What's wrong with the hot water?

Uranoos

Excuse the length of this post, but I'm at my wits end:

My parents live in a bungalow, and ever since the big freeze, their hot water pressure has plummeted. The shower is incredibly temperamental, splutters and farts at times giving a small amount of decent pressure, but most of the time it's pathetic. The taps in the kitchen and bathroom are just as bad, the kitchen tap is was never great, but the last year or so it's gotten so bad it's barely worth using.

They've tried raising the tank in the roof (didn't help), have plans to get a new cylinder, but I don't believe that will help either. Their water is heated by a large, solid fuel cooker that used to heat the tank in no time and keep water boiling for multiple people, but now it can't even handle one of them having a quick shower. The weird thing is that when the power went out one day, the cooker was going & the hot water couldn't circulate. The tank was full of boiling water when the power came back & my father jumped in the shower, he was shocked at how strong the pressure was, but it slowly declined over time. The pressure gets even worse when the radiators are on in winter, it's horrendous.

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on where to start figuring out the issue. I've helped them push water back through the pipes, checked the shower head and taps, everything suggested online. Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Would anyone have any idea what the problem could be?

whizbang

The kitchen cold tap is the first check. On mains supply ? You should have a solid continuous flow of water here regardless of anything else thats wrong.

Make sure there's no leaks anywhere, particularly in the solid fuel cooker. Can be hard to spot. Could also be blocked.. Bypass the Solid fuel part to test, if pressure is ok, thats the problem.

Is is a vented or pressurised heating system ?

Uranoos

The kitchen cold tap is grand, never any issues with it, they're on the mains.

How would you go about bypassing the solid fuel cooker?

I'm going to be honest, I haven't a clue. I'd hazard a guess and say vented, but the cylinder is an old copper boiler that's about 20 years old if I'm correct.

Calahonda52

Just guessing here, but fire up the cooker and have look at the smoke from chimney, may have water vapour in it which would suggest a crack in the firebox which only leaks when it heats up and expands.

The other piece is tie up the stop cock in the tank, don't use any other water and see does it drop when stove is on.

Where does the expansion pipe vent to?

Just guessing here

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122648285#Comment_122648285

I was actually thinking along similar lines - but the part of the story where the OP said "splutters and farts at times" is hinting to me that the coil in the cylinder might be leaking. The tell-tale for that is usually dirty/discoloured water, with a slight heavy smell from disolved metals and corrosion… but if the system is being flushed through frequently (by being holed since 2010) then they might not notice any change.

10-10-20

To diagnose that… I'm presuming here that there are two tanks in the attic - one cold water and then other for the heating system.

I suppose you could close off the feed into the cylinder from the attic, or do what Calahonda suggested and tie-up the ball-cock, leaving the heating system one open. Then open a hot tap downstairs and see if the heating system tank starts drawing water.

I'll bet two pound coins and a bunch of grapes that it's the cylinder coil.

Uranoos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122648406#Comment_122648406

There's one tank for the water and then another for the cylinder to take any excess water from it. Again, I'm not entirely sure, my system is completely different from my parents' and it's a blind spot for me.

Now that you mention it, the water isn't discoloured but for a long time there was this weird black sludge stuff that was coming from the taps, not often, but every now and again once it was finished sputtering. Would an immersion coil be the same thing? Because I'm almost 90% sure that's what's in it.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122648894#Comment_122648894

At a guess, it could be. Only a pressure-test or the one described will tell. The other option would be to put food dye into the smaller tank (for the heating system) and see if it comes out into the hot water. Be careful with the dosing, or your parents will become smurfs.