Confidence knocked badly

[Mike Jackson]

I had a call last year. There had been a fire in a flat and the FB had shut off the water to the whole building. When it was turned back on the basement flat had a very poor flow of hot water, it ran briefly then stopped. The previous 3 plumbers had turned up tried to get it going and declared that it must be a blockage and left. I turned up, checked the cistern for debris, found none and said it must be an airlock. Apparently the other guys had said this but changed their minds when they couldn't clear it. I got my highly expensive £35 Wickes wet vac out, put it on the bath tap and sucked. 30 seconds later, gurgle, gurgle splutter and they had a good flow of hot water.

 

[julesverne]

i used to blow down the vent in the attic before i found out about the wet vac trick. the lungs were grateful i can tell you.

tomorrow will better rocketman we all have to learn. i didnt come into this game till i was 36 so it can be a steep learning curve sometimes and you feel like tearing you hair out. but i couldnt think of another trade that i would enjoy doing so much.

being self employed and a plumber and Gas engineer is the best thing i ever did.

 

[Ray Stafford]

being self employed and a plumber and Gas engineer is the best thing i ever did.

Feck me, an upbeat plumber! They'll chuck you out of the union Jules, so they will. 🙂

You must learn to whinge and misery...

 

[Phil]

Everytime I get down I think how bad it would be to be an office drone......sat in a chair for 8 hours a day looking at your watch and getting fat.

Bottom lickers getting away with murder because they suck up to the boss while the ones who work hard and keep their head down with a raw deal.

 

[AWheating]

i had a real problem with an air lock once, i was lucky tho captain Kirk got it open 🙂 that pointy eared git just laughed at me.

 

[AWheating]

on a serious note, dont take the knock to heart. We have and will again all get stumped by something. You never stop learning in this game.

 

[julesverne]

Feck me, an upbeat plumber! They'll chuck you out of the union Jules, so they will. 🙂

You must learn to whinge and misery...

Why not i think its a great trade to be in. i don't try to compete with the divs around here doing cut price boilers swaps and i very rarely work for letting agents or landlords. it seems to work for me getting plenty of good big jobs repairs and little jobs. sure we all have bad days but they are rare.

 

[villa_tom]

Its easy to Think a day that didn't go to plan is a bad day, but if I learn something on one of my bad days then I'd consider it a good day really.

Ive had days that at the time I'd consider terrible, but at 5 o'clock them I'm home having a cuppa, I tend to realise that I've learnt something that I never knew at 8 o'clock when I left the house. I'd then consider it a good day.

 

[Linkyplumb]

Every day is a school day

 

[SimonG]

Every day is a school day

Aint that the truth. Thats what i enjoy about the job. Every day is different as well.

 

[Alex Pelton]

look at this way

1 did the tap fit well and look good when finished? yes

2 was there a flood of water? no

3 was the customer happy in the end? yes

you had a problem which you managed to solve. Not necessarily by your own knowledge but you knew how to solve by calling the right people, you problem solved. you were resourceful

Nothing wrong with the final result.

If anything give yourself a pat on the back and look forward to your next airlock knowing how you can solve it.

 

[AWheating]

Every day is a school day

what school did you go to? i never had to go in on the weekend. 🙂

 

[Rickster123]

What a chirpy bunch! It must be a 4 day week!

 

[SimonG]

What a chirpy bunch! It must be a 4 day week!

What! You mean its not Tuesday. Gonads 🙂

 

[cr0ft]

Get that vac... you will soon come to realise how you ever did without one

+1. Yet to find an air lock that my wet vac hasn't cleared. Just chuck it over a downstairs tap outlet, create a seal round the tap with your hand and out comes the air very quickly.

 

[heliotrope]

Good going rocketmanbkk you have now learned one of the many ways to clear
an air lock on HW down service.

I am wondering why you drained the tank to do the job rather than isolating the
cold feed to the cylinder. This would stop the flow of heated water almost instantly
and rarely causes air lock problems.

Most modern taps mix at the outlet rather than mixing in the tap body making it very
difficult to send mains up the hot to push out the air with hand over outlet.

The wet vac suggested by others would be the easiest way to pull the water through.

 

[Irish]

would've used a bung myself if no iso on the cold feed and if the gate valve looks more than 2 weeks old I'd use a bung also

 

[Resolute]

+1. Yet to find an air lock that my wet vac hasn't cleared. Just chuck it over a downstairs tap outlet, create a seal round the tap with your hand and out comes the air very quickly.

Worst one I had required a wet vac on the hot tap and someone blocking the vent from HWC. The air finally shifted then!

 

[SimonG]

Either hand over a mixer or washing machine from hot to cold.

 

[PlumbersMate]

When the wet vac doesn't work cracking a nut always does, just be careful.
one other tip is when you turn water back on make sure the tap is always always open!