Repeated Airlock in Bathroom

brooksp123

Hi, Can anyone advise as to why the cold water to my bathroom keeps airlocking?

This originally happened about 12 months ago and has happened 3-4 times since.
It’s an upstairs bathroom, fed from a tank in the attic. The tank is about 8 Meters away and feeds a bath, sink and toilet. The tank seems to be always full of water so no air is getting in there.

The first time it happened, I called a plumber out and he vacuumed out the cold tap until water flowed, I thought that would be the problem fixed. All was good for about 6-7 months and then it blocked up again. Instead of calling a plumber I cleared the air myself, I connected a hose to the mains tap downstairs, and forced water up the bathroom taps, this resulted in lots of air bubbles being forced into the attic tank, and then everything worked OK.

It seems to have become more regular now though, My fix only lasted about 2 months, so I repeated the process again, which worked, but it only lasted about 6 weeks this time. Now I seem to have to repeat it every 3-4 weeks.

I do wait until all the bubbles of air stop going into the tank and run the sink tap / fill the toilet so I am fairly confident all the air is out of the pipes when I finish.

I cannot think as to why it keeps happening. It worked without problem for 10 years previously since I got our bathroom remodelled.

Our toilet is fitted with a bottom entry cistern fill valve, is there any way that this could be faulty? And allowing air into the system? The only reason I mention this is because it seems to be a bit noisier than it used to be when filling the cistern.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Sleeper12

My guess is that the cold water tank isn't filling fast enough. Water level drops, sucks in air & the tank is full again a few minutes later. Could be a faulty ballcock or you might need a bigger or 2nd water tank.

I can't see how it can become airlocked any way except from the cold water tank

John.G

Those bottom entry cistern fill valves can give a massive flow, maybe its creating a vacuum and drawing in air somewhere, I installed one in a d/stairs (mains fed) toilet and had to install a penny valve to throttle it, otherwise the cold pressure elsewhere fell a lot, this from a mains pressure of 3.5bar

brooksp123

Thanks for the replies guys