Bristan 1901 deck shower/mixer tap

[Leoki]

I am looking at a Bristan 1901 deck mounted bath shower/mixer tap. Until a couple of days ago when you turned the hot tap on you got a reasonable flow of hot water, the hot water is gravity fed from the vented hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard which is in the bathroom. The flow is now down to a trickle/dribble with the tap fully open. The cylinder in the hot water side has been replaced with a geunine Bristan part but this has made no change. There were no obvious signs of debris or a blockage in the main tap body whilst the cylinder was out. Under the bath rising from the floor is the 22mm hot water pipe which is hot to the touch. From this pipe there is a 22mm push fit flexible tap connector. The flexible tap connector is not unduely stretched or kinked nothing to explain why the flow would have suddenly reduced in the past fornight when the tap has been installed for nearly 3 years and has been trouble free until now. I am thinking either an air lock in the hot water pipework or for some reason the flexible tap hose has become blocked. Could the rubber hose inside the braiding have become constricted/reduced, a bit like a blocked artery ?. I ask because i have never come across this if it has ?

Any thoughts ?

 

[ecowarm]

I had the same thing a couple of months ago, I took the tap apart and with a container over the hole to direct the water into the bath I got the customer to turn on the hot water, and out came a lump of loft insulation. It may be worth a try. And yet the rubber inside the hose can restrict some times

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

The flexi can restrict flow but I have have not heard of a flexi faling by the rubber internally kinking

I would guess air lock or debris

can you take the taps off?

Is it gravity hot, mains cold?

 

[Leoki]

Hi Guys, thanks for the responses. The hot and cold water to the tap are both gravity fed. I have in the end removed the flexible tap connector and fabricated a copper pipe replacement which appears to have resolved the problem. You can look through the flexible tap connector, the side walls do not appear to have collapsed but when hot and because the connecor had been positioned with a bit of an off set in it i think the bore of the pipe was reducing when hot and simply expanding out again when cold.