No Water Unless I Run The Kitchen Tap

[boof]

Hi,

I have a bit of a strange problem.

I live in a flat with 3 plumbed rooms :

kitchen
bathroom
ensuite

Occasionally in the bathroom and ensuite we have no water. Taps do not produce water and the shower also does not work.

The only way to return the water to these outlets is by running the cold water tap in the kitchen and immediately 'flicking' it over to the hot water. This then returns the water supply to everywhere else. At this time the only tap in the entire property working is the cold tap in the kitchen.

We have found a good way to guarantee this problem is reproduced is to go into the bathroom and flush the toilet (this may also be the case for the en suites toilet although we haven't actually tried).

The toilet will flush but it is immediately apparent that the cistern isn't filling up. You can hear a slight trickle of water but not the 'rush' of water you'd expect. At this point if you try any taps (other than kitchen cold) you get no water.

As soon as you run the kitchen cold tap with a flick over to the hot water you can hear the rush of water filling up the toilet cistern and immediately we have water from the rest of the outlets.

You can avoid this problem by running any tap right before or whilst flushing the toilet. It immediately refills and everything seems normal.

When this problem is not occuring we have 'normal' service and no apparent issues.

You can also 'leave' the toilet to refull itself without forcing any taps manipulations - after 5-10 minutes you will hear the rush of water as the cistern quickly refills so eventually it does work. However in the meantime we have no water at any outlets other than kitchen cold (without applying the above fix).

Any ideas? This seems most odd.

 

[Winston]

Air lock, I take it all the cold in the house is tank fed?

 

[boof]

I honestly can't tell you the answer to that. We have a water tank but whether its for hot water, cold water or both I don't know.

I believe the kitchen cold tap comes straight off the mains (hence why it always works?) how the rest of the rooms are fed cold water I don't know.

I'll come clean and say we have had a plumber(s) round. They talked air lock on the phone but on site changed their mind and said it was our water pump. I'm very much looking for a second opionion / am on the cusp of getting someone else round to look.

I'm reasonably unhappy with this as their solution is to buy a new pump and they're not claiming that will definitely fix it. They seem mystified by the whole thing which isn't assuring.

They claim the pump can't give enough pressure to the other rooms and hence the problem. When we run the kitchen taps it increases the pressure and fixes...

However as above if I flush the toilet whilst having the tap next to it running we don't see an issue. So I'm presuming that would be much more demanding on the pump than just flushing the toilet?

Is there anyway to test for an airlock / how can I fix that?

And does the pump theory sound plausible. I believe I'm looking at ~300 for the part alone with no guarantee of a fix.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Winston]

So it sound like vyou do have tanks/cylinder Tank for your cold water is generally large and black these have a ball float valve fed from your main supply. Have a look is it full off water, check the valve operates push it down does water flow in nicely and when you let go does it stop.

Hot water cylinder are large spherical shape should be insulated either old sort with a red jacket or covered in the factory with insulation bluey green colour.

You also may have a small tank this is a feed and expansion tank for you central heating, and nothing to do with water flow to taps and outlets.

Now you mention a pump you may have a pump and if if is not getting enough flow to activate it. Dont get this confused with a central heating pump they are not pumps they circulate the water for your radiators.

One way of getting rid of a air lock is big thumbs If you have a mixer tap on your kitchen put your thumb over the spout tighty Then turn the cold supply on this should providing you have not got a non return valves push the air up to escape into you cold water tank.

Be patient you may have do it a couple of times, if it solves it great but if not it may be as a result of poor pipework, good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[boof]

So it sound like vyou do have tanks/cylinder Tank for your cold water is generally large and black these have a ball float valve fed from your main supply. Have a look is it full off water, check the valve operates push it down does water flow in nicely and when you let go does it stop.

Hot water cylinder are large spherical shape should be insulated either old sort with a red jacket or covered in the factory with insulation bluey green colour.

You also may have a small tank this is a feed and expansion tank for you central heating, and nothing to do with water flow to taps and outlets.

Now you mention a pump you may have a pump and if if is not getting enough flow to activate it. Dont get this confused with a central heating pump they are not pumps they circulate the water for your radiators.

One way of getting rid of a air lock is big thumbs If you have a mixer tap on your kitchen put your thumb over the spout tighty Then turn the cold supply on this should providing you have not got a non return valves push the air up to escape into you cold water tank.

Be patient you may have do it a couple of times, if it solves it great but if not it may be as a result of poor pipework, good luck and let us know how you get on.

I think my thumbs might only be average

Thanks - I'll give that a go!

yes we definitely have a cold water tank in that case. We must also have a hot water tank as our boiler pre heats water which is then stored..somewhere. I should really know more about this.

Sorry to clarify - do you think the pump could be at fault? Or is lack of pressure to / from the pump likely to be caused by an air lock (ie. thats the entire root cause).

I'll check the cold water tank and see how big my thumbs are after work.

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[Winston]

Boof what was the outcome let me know and sorry I havent been around been abit busy

 

[boof]

My thumb is too small, I couldn't keep the tap sealed enough - ended up very wet

I'm presuming you really need a full seal and a lot of pressure from the cold tap to make this work.

So no further forward I'm afraid!

 

[pauls]

try getting one of these push on shower adaptions you can get quite cheap they just push on to the bath taps. cut of the shower head and some of the hose seal 2 open ends connect up to mixer tap and jubilee clip on then run the water does the same as thumb over tap