Bathroom tap - low water flow

[Taylor Mitchell]

Hello,

We have a waterfall tap (https://www.betterbathrooms.com/tap.../quadratm-cloakroom-waterfall-basin-mixer-tap) in our bathroom (cold being fed from a water tank in the loft, hot from cylinder in the bedroom)
Recently the cold water flow has been getting worse, until it was almost a dribble.
At first I thought it was a dodgy gate valve in the loft from the tank so I replaced that. However the valve turned out to be fine.

I have tried removing the flexible tails from the water supply, both hot and cold have plenty of water pressure so it points to the problem being with the tap and/or the flexible tails.

Could this be an air lock problem in the tap itself, or perhaps a fault in the tap somewhere? Short of removing and replacing the tap, is there anything I can do to further diagnose the problem?

Thanks for any help!

 

[oldbuffer]

Assuming bathroom on 1st floor with loft above, then pressure to taps likely to be about 0.2 bar (2 metres head to base of cold water storage cistern). Tap designed for 0.5 bar minimum per link above.

However, it sounds as if the flow has been acceptable until recently. If that's the case, and given you have good flow to the point of connection of the flexible tails, it would point to a blockage in the flexi's or in the tap itself.

Things to do:

1. Check there are no kinks in, and no flattening of, the flexible hoses.
2. If you can, isolate hot and cold, remove each flexi from the tap in turn and see if you can get a decent flow through it. If not, replace flexi(s)
2. Some of those taps have a metal mesh at the back of the outlet spout. See if that is blocked / scaled up.
3. Try isolating the hot and cold, remove the monobloc valve, put a Pyrex bowl over the tap (to catch the water). Turn the hot and cold back on in turn. If the flow is OK, the valve needs replacing.

 

[Taylor Mitchell]

Thanks oldbuffer, I gave the mesh on the outlet a scrape and the water seems to flow normally. Annoyingly it’s been designed to control the flow in a certain way, with the blockage and me scraping the flow is now a little uncontrolled, but it’s certainly usable.
Thanks for you help!

 

[HERTS P&D]

I fixed one of these yesterday, it was blocked where the water comes out. Use a butter knife and slide it up where the water comes out then side to side to remove the limescale.

Andy

 

[Hot&Cold]

Taylor Mitchell,them taps sell for around £20 inc free postage from china

the budget water fail basin taps have a metal flow regulator which looks like a gauze filter,its located in the spout connection to the tap body.This gets restricted as they corrode due to the metal used.The fine mesh gets partially restricted,the retaining screws can also corrode/rust.


Iirc the better water fall taps ie bristain hampton,have a plastic flow regulator.As its a serviceable item (needs periodic cleaning) They have a detachable spout or a similar system to easily remove the flow regulator for cleaning.

Who thought we would be buying chinese taps

Edit,bristan and hansgrohe make decent water fall taps,not cheap