No Hot Water Upstairs!

Munkus · 3 Mar 2005

The hot tap on the bathroom sink lately had little or no pressure. This morning the bath tap has just done the same thing!

Starts to trickle but after a few secs dies off to nothing. Hot water in the kitchen seems fine. Any help would be very much appreciated.

ChrisR · 3 Mar 2005

AIr in the pipe, or some muck blocking it. In kitchen try connecting hot and cold washing machine taps with one ofthe hoses, and open both for 10 seconds. That will push cold back up the hot and may clear your problem.

felix · 3 Mar 2005

Things to check:

1) Have you looked in your cold storage tank? Is it full of water?

2) Is the outlet clearly visible or is it half buried in sludge?

3) Does your kitchen tap come from the same tank as the others or is it on an instantaneous heater?

Munkus · 3 Mar 2005

Many thanks for your help. I think all the water comes from the same tank in the loft. We have a boiler that sits in an outhouse that's built onto the side of the house. This has a frost stat thing that comes on in the winter. Should I get up in the loft and check the tank has water in it? Sorry to sound stupid

but plumbing isn't really my bag but I'll have a good go at your suggestions as soon as I get home from work.

Thanks again.

Munkus · 3 Mar 2005

ChrisR said:
AIr in the pipe, or some muck blocking it. In kitchen try connecting hot and cold washing machine taps with one ofthe hoses, and open both for 10 seconds. That will push cold back up the hot and may clear your problem.

Hi ChrisR,

Do you want me to disconnect one of the pipes that feeds the washing machine with water?

Cheers, Dan.

ChrisR · 3 Mar 2005

Yes. Unless you happen to have separate kitchen taps which you can fix a hose to - usually messy!

Turn the washing machine valves off.
Undo one, say the ble, from the w/m. (Dribbles)
Undo the red one from its tap.
Screw the free end ofthe blue on onto the red/hot supply tap.
Turn the hot (red) tap on. (nothing happens)
Turn the blue(cold) tap on and you'll hear the water flowing. Try it for say 5 seconds. Then turn off.
Try the upstair tap(s).
Yo may need a longer blast, though you'll be filling the loft cistern which will eventually overflow.

As felix says, check for sludgy stuff first and bale out what you can.

Munkus · 3 Mar 2005

Will the sludgy stuff be easy to find if it is the prob?
Isn't the water outlet from the tank just a sealed pipe?
How could I tell if there was muck?

Sorry to sound like a dork again - work in graphics- plumbimg scares me and never had to deal with it before!

I've called a plumber but can't get here til Wednesday so gonna have try a few more numbers in the book.

Hate cold showers! (Water comes from the hot bath tap!)

Oh yeah - more good news... My washing machine taps appear to be sealed to the machine!

felix · 4 Mar 2005

You should definitely get up on the loft and inspect your tank, if only to reduce your chances of being ripped off by a rogue plumber! There will more than likely be two tanks in there. The big one is the cold feed for you hot water; the small one is for your boiler. You might as well have a look at both. If the heating is off, the small tank won't have much water in it. This is normal. The big tank should have lots of nice clean water in it and the open end of the outlet pipe should be clearly visible INSIDE the tank.

Markie99 · 29 Jan 2010

ChrisR said:
AIr in the pipe, or some muck blocking it. In kitchen try connecting hot and cold washing machine taps with one ofthe hoses, and open both for 10 seconds. That will push cold back up the hot and may clear your problem.

ChrisR, your a genius was about to fork out £150 to solve this problem. Problem was obviously air in the pipe, not sludge as i checked the tank first.

I had hot water downstairs and at the washing machine so doing this at that end wasn't going to work. But following your strategy applied the same principle upstairs on the taps that wweren'tworking. Unfortunately all the taps were mixer taps so had to get a little inventive.

Cling Film - yep the stuff you wrap your sandwiches in - unauthadox i know but very effective. Basically stuffed cling film into the out flow, then wrapped it so it was water tight. opened the hot then opened the cold. Needed to do this 4 or 5 times but the net effect I can have a bath now

oh and I still have my £150.

This approach is probably not recommended and I am definitely not a plumber therefore if any one copies this it is entirely their responsibility - maybe it will work maybe it will flood your house but it saved my wife from wingeing about cold baths any more

Your a star thanks a lot!!

Rico99 · 29 Jan 2010

Nothing wrong with the way you did it, I would normally just use a sponge.

You still could have done it from the washing machine hoses, as the cold mains will push the air all the way from downstairs.

Best to have someone in the loft though, so they can shout you when the water stars coming in from the vent pipe. Would cut down on the number of attempts.

Fairplay to you

Rico

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No Hot Water Upstairs!

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