Cistern very slow to fill.

[BoDon]

Hi,
I know this seems a repeated question on the forum, I have already researched this site, however here's the deal.

I have recently moved into my house, so I have no history on the problem. The house is mid-70's and it has an indirect system feeding the cistern.
As mentioned I have a very slow filling cistern, it takes about 15mins to fill.
I have checked the ball valve and the float valve washer everything ok. next I plugged the water tank (in the loft) outlet disconnected the ball valve and removed the washer, I returned to the tank, removed the plug and the flow into the cistern was still slow.

Now this leads me to thinking the pipe from the tank to the cistern may be partially blocked (there does seem to be a lot of - brown/black/gritty stuff settled in the bottom of the tank??! - tank is 'blue' glass fibre). or it is simply just gravity and a cr*p system?.

My only option seems to be to 'T' off the 'mains' feed to the tank into the feed of the cistern. hopefully the mains pressure would 'blow-out' any blockage and in turn i would get a super-fast fill rate, and also make the tank in the loft redundant - I have a combi and no hot water tank. I could then dispose of the tank?

your thoughts would be appreciated
Regards.

 

[kevplumb]

if it's a standard ball valve try a (red) low pressuse seating

 

[BoDon]

Thanks Kev,
I'll just nip home (lunch break) and check.

 

[BoDon]

Ok, the 'ball' in the cistern is black so presumably I need to try a low pressure 'red' ball valve c/w assembly?

 

[kevplumb]

the seating is the nozzle that fits inside the valve

the bit the washer closes against to cut off the water

 

[BoDon]

Sorry, Thx. I am just an ordinary diy'er. I fly a PC for a living, I didn't quite understand the seating bit. I do now though.

I did think about dismantling the valve however, I didn't have time to isolate/drain the water supply on my break, otherwise i may have been posting this in 'DIY Disasters!' dripping wet at my desk.

however, when I checked out the washer I did have a look at the 'seat' as it nearly fell down the plug hole! i'm sure it wasn't red, a gray-ish colour if i recall.

I''ll have a proper look tonight.

Thanks again.

 

[Nige F]

Grey-ish = high pressure Red = low pressure

 

[BoDon]

Thanks Nige, at least my memory and eyesite seems to be in working order! hopefully soon, my loo too!

I imagine i could purchase this item at my local B@Q or H-Base? or if it's a more specialised item, Plumb-Centre?

cheers!

EDIT: don't have a Wicks here..

 

[ricarbo]

Some floatvalves have a filter which can get blocked If you take the whole thing to bits you can clean it out. A brand new float valve is not expensive and might be quickest/best fix, particularly if the old one is noisy. You should be able to get a virually silent fill in under a minute.

 

[MANDATE]

When you visit B & Q have a look at the replacement valve assemblies.
You will find the 'blue' plastic seat is already fitted in place and the 'red' one is clipped to the valve arm, so you can fit whichever suits your system. The hole in the low pressure one is about twice the size of the high pressure one. The time it takes to fill from your tank will also be affected by the vertical distance from water level in tank.
My tank is in the bathroom so not much pressure for the bathroom cistern and that is why it is fed from the mains. Having said that I bought a replacement high pressure one from B & Q 95p and it was white, but I've not fitted it yet.

 

[BoDon]

Thanks for all the advice,

I did visit B&Q and purchased a 'low' pressure nozzel for 88p! it also was 'white'. I fitted it last night and the loo now works a treat! I 'sat' and flushed away several times and the average fill time is now approxamatly 70 seconds!! result.

Happy days in the household!!
Best regards.

 

[kevplumb]

we try