote: »

Not sure if its relevant but there was one small piece in the new part that I could find a place for. Its a small thin plastic coil piece called a "flow restrictor". Couldn't figure out where it had to go so I just left it out.

That part may be intended for use with a mains fed cistern, it probably reduces the flow to a rate comparable with an attic tank feed.

How many pipes are going into your bathroom?

Do the cold taps have a higher flow of water?

Wexford96

Curious_Case wrote: »

That part may be intended for use with a mains fed cistern, it probably reduces the flow to a rate comparable with an attic tank feed.

How many pipes are going into your bathroom?

Do the cold taps have a higher flow of water?

Hi.
There are 3 pipes going tobathroom. One to shower, one to sink, one to toilet. Yes the cold taps have a good high flow.
Cheers.

greasepalm

Might they have had a cap that needed to be removed before fitting i wonder.

The restrictor valve is handy for switching off feed instead of mains when working on the cistern and also handy fitted to sinks if ever needing to change taps.I have to use is on kitchen sink to reduce splashes from too high a flow.

Curious_Case

Wexford96 wrote: »

Hi.
There are 3 pipes going tobathroom. One to shower, one to sink, one to toilet. Yes the cold taps have a good high flow.
Cheers.

Does cistern share it's feed with the sink cold ?

Curious_Case

Wexford96 wrote: »

I replaced the upright plastic piece frominside the cistern. Not the flusher, the other part. The one that water flows up. I also replaced a piece of flexible piping that connects from cistern to the copper pipe that comes up from floor. Its approx. 9 inches long with a nut and washer on each end. Hope I'm clear enough. Don't know the words for these parts.

The flexible bit, does it have an incorporated valve operated by turning a slotted screw head ?
(slot parallel to pipe when open and at 90° when closed)

Wexford96

Curious_Case wrote: »

Does cistern share it's feed with the sink cold ?

Hi, yes it does. And the cold tap now in bathroom is not giving any water. Also the other bathroom in the house, cold tap giving no water either. So its the toilet I was working on, the cold tap in same bathroom, and cold tap in other bathroom all with no water now. Cheers.

Wexford96

Curious_Case wrote: »

The flexible bit, does it have an incorporated valve operated by turning a slotted screw head ?
(slot parallel to pipe when open and at 90° when closed)

Hi.
Yes it does have an incorporated valve. What I notice though is that the water is not even getting as far as this flexible piece. It just isn't coming from the copper pipe coming from the ground.

Curious_Case

Wexford96 wrote: »

Hi, yes it does. And the cold tap now in bathroom is not giving any water. Also the other bathroom in the house, cold tap giving no water either. So its the toilet I was working on, the cold tap in same bathroom, and cold tap in other bathroom all with no water now. Cheers.

If all valves are open, yet no water, you may have an airlock.

If all valves are open though, any mains fed outlet wouldn't get airlocked as there would be enough water pressure to clear it.

Curious_Case

Curious_Case wrote: »

If all valves are open, yet no water, you may have an airlock.

If all valves are open though, any mains fed outlet wouldn't get airlocked as there would be enough water pressure to clear it.

To clear a bathroom airlock, you could run a garden hose from mains cold tap in kitchen to the airlocked cold tap in bathroom and turn on kitchen tap while bathroom tap is open. Do this for 10 seconds or so.

Curious_Case

Forgot to mention that if your bathroom cold stopped as soon as mains was turned off then it is probably mains fed.

But, if it ran for quite a while before stopping, the tank was emptying, so it is attic tank fed (turning off the mains cut the supply to the tank but it still had water in it).

Wexford96

Curious_Case wrote: »

Forgot to mention that if your bathroom cold stopped as soon as mains was turned off then it is probably mains fed.

But, if it ran for quite a while before stopping, the tank was emptying, so it is attic tank fed (turning off the mains cut the supply to the tank but it still had water in it).

Yes that was the case. It ran for a while (from tank) after I had turned off mains. Then stopped when tank had emptied. Do you reckon a plumber can solve my problem easily? I feel its better at this stage to hand the whole thing over to a pro. From my simple replacement of 2 parts, Ive now got a toilet and 2 sinks without water. I'm not the most popular person in the house right now.

Bass Reeves

Wexford96 wrote: »

Yes that was the case. It ran for a while (from tank) after I had turned off mains. Then stopped when tank had emptied. Do you reckon a plumber can solve my problem easily? I feel its better at this stage to hand the whole thing over to a pro. From my simple replacement of 2 parts, Ive now got a toilet and 2 sinks without water. I'm not the most popular person in the house right now.

Did you hear tank in attic fill after you turned on the mains

Wexford96

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Did you hear tank in attic fill after you turned on the mains

Yes I did. And its full now. There is a small and a large tank in attic. Both are full and I heard them refilling after I turned mains back on. Cheers.

Bass Reeves

Wexford96 wrote: »

Yes I did. And its full now. There is a small and a large tank in attic. Both are full and I heard them refilling after I turned mains back on. Cheers.

Did you do anything with the valves in the hot press and your hot water is ok.

Wexford96

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Did you do anything with the valves in the hot press and your hot water is ok.

Hot water is fine. Re. the red tap/valves in hotpress I've just identified 2 of them and know they exist now. But I haven't done anything with them.

Curious_Case

Wexford96 wrote: »

Yes that was the case. It ran for a while (from tank) after I had turned off mains. Then stopped when tank had emptied. Do you reckon a plumber can solve my problem easily? I feel its better at this stage to hand the whole thing over to a pro. From my simple replacement of 2 parts, Ive now got a toilet and 2 sinks without water. I'm not the most popular person in the house right now.

Your system got airlocked when the tank ran dry.

Try the garden hose method.

I've cleared airlocks with a wet&dry vacuum used to suck from the tap but I'm reluctant to advise it (water & electricity!)

Bass Reeves

Turn on all you cold taps in baths and sinks in the house at the same time to see if any will free themselves. If water comes out throught any tap after it stops spluttering turn it down to a slow flow for s few minutes before turning off. Wait then to see if any other tap frees itself air lock must be very near the cold tank in the common pipe. if it is effecting all cold taps. Are you sure cold tank in attic gas completely refilled and the after is above people bringing water out of the tank. Just be aware that there is an over flow pipe that's just above the level.of the water filling pipe. This should not be below water level

Curious_Case

Apologies, I forgot to mention that if you're using either a hose or a vacuum to clear the airlock, you need to either fill the cistern manually, tie up the float or close off the cistern's valve. Otherwise you're only filling the cistern with water or drawing air through it.

Tails142

Yeah sounds like airlock, if you have a mixer tap sometimes you can sort it by putting your hand over the outlet to block it then turning on the tap in a middle position so both hot and cold are open, the hot water will run up the cold pipes either pushing the air out or when you take your hand off it might start a siphon that sucks the air out of the cold pipe. Saves messing with hoses, worth a try if you can.

Wexford96

Got the garden hose onto outdoor tap and connected it to copper pipe leading to toilet. Turned on for 10 secs as you guys recommended and suddenly the airlock is freed up. Went ahead and re-fitted the short flexible pipe to the copper pipe and the other end to the cistern. Toilet is working perfectly now. And airlock is freed. Have hot and cold water around whole house. Huge result for me. All thanks to you guys who helped me out here. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Curious_Case

Wexford96 wrote: »

Got the garden hose onto outdoor tap and connected it to copper pipe leading to toilet. Turned on for 10 secs as you guys recommended and suddenly the airlock is freed up. Went ahead and re-fitted the short flexible pipe to the copper pipe and the other end to the cistern. Toilet is working perfectly now. And airlock is freed. Have hot and cold water around whole house. Huge result for me. All thanks to you guys who helped me out here. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Perfect result! - it probably took up a few hours altogether but you'll never need a plumber to solve that particular problem again : )

Bass Reeves

Wexford96 wrote: »

Got the garden hose onto outdoor tap and connected it to copper pipe leading to toilet. Turned on for 10 secs as you guys recommended and suddenly the airlock is freed up. Went ahead and re-fitted the short flexible pipe to the copper pipe and the other end to the cistern. Toilet is working perfectly now. And airlock is freed. Have hot and cold water around whole house. Huge result for me. All thanks to you guys who helped me out here. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Well done not only did you get it fixed you are now more au fait with the way the system works.

Wexford96

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Well done not only did you get it fixed you are now more au fait with the way the system works.

Exactly. I learned a lot today. When I hear others talking about tanks in the attic, overflow, valves etc. I wont be as lost as I used to be. Massive sense of satisfaction. Thank u

Wexford96

Curious_Case wrote: »

Perfect result! - it probably took up a few hours altogether but you'll never need a plumber to solve that particular problem again : )

Yes, it dominated the day completely. Thanks for the garden hose idea. I could literally hear the airlock giving way when that water pressure forced it out. Most satisfying sound I've heard in a v long time. Thanks a mill.