Real back airlock - exhausted all options...

[Namo Amituofo]

I fixed some leaking pipes from floor board nails - but replacing the damaged sections with new pipes and used compression fittings to join them together.

Leakage fixed - but I now have a REALLY BAD AIRLOCK...

- No CW in ground floor bathroom faucet or toilet cistern
- HW good in ground floor bathroom
- both CW and HW good in ground floor kitchen

In my house CW is NOT gravity fed - the loft tank has been empty / deserted from the day I moved in (a few years ago) - there is CH on 1st floor though - but no bathroom hence no HW / CW in 1st floor.

What I've tried so far in ground floor bathroom:

1) direct HW to CW in bathroom faucet - no luck clearing the airlock

2) flush outside tap into bathroom CW faucet - no luck clearing the airlock - gone only as far as filling the toilet cistern but once cistern full the water wont flow further from outside tape into the house...

3) pump air into bathroom CW faucet by using a drill bit pump - no luck

4) suck air out out of bathroom CW faucet by using a really powerful Henry hoover - no luck - tried it for 5 mins and the hoover engine starts to smell of smoking plastic - so I stopped...

Anything else I can try?? :dunno:

Thanks
Namo Amituofo

 

[Chuck]

Assuming you didn't mess up your repair and isolate the bathroom CW it seems more likely that you left a valve closed after making the repair. It's not uncommon for gate valves to stick shut even though the wheel turns.

 

[Namo Amituofo]

I omitted to say - after I've done my repair - CW in bathroom worked fine for a couple of days - then one day I turn on CW in bathroom faucet and a loud 'thud' sound then no CW at all... I also looked at inside stopcock - went as far as replacing it with a brand new one - still no luck

 

[Darren Jackson]

You say your CW is not gravity, So highly unlikely to be an air lock. As mentioned above, more likely to be a stuck iso valve or a closed valve you may have forgotten to turn back on. Double check that all valves are turned back on properly & are not seiezd also not good practice to use compression under floor boards.

 

[Namo Amituofo]

Thank you all - I really appreciate it! Problem solved - found out the stopcock (not the main inside stopcock - no idea why someone would use a stopcock to isolate CW from bathroom...) between kitchen and bathroom was fitted the wrong way round!! It'd been working as it supposed to do for years, but guess when I switched off/on outside stopcock for fixing the leaks, the extra pressure must have floated the jumper or what.

And re using compression fitting under floorboards - yes I appreciate that - as a 1st time plumbing attempt I did buy the whole soldering kit (including fire extinguisher) but was reserving it as 'last resort'

Cheers all
Namo Amituofo

 

[firemant]

Nicely repaired, Namo. But you might have given credit to Dan Robinson on DIYNOT for pointing you in the right direction

https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/real-bad-airlock.487892/

Thank you Dan - brilliant tip - I knew I was missing something simple...!! What happened was - whoever fitted the old stopcock fitted it the wrong way, so when I replaced it with the new stopcock I put it in the same direction - and I was trying to fix it on my own, so didn't test which direction water flows... I had someone today help me to toggle on/off the outside stopcock - and immediately I realised it's wrong way round!

Problem solved! Thanks a lot mate!
Namo Amituofo

 

[Dilalio]