Air Lock in water pipes

[Rob Cam]

Hi there,
Last week, the hot water (mixer) tap in the bathroom on ground floor stopped running. I assumed it was due to an air lock in the pipes. We have a gravity fed system, with a cold water tank at the top of the house and a vented hot water cylinder on the ground floor. We have a conventional boiler as house is 3 storey townhouse.

I tried to force the cold water back up but didn't work. So today I drained the cold water tank right down and then refilled. Unfortunately it has made the situation worse, with the showers not working and hot and cold bathroom taps not running.

I am keen to try to rectify it (as I have made it worse!) so any advice most welcome.

thanks
Rob

 

[Aire]

First thing to try is turn your showers to full hot. Take the shower head off and hold the hose at the base of the tray/bath. Open the shower and see if that helps.

 

[Jim Goodenough]

Have you actually looked inside your cold water tank to see if the outlet(s) are restricted/blocked at all?

 

[Rob Foster]

If you have a mixer tap in your kitchen with hopefully mains cold supply (otherwise its illegal) then its easy...close off the output spout as best as you can..I use a G Clamp and a few beers mats. Then turn on the hot side fully..and then go around all the other hot taps, then go back and really give it some from the kitchen cold side
this usually blows most of the cobwebs away..and then reverse above ...sometimes sorted ... Rob Foster aka centralheatking

 

[Rob Cam]

First thing to try is turn your showers to full hot. Take the shower head off and hold the hose at the base of the tray/bath. Open the shower and see if that helps.

thanks for reply. This helped. I did this on the ground floor shower and it spluttered into action. Now back to normal. However, the hot water in GF mixer sink (bathroom) still not working (cold water ok). On first shower, didn't work. Its very odd but on ff bathroom, the bath mixer hot water works, but not cold, the shower hot water works but not cold and the sink hot water works but not cold. I will try the suggestion about holding the tap in kitchen. thanks again

 

[Rob Cam]

Have you actually looked inside your cold water tank to see if the outlet(s) are restricted/blocked at all?

thanks for reply, not yet as it is hard to get to. The cold water on the GF bathroom seems to be fine, so not sure it is a restriction from the cold water tank.

 

[Rob Cam]

If you have a mixer tap in your kitchen with hopefully mains cold supply (otherwise its illegal) then its easy...close off the output spout as best as you can..I use a G Clamp and a few beers mats. Then turn on the hot side fully..and then go around all the other hot taps, then go back and really give it some from the kitchen cold side
this usually blows most of the cobwebs away..and then reverse above ...sometimes sorted . Rob Foster aka centralheatking

thanks will give it a shot, sounds like it will be messy!

 

[Burger]

It could be that some of your cold plumbing is off the main and some off the cold water tank. Also any of your taps compressive type (fully turn to open)? Have you had any work carried out recently?

 

[journeymanplumber]

If you can/have a wet vacume handy you could try attaching it to the taps that are not working and pull the air lock and water through. I going on the info you have provided it sounds like all your bathrooms are feed from the storage tank in the loft cold and hot via the hot water cylinder. Wet vac usually works if there is no cold mains water near by

 

[WHPES]

I had this problem with a customer once. Took ages to figure it out, but on blowing back the other way we found that the decomposing head of a dead mouse had become jammed in the pipework. The mouse had chewed through the cistern lid and fallen in and drowned. The customer got me back very quickly afterwards to upgrade the system to an unvented one!!