Hot water tank not refilling - help please

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Hi and thanks for reading my post.

I have an indirect water system and I had to change a hot sink tap washer. I therefore shut off the cold feed to the cold water storage tank and opened the hot water taps to drain the hot water cylinder and presumable the cold water tank as well. I changed the tap washer and opened the cold feed to refill the cold storage tank, which did happen. Unfortunately the hot tank hasn't refilled. I've left the hot taps open to let air out, but it still doesn't refill. Can anyone suggest what to do next. Many thanks.
 
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did you shut offthe feed to the tank or the gate valve on the feed to the cylinder ??
 
Hi 2face and thanks for your quick response. I shut off the feed to the cold water storage tank, but I could not locate any type of valve in the feed to the hot water tank. Therefore I assumed the hot tank would refill once the cold tank started to refill.
 
Most likely an air lock has developed in the pipe from hot water cylinder to the tap. The hot tank will be standing full of water and would never have been drained by opening the tap. The pipe which draws hot water from the cylinder comes off the very top of the cylinder. The water will have drained out of the cold tank until it reached the level of the draw off pipe in the hot cylinder.

There are various techniques for forcing mains cold water up the hot tap back into the cylinder, forcing the airlock with it. It largely depends where the airlock is. If it is in a kitchen mixer you can take off the spout and hold a cloth over the hole while you turn on first the hot tap and then carefully open the cold. If you changed the washer in a single hot tap, are they taps to which you can attach a short length of hose to join hot and cold? Do a search in this forum for airlock and see what suits you best. You can buy a value hose in eg B&Q with a couple of clips for less than a tenner and cut a bit off.
 
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2 things to check .. firstly has the plastic tank filled up .. maybe ball valve is stuck shut ..

secondly there is air trapped at the top of the cylinder 1 solution is to place a piece of hose pipe from the hot tap to the cold tap .and turn the cold tap on therefore blowing cod water up the hot feed and pushing the air out .. (you may need help doing this .. )

let us know how u get on m8. :)
 
Thanks 2face and kwacker. Ironically I bought the tap headwork for the sink tap from B&Q. They should sell a plastic tube along with it. i'll try your suggestions and let you knwo how I get on.
 
Followed your suggestions and kwacker's about using the kitchen mixer tap (I didn't have a hose) and it worked!!! :LOL: Many thanks to you both and to this forum. Great.
 
Hi Prof.plumb. Maybe it was my mistake and the hot cylinder didn't empty, but the system's all working now and the cold water tank ball valve is working as I can hear the cold tank fill with water and the valve cut-off when water reaches the correct height. Thanks.
 

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