stopcock tap in series affecting water pressue

[Chris1980]

Hi,

I've created this account to ask this question - massive apologies if this is the wrong place, but any help would be very gratefully received!

I'm not a plumber, so excuse any incorrect terminology... I had a leaking internal stopcock (a brass tap from the main water pipe) which wouldn't turn off the water supply fully. It didn't actually leak water, but when fully off, some water still came out of the taps . The solution suggested was to fit a new one.

Rather than removing the old one, a new one was placed directly after the original - so there are two in series. The old one was then turned fully on, and the water supply subsequently controlled by the new one. This seemed like a bit of a hack, but kind of made sense to do.

However, I've just noticed that I no longer have any water coming out of my second story bathroom taps! At best there's a tiny trickle, enough to fill a thimble after a couple of minutes. All the others are fine. I thought perhaps the water pressure had been decreased by the second tap (even when it's full on) so water cannot get up to the second floor.

Is this likely? Can anyone think of anything else I should explore? Obviously I'll get the plumber back to have a look, but I'd like to have a little knowledge before I do so.

Many thanks, any help would be awesome!

 

[Simon F]

welcome to the forum Chris.
everything will have some effect on flow, like the stop tap,
but it would be so limited an an amount, you would/should not notice.
what is the pressure like downstairs, can you stop it by holding the tap?
if it is that weak you will be needing to upgrade the supply to the property

 

[albatross]

Old valve may not be fully open/broken inside. Or an airlock.

 

[feegs]

it could be that the tap has developed a problem maybe dirt in it after the mains water turned off and then back on .Feegs So check out the tap remember to turn off the water first .

 

[feegs]

Hi please check this out .The tap may have been affected by the ingress of debris when the valve was installed . Turn off the water and strip down the tap to see if blockage or fault .Feegs

 

[Chris1980]

Thanks very much all for replying. I thought it couldn't be an airlock as both the hot and cold water was blocked (thought cold water was unlikely to get airlocked?), but that's something I can have a check for before calling the plumber back out. Given that all the other taps and combi boiler work, I think the actual tap that was fitted is probably ok, but I'll take a look for any debris.

Really appreciate the reply, good to know it probably wasn't the manner of the initial fix.

Chris