Gravity Fed Hot Water Out Of One Tap Only At A Time..????

[The Lone Ranger]

Hello

I am hoping that someone out there can give me some advice please.

I have a 3 bed semi, with bathroom & w/c. The bathrooom also has an electric shower. We have a conventional vented boiler system (installed just previous to condensing boiler convention ) with the usual tanks in the loft and cylinder, pump and gubbins in a cupboard.

The problem is with the hot water system pressure, only one tap in the house can be opened at any given time which only produces a small flow.
If any other hot tap in the house calls for hot water the previously opened tap almost runs dry.

We have been living with this problem as we have adapted to use the mains fed electric shower, although this is far from ideal. We did have a pump fitted but everytime it came on the house sounded as though it was going to take off, so we had that removed, although it did work, well, at least better than we have now.

My usual plumber is now talking about replacing the pump with a more quiet model. I am in agreement with this as I know it will be better than 'as is'. I am wondering if this is the real problem as I have always had good water flow on this system before having new taps installed in the kitchen and bathroom.

Our central heating works fine....! Having read through some of this forum before I am wondering if there could be a fault with the boiler as I know for sure that the system was not powerflushed before the boiler was installed.

Thank You For The Interest, Any Advice Would Be Welcome & Appreciated.

 

[ChrisR]

"Air-lock", cries the foregathered throng. Has anyone done anything to try to sort this out?

 

[Gasman1015]

Hello


Our central heating works fine....! Having read through some of this forum before I am wondering if there could be a fault with the boiler as I know for sure that the system was not powerflushed before the boiler was installed.

Thank You For The Interest, Any Advice Would Be Welcome & Appreciated.

No, the boiler pipework is unrelated to your problem, could be airlock as ChrisR has suggested or gate valves not open properly.

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Thank You for The Replies.

My usual plumber was here on Monday and changed a flexi pipe to rigid and informed me that we need to reinstall a system pump. (a quiet one)

A friend did try putting a sponge in a plastic bag under the bath monoblock
last weekend as he thought it was some type of airlock but that did nothing, he then suggested connecting the cold mains into the hot water to clear out the airlock, I declined as I was unsure of the outcome and also thought it better to continue, with my usual plumber.

Hope this background gives more clues.

Thank You for your interest and help so far.

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Hello Again Professionals

I know that this is quite a long post for a first timer but any feedback would be greatly appreciated as I need to make a decision as to which course of action I should take.

Should I let my usual plumber fit another pump or if he has not spotted the problem that you say it is 'An airlock' should I tell him the answer...? or should I appoint someone else..? I feel awkward telling a professional in his field that his diagnosis is incorrect and the answer is....That in itself makes me lose faith.

I, like a previous poster am a pensioner and I am weary of letting strangers into my home. However, I cannot help wondering if my plumber is either taking me for a ride by dragging this out or cannot genuinely find/workout the fault.

Is there anything else that this problem could be...? Any comments will be gratefully received.

Thank you for your interest.

 

[Gasguru]

Correctly sized and installed pipework will not need a pump.

As said before check there are no partially closed gate valves etc.

Drag a hose (connected to the mains) up into the roof. Open the hot taps one at a time and force mains pressure water into the outlet within the cold tank.

You will need to determine which is the cold feed outlet to the cylinder - with a hot tap on you will feel the suction.

Don't go mad with the pressure though.

 

[BOB.DOLE]

well it could be crap in the system and the gravity pressure ant what it used to be a bit like your heart remady clean system out or stick the header tank on the roof side of the chimney stack

looks like you will have to spend some hiho silver

 

[Nige F]

Hello

I am hoping that someone out there can give me some advice please.

, only one tap in the house can be opened at any given time which only produces a small flow.
If any other hot tap in the house calls for hot water the previously opened tap almost runs dry.

. I am wondering if this is the real problem as I have always had good water flow on this system before having *****new taps installed in the kitchen and bathroom.******

Any Advice Would Be Welcome & Appreciated.

High pressure specific small internal bore crappo Chinese import taps

 

[ChrisR]

TLR - easier and standard way which will usually deal with air locks AND force blockages back up the pipes, is to connect your washing machine taps together with one of the hoses.

Conecte them, open both and the mains forces the hot back up into the strage cistern in the loft. It would overflow (down the overflow pipe) after a matter of minutes, so bursts of 10 -20 seconds are fine.

You might like to get someone onto the loft while doing it. If the water shoots out of the vent pipe above the cistern rather than back through the HW cylinder, put a thumb over the vent.

If you live in a really hard water area, the HW cylinder and pipes can block up with scale, by the way.

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Thank You for the answers Gentlemen

None of you agreed that I should reinstall a system pump, no matter how quiet. It appears from your answers that I may have a few different problems with the system please correct me if any I list are incorrect

1.) Airlock, maybe solved by connecting mains to hot water feed in tank and blasting for 20 second intervals with a hot tap open.

2.) Not enough head of pressure and therefore heighten the tank in loft.

3.) Hot feed pipes from cylinder corroded with limescale, may need to be replaced. (unless they can be cleaned....?)

I cannot connect hot and cold from washing machine as I only have a cold feed.

You also mention that it should be the correct size pipework, well what should the hot pipes be 15mm or 22mm as 22mm definitely leaves the cylinder.

I dont mind spending some Hi Ho Silver as long as a job is started and finished and now knowing some of the the many combinations of faults that may be causing this flow problem has helped me immensely and I have you chaps to Thank for that.

I know this is a forward question but with the information given would you say my regular plumber is taking me for a fool..?

or

is he of limited ability in the plumbing world..?

I feel I must ask this as he has failed to come up with a diagnosis that resembles any of the answers given here, I hold the answers given here in high esteem due to the giving and sharing nature of the posters , which is in complete contrast with everyday business where one can get burnt easily.

If anyone has any further information in regard this lengthy hiccup I will be most grateful. Thank You Very Much.

 

[Nige F]

Not cheap taps then

 

[The Lone Ranger]

NigeF

They are relatively cheap taps in the new fitted kitchen yes, but can this account for lack of flow through all hot taps in the house.?

Surley even cheap taps should produce some flow through more than one tap at a time ?

Thank You for your interest and answers.

 

[Nige F]

Agree there must be an airlock.OR broken gate valve .But a restrictive flow doesn`t help because the water needs to purge the air once it`s been pushed back up the pipework ...eg. the old full bore bath taps were good when say, the hot was airlocked .I used to connect mains to hot basin ...backfill....then open bath and let it rush out there.......some of the taps now have to be seen inside 1/4 inch bores I`ve seen I guess you could maybe narrow it down by trying the gatevalve on the pipe to the bottom of the hot cylinder .......opening and closing it and if it keeps turning one way or t`other it`s probaly broken inside ....Is it a hard water are you`re in ?

 

[doitall]

Gordon Bennett.

Any plumber should be able to open a tap and say you have an airlock just by the way it works, ( small quirt of water then stops)

if this guys a plumber I'll eat my hat.

Well I suppose he could be a 10 week wonder

 

[Nige F]

Burberry Baseball Cap