Hello,
I hope someone here can help me because I am so brassic I cant afford a plumber, although I can do some basic plumbing myself.
I have a flat with a Fortic F1 1200x450mm boiler/immersion heater thingy.
It's worked faultlessly for nearly 20 years. Recently I had to replace the the ball/float valve as it was pouring water out of the overflow onto me in the bath! Easy job, job done, new float valve fitted same size and type as the old one.
2 weeks on and I now cannot get a drop of hot water out of either the bath, hand basin or kitchen taps. In fact when I open the kitchen or hand basin taps I can hear air being drawn into the tap!
I have tried blowing air, using tubing into the system, which allowed me a reasonable trickle of hot water in the bath to bathe with. That has no effect anymore. I've even sucked water out, and resealed the tap. A day later though its back to sucking air in again. I still have a tiny trickle from the bath tap, but not any useable amount of hot water.
I went to a Plumb Base store and described these problems and they said , whilst it sounded odd, try this: Get a push-on tap shower kit, and pull it apart, so you can force cold water back up the hot pipes.
Well I've done that overnight, through all taps until the water is coming out the overflow and the systems pipes are full and all taps are flowing, albeit cold water. Great I think, airlocks gone, turn off the taps, turn the immersion element back on, hot bath tomorrow morning.
Morning comes. Same as usual. Plenty of hot water, but wont leave the taps. Opening basin or kitchen sinks gets a hissing noise as air is sucked in.
I have now drained the system right down with the ball valve supply shut off through the drain cock with the the ball valve open, and closed to try and flush it through. Both times water came out of all hot taps with a steady good flow. Airlocks not evident.
I've done it in reverse. Last night I fed cold water from the mains supply (which has a high pressure) in via the drain cock until it flowed out of the all taps and the overflow. Turned off all the taps, powered up the system, and once again, the same thing happens. Hot water refuses to leave the bath tap in anything but the tiniest trickle and the kitchen and basin taps suck air in!
It's a hard water area, and I also cannot crack the tank to get to the immersion. I'm worried if I hit the immersion spanner any harder I'll rupture the walls of the tank as its already looking sightly bent!
I think I may be able to get the hot water out pipe off and have a look at the tank interior.
I'm not sure if scale build up is my problem anyway. The water flowed steadily right up until a fortnight ago and shortly after I changed a float valve.
I suspect that there is some kind of airlock inside the hot tank, rather than the pipes. I cannot find any open bleed valves or leaks anywhere in the flat, so I don't think air is getting in or water is draining out from the pipes
Any advice please. I am having to shower at work now, and weekends I have no hot water and resort to filling kettles!
The cheapest I've seen a Fortic F1 is for £180. Should I just buy it and plumb it in?
Andy RSVP
I hope someone here can help me because I am so brassic I cant afford a plumber, although I can do some basic plumbing myself.
I have a flat with a Fortic F1 1200x450mm boiler/immersion heater thingy.
It's worked faultlessly for nearly 20 years. Recently I had to replace the the ball/float valve as it was pouring water out of the overflow onto me in the bath! Easy job, job done, new float valve fitted same size and type as the old one.
2 weeks on and I now cannot get a drop of hot water out of either the bath, hand basin or kitchen taps. In fact when I open the kitchen or hand basin taps I can hear air being drawn into the tap!
I have tried blowing air, using tubing into the system, which allowed me a reasonable trickle of hot water in the bath to bathe with. That has no effect anymore. I've even sucked water out, and resealed the tap. A day later though its back to sucking air in again. I still have a tiny trickle from the bath tap, but not any useable amount of hot water.
I went to a Plumb Base store and described these problems and they said , whilst it sounded odd, try this: Get a push-on tap shower kit, and pull it apart, so you can force cold water back up the hot pipes.
Well I've done that overnight, through all taps until the water is coming out the overflow and the systems pipes are full and all taps are flowing, albeit cold water. Great I think, airlocks gone, turn off the taps, turn the immersion element back on, hot bath tomorrow morning.
Morning comes. Same as usual. Plenty of hot water, but wont leave the taps. Opening basin or kitchen sinks gets a hissing noise as air is sucked in.
I have now drained the system right down with the ball valve supply shut off through the drain cock with the the ball valve open, and closed to try and flush it through. Both times water came out of all hot taps with a steady good flow. Airlocks not evident.
I've done it in reverse. Last night I fed cold water from the mains supply (which has a high pressure) in via the drain cock until it flowed out of the all taps and the overflow. Turned off all the taps, powered up the system, and once again, the same thing happens. Hot water refuses to leave the bath tap in anything but the tiniest trickle and the kitchen and basin taps suck air in!
It's a hard water area, and I also cannot crack the tank to get to the immersion. I'm worried if I hit the immersion spanner any harder I'll rupture the walls of the tank as its already looking sightly bent!
I think I may be able to get the hot water out pipe off and have a look at the tank interior.
I'm not sure if scale build up is my problem anyway. The water flowed steadily right up until a fortnight ago and shortly after I changed a float valve.
I suspect that there is some kind of airlock inside the hot tank, rather than the pipes. I cannot find any open bleed valves or leaks anywhere in the flat, so I don't think air is getting in or water is draining out from the pipes
Any advice please. I am having to shower at work now, and weekends I have no hot water and resort to filling kettles!
The cheapest I've seen a Fortic F1 is for £180. Should I just buy it and plumb it in?
Andy RSVP
