Help me understand my water system!

[mrspock]

Ok,

Any help would be appreciated!

I am trying to understand my heating and water system in my new house.

I have a boiler that does central heating and also heats hot water via a coil in a hot water cylinder.

I have a tank in the loft for cold water.

I have located a stop cock in a cupboard in the kitchen. the pipe is 15mm and comes from the floor (no other pipes in the kitchen are fed from the floor.

When I turn this stop cock off all the cold taps stop working except the kitchen which instead reduces to a slow constant flow.

Upstairs next to my hot water cylinder I have another cold pipe stop cock. It seems to go from downstairs kitchen to the loft (header tank feed?) it is also 15mm. If the first is open and this is closed all the taps but the kitchen stop. If both are off the kitchen stops too.

I am trying to figure out how my taps are fed and what these stop cocks actualy stop.

Bare with me and feel free to ask as many questions as possibe to help me get accurate info!

Thanks

 

[Jackrae]

Sounds like all the taps except the kitchen are fed from the main and the kitchen is fed from the storage tank. If that is the case you have a major cockup in your plumbing with potential health problems. The kitchen tap, which is your source of potable water must be fed direct from the mains supply.

In your bathroom, does the cold water run much faster than the hot; if so this would support the above presumption.

 

[mrspock]

That was something I was thinking.

I know the kitchen tap should be mains fed for health reasons.

The water pressure for hot is about 2/3rds the pressure from the cold.

I think the fact that the kitchen tap pipes come from upstairs makes me think your theory is correct!

I live in a council house currently rented. Would this be something I should report?

Thanks

 

[mrspock]

Bit late to try tonight as kids are asleep but do you think this would be a good test.

Turn stop cock in kichen (suspected main feed) to closed.

Turn kitchen tap on (only slow flow) and see if it eventualy stops?

That would confirm it is running from the loft tank?

Any other things I should check? Dont want to call and kick up a fuss to be told im wrong!

 

[gigz]

More likely that the stopcock isn't closing properly and its trickling out of the lowest tap. Try closing the stopcock, open first floor tap and see if it eventually starts trickling.

 

[Jackrae]

If it's rented property and you have concerns then you are perfectly entitled to query with your landlord. It's not your duty to prove there is a problem, it's his to prove there isn't one. And if the stop cock isn't closing properly it's his duty to repair it.

 

[pallen5000]

if you leave the kitchen tap running on slow flow while stop tap is off, if you turned stop tap back on does flow increase on kitchen tap? If it does I would agree with previous post about stop tap not isolating correctly.