Low pressure & Poor Cold water supply to upstairs Bathroom

[Wotevaz]

Ok heres the deal, have been to 2 separate property's in the past 2 weeks. Both with the same problem, tank fed Bath, Basin, WC.
The flow is so bad in one that the cold tap is pointless. Now ive read alot about blasting the 'blockage?' through by connecting to mains supply and taps, but cannot do this as the tap are all mixer's and there no way possible to put a hose or anything really over the outlet.

Im quite convinced that there is a blockage somewhere in the pipework, but something i also read about Aeration? springs to mind, as in one tank the ball valve sits directly above the feed from the tank. So aside from poking through the pipework, or paying someone with the tools. Im not sure what i can do.

Apart from try moving the ball valve to the other side of the tank, the head should be fine as it all looks like other places ive been too.
Although there is a very long stretch of horizontal pipework that come's out from feed and then into the Bathroom.

Downstairs flow is fine, hot water flow is fine, just a dribble in both UPSTAIRS bathrooms.

Any ideas folks? be much appreciated.

 

[Wotevaz]

I can see from other threads that i may have to go with the attach hose to standpipe and try to blast said blockage free, back up in to the tank......

 

[PlumbBobBob]

what is the hot flow like?

 

[tinners]

Ok ref mixer tap ok turn on the poor cold tap upstairs , get a hose from outside tap as it be using mains supply ....since u say downstairs is fine it is blocked or maybe mixer tap is not fully opening , since that is a presumption we go with trying to clear the pipe first ...connect outside tap with pipe and take other end upstairs inside the cold water storage tank u see 2 holes 1 for warm and 1 for cold feed we need the cold so if unsure which is which ,turn upstairs warm tap on shut off from cold water storage to locate which is warm ......label that with piece of red insulation tap for future reference...........ok so we know now which cold and warm feed from cold storage tank

take the pipe which is attached to outside hose and put the other end of the pipe inside the cold storage tank, place that pipe just inside the cold feed located inside the cold storage tank, get someone to turn outside tap on and with the cold mixer tap which u have opened off course prior to this .....give it just a min or so should be enough to clear it .....wait and see what happens ......hope this helps

i used this method many times in past clearing blockages ...........remember mixer valves can stick and not fully open although u think they are

if above fails i be taking the tap off (mixer valve|)and inspecting it

 

[Wotevaz]

Hot flow is fine and strong, and thanks for your info. I know its not the taps because the poor flow is the same on the bath and the WC. No one seems to know in the house if its aslways been like that or its just happened!

 

[tinners]

have u tried doing what i said it take all of few minutes my friend ..........i have a another idea if that fails as it be a process of elimination

ok here is peace of mind of what is happening and will tell you for sure what the problem is
1. go to bathroom
2. see if under the sink they have a isolating valve on each of cold and hot pipes
3 well good skills prevailing they should have
4. turn off each valve
5, get a bucket and after undoing the mixer valve turn on each valve ...first try warm as it fine the water will come out and go into the bucket .....repeat for the cold and see what flow is like
6. if flow is poor here then there must be problem from cold storage feed to that point , as in just prior to isolating valve if feed is poor u need to clear the line as i said ..........but if the cold is ok then at least u know not the problem is in fact the mixer tap .....just replace it then.

 

[Wotevaz]

Am not actually at the addresses at moment dude, gonna do it Fri & Sat of this week, so what your saying is theres no need to drain the tank down?

 

[Dannyparty92]

What's your other idea tinners I'm interested .

 

[PlumbBobBob]

presumably hot and cold will be fed from the same cwst but with different tappings. there could be something blocking the cold feed or restricting it.

 

[Wotevaz]

exactly my thoughts....with the 'blockage' @ unknown location will try your method first, then if not drain and try to blow it upwards back where it came, and if not......pull the pipework apart and see whats going on yeah?

Thanks for all your help so far.....

 

[tinners]

no u dont need drain tank my friend just follow what i said at least u know what is what .......if isolating valves are attached sink do it that way but at least it will pinpoint what is your problem and i have said what to do once u tried the above solutions i check back on monday next week see how you got on

 

[Wotevaz]

rain has stopped play...well snow so not sure when am gonna get back to sort this issue now.

 

[snowhead]

If the cold feed from the tank is separate from the hot, it could be as simple as the valve on the tank cold feed is partly closed, maybe someone changed a washer and forgot to turn it fully open, or it's seized or sheared off.
First try Tinners instructions to sort out which valve does hot and which does cold.

Downstairs cold will be mains.

 

[Terry_the_piper]

Often the bottom of these tanks are full of debris. Roofers are quite liberal with old sand & cement. Or just accumulation over decades. The blast out method is a positive solution but throw an old towel over the sink first