Hot water pressure - kitchen tap

[Bob]

Bit of advice please. My problem is with low pressure or flow in my kitchen mixer tap. The system is an unvented tank with a cold water tank in the loft. The hot water upstairs is fine <2m below cold water tank and between 3 - 5m across from hot tank which is virtually directly below cold supply. Downstairs the hw pipe goes straight down from the bathroom and then 5m across to the front of the house at a high level then down to supply two sinks. The first was an old laundry and has great presure. From this I have tee'd off to my new kitchen tap (Victorian Swan Neck Monobloc MixerTap by OEM at Top Class Carpentry Hazlemere and throughout the Uk) and the pressure is a joke. I am reasonably happy that it's not an air gap as the others work fine. Funny thing is the previous kitchen sink position ( directly under bathroom) had a similar problem with the old tap.
The laundry tap is lower than the kitchen but kitchen is much lower than bathroom so I'm a bit stumped.
Any Takers?

 

[ajs heating]

1. if your cylinder is supplyed by a cold water storage tank in the loft it is vented not unvented.

2. your tap looks like they are 1/4 turn.
have you the instructions for the tap ? is the cold supply ok ?
3 if all the above are yes, then you have fitted a mains pressure tap to gravity
pressure.

 

[Bob]

Yep. My mistake with the vented cylinder. Also correct on the 1/4 turn as are the laundry taps (normal seperate hot and cold tho) manuf. by bird. Don't know how usefull any of this info is. I did fear the taps were made for mains pressure. Can't find any instructions and web searches give no tech info as yet. I geuss all paperwork went in the bin when my plumber did the job. I suppose you would know this anyway but the connections at the bottom reduce down to a very small size - I think about 10mm. It came with copper and my plumber asked me to get flexi replacements. Any help? I geuss If I need to go shopping for a suitable replacement tap it would at least make my wife happier. Not sure what recourse I have with supplier with the lack of tech info supplied. Many thanks for the quick response btw.

Just realised I may have misunderstood part of your reply...Is cold supply ok? If you mean is the cold in that tap an ok pressure then yes it is fine maybe not as good as it could be but too much for the hot.

 

[ajs heating]

yes the info has told me enough.
the plumber should of know better, some need a kick up the backside.
the diameter of the inlets convinced me they are mains tap.
if you get new taps etc try for taps that are nearer to 0.1 bar as poss.
mains pressure taps will state working pressure 1.0 bar.
even 0.5 bar can be abit slow on gravity feeds.
so 0.1 bar are better on gravity but harder to get in 1/4turn because they are cartridges rather than the convensional rubber tap washer.
and cartridges have very small holes.

 

[Bob]

Much appreciatted. Just been searching for tech info on any site for any similar taps and found one that said it is suitable for low pressure but recommend 0.5 bar. That sounds like they haven't made up their mind to me. Still haven't found the info on my tap. Am I likely to pay a lot for a tap suitable for 0.1bar?

 

[ajs heating]

no depends on what style you want £60 up

 

[Bob]

OK. Thanks a lot. The search goes on....

 

[ajs heating]

screwfix do alot that suit gravity

 

[Tosh]

Just from my experience Low pressure taps are more expensive than High pressure but Don't listen to me I'm still a Newbie as far as the plumbing word goes.

Anyone tell me why low pressure taps are more expensive? Just so I know when a cust asks.

 

[sagsy]

have you checked that there are no kinks in the flexi hoses to taps?