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  • Plumbing question. Hot water just a dribble. Is this an air lock? How to fix?
  • midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Evening all.

    Back during lockdown, elderly mother in law had a new bathroom fitted. One hole basin, mixer tap. Some time later she tells us she is only getting a dribble of hot at best, and asks me for help. Thinking maybe the tap had gone bad, or wasn’t meant for low pressure systems in the first place, we loaded a few tools and headed into Wales from Yorkshire to see if we could sort it.

    Sure enough, plenty of cold, tiny dribble of hot. Kitchen tap better, but not super. As a diagnostic, I undo the flexi hose leading to the hot side of the mixer and run it into a bucket, plenty of flow and acceptable pressure. Thinking I had proved the tap at fault, I run to Screwfix and fetch a similar tap listed as suitable for low pressure. Problem solved, new tap on, MIL happy.

    Now a couple of months down the line, it’s back. I don’t know how to fix it. It’s a bungalow with a tank with immersion heater in a bedroom, with header tank above in loft. Mains pressure varies, on a Welsh hillside village in Flintshire. Swapping the sink to have separate taps is one option, but this shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

    Any pointers?

    Cheers.

    Bear
    Free Member

    Is there a flow straightener on the spout that you can unscrew? If so take it off and clean it out, maybe remove the aerator if it has one and you are on low pressure

    timba
    Free Member

    Put your thumb over the mixer outlet. Turn the hot on, followed by the cold and the cold will push air back up into the cylinder. A few seconds should be plenty
    You’ll soon know if you have small/weak thumbs so have an assistant with towels ready
    EDIT tends to happen if the cylinder is small or isn’t refilled as fast as it empties, e.g. a bath

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    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Put your thumb over the mixer outlet. Turn the hot on, followed by the cold and the cold will push air back up into the cylinder. A few seconds should be plenty

    This +1, although easier with your palm IME

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Thanks.

    Bear, I think there is one, but I’m fairly sure MIL wont be able to unscrew it. I’m in Yorkshire, the tap is in Wales.

    Timba, I think I tried that before swapping the tap, but didn’t fix it. MIL pretty frail and wouldn’t manage. (There is a not quite FIL too, but as an ex farmer his solutions usually start with a tractor and chains and subtlety isn’t his thing).

    Would non return valves near the taps help? My intention is to pop over for a day and be in and out with a permanent foolproof fix.

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Hol’up.

    The thumb/palm squirty manoeuvre.

    Could I plumb in an easier to work (for elderly hands)version with a boiler filling loop or a pair of isolation valves, behind the basin pillar?

    timba
    Free Member

    ‘appen
    Suitable garden hose connector. Two taps = two connectors and short length of hose
    Mono tap = mono connector short length of blocked up hose. One of each?

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Yes, I can do it discretely behind the pillar with a couple of tees, valves and a boiler filler loop, with easy instructions for them or a neighbour with better hands to follow when it happens again. Sounds like a plan, maybe a non return valve in the cold line too far water regs sake, but I’m fairly sure this breaks a few anyway.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    We lost HW in the kitchen a few months back, turned out a wasp had got into the header tank (to nest I assume) and ended up drowning and blocking an isolation valve just below the sink!

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/2ndMrVM]Wasp in the plumbing![/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

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