Newbie help please no hot water in shower

[Jenny77]

Hi everyone

My other half in has decided to change the bath so has taken out the old bath and turned the water off with the shut off valves by the bath.
We have a down stairs shower in the room below the bathroom and when I went to wash the children last night the water run for a few mins then stopped. So my other half got some end caps and said that would do the job!
So I tried again this time the water run but was cold!
So I checked the water heating was on and waited 45 mins then tried the shower again and it was Luke warm. All the other taps in the house have hot water and my other half says its nothing he has done! It's just a coincident!
Has any one got any suggestions? Please
Thanks Jenny

 

[MattWeth]

I rarely believe in coincidences like this

Without seeing the layout and pipework of your house, it's tricky but an airlock might have been introduced when the bath was disconnected. Try connecting a hose (you might have to make something up out of pushfit etc) to the bath isolation valves, directed into a bucket and carefully open the valves a touch to purge any air out of the pipework. When it runs clear, close the valve.

 

[Jenny77]

Thank you I will go and have a try now, I also contacted the manufacturer of the shower as I read on the Internet it could be caused by a lime scale build up. I have emailed them a photo of the shower and they are emailing me instructions on how to take it apart to clean it as they said this should be done ever 6 months so I should hear back in the next 24 hours they were surprisingly helpful. But I don't beleive it's a coincident I think my other half has caused the problem. Finger crossed what you suggest works

 

[MattWeth]

Be careful to make sure you have a hose on the valves into a bucket and only crack them open a tad! - the water will probably come out with some force and pop and bang a bit.

Make sure you know where your stop tap is before trying this

 

[Jenny77]

I have just been up stairs and th checked and the bath pipes do feed the down stairs shower.
The pipe is hot up until a push on connector and then it is cold. there is an end cap to cap the pipe where the bath tap would have been attached and the shut off valve is on so I think you are right there is an air lock that's why one half of the pipe is hot and the other is cold.
So I think I would need to remove the end cap to release the air lock as it is after the shut off. So the problem I have is how do I remove the end cap and do I need to get another one to fit after the air lock is remove or can I use the old one?

 

[MattWeth]

I'd imagine that the end cap is a push fit stop end.

These are easy to release if pressure hasn't been allowed to build up behind them. If they have got pressure behind them it's much harder to release them - you need to find a way to release this pressure before they'll come off (you can brute force them off but you need to know what you're doing and the potential consequences).

What I'd say at this point is that if you aren't familiar with pipework and plumbing, at least to a DIY standard, it's probably a good idea to seek some help or at least wait till your other half is around so that there are two pairs of hands should things get a little interesting.

I'm not suggesting you aren't perfectly capable but I'd rather not make guesses and be responsible for you flooding your house if something goes wrong...

 

[Jenny77]

Thank you so much at least we have an idea of what it is. I have just spoke to my other half and he said the metal end caps were on there from the first bath and the plastic push fits are what he put on last nigh so we could turn the shut off valve back on to use the shower.
I did take the plastic push fit off and collected the fast running water in a bucket and then reconnected it but the pipe past this is still cold, the pipe up until the plastic push fit is hot. My other half told me to run the showers for an hour to shift the air lock.
This has still not worked.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Swap husband for plumber! problem solved !! :beatnik2:

 

[Jenny77]

Thank you everyone
I have a working shower yippy!
I left the shower running and this seems to have got rid of the airlock as the hot water is not flowing freely

 

[MattWeth]

Excellent!
No need to trade other half in for a plumber