This is probably the wrong site to post this but here goes.

 

I have recently put a cold water tank in my loft and connected it to my 1st floor bathroom, I think I have done everything correctly, however there now seems to be an air lock in the system and the water only trickles out of the taps..... :wack:

 

I was just wondering if anyone knows anything about plumbing and how I can sort this out.

 

Cheers guys

need more info, what does the tank supply, how high is it above the taps that its supplying, make sure you aint kinked any pipes, if its suply a hot water cylinder there could be an airlock (could be airlocked if it's supplying cold aswell lol), you need to put mains pressure through the pipes, usually you put a hose on a mains supply tap and push it back through the tap with the airlock, you only need to back fill it a little as you may overfill the tank, you will hear the air gurgle out if you are close enough

check the pipework from tank down does flow down, if you get my meanin or hence air lock

easy air lock fix - if you have a kitchen sink tap which is a mono block ( one spout ) put your hand over the spout - turn on the hot - then turn on the cold - the mains cold water will back feed up the spout and push the air lock out of the expansion pipe from the hot water cylinder.

 

otherwise (slighly more complicated ) connect the hot and cold on your washing machine outlets. they will be 3/4" bsp threads which are garden hose fittings the result will be the same

 

Regards,

 

alex

easy air lock fix - if you have a kitchen sink tap which is a mono block ( one spout ) put your hand over the spout - turn on the hot - then turn on the cold - the mains cold water will back feed up the spout and push the air lock out of the expansion pipe from the hot water cylinder.

 

otherwise (slighly more complicated ) connect the hot and cold on your washing machine outlets. they will be 3/4" bsp threads which are garden hose fittings the result will be the same

 

Regards,

 

alex

 

but its a supply tank to his bathroom that is slow, so it wont feed his kitchen monoblock or the washing machine

 

but thats the idea

i'm asuming the poor flow is on the hot water side - you almost never get an air lock on cold water if thats the case - hmmmm ill think

 

regards,

 

alex

more info needed - what taps have the problem and where - if only bathroom basin tap did you buy a european type tap which was designed to work off high presure systems

 

regards,

 

alex

cheers guys,

 

the tank is only connected to the cold water... the supply to the tank is fine from the mains.

 

The tank is connected to three outlets the bath, sink and toilet all of which have hardly any pressure in them. the taps are mixers!!! there is about 2- 2.5m of flexi pipe which connects the tank to the basins in the loft and it runs along the loft bed at an downward angle..

would my problems have anything to do with the flexi's? I can't find any kinks in the pipes either

What size pipe have you used? A so called plumber once did mine in 15mm and it had this problem, I changed it to 22 and it was sorted :)

 

Vijay

as vijay said - what size is your pipework and how high above the basin is the cold water tank?

 

Regards,

 

alex

must be a big tank to run a bath wash basin and toilet, it may just be airlocked but i doubt it, flexi's do reduce the flow somewhat but not much, i wold try the blowing mains pressure back through a tap, if that doesnt work try changing pipe to 22mil

as all the guys above have said check pipe size, head of tank, also no blockage in your pipes. also been mixers they would have maybe 10mm stem pipes or flexes reducing the flow even more. at 2-2.5m you would only get a pressure of 0.25bar so it needs 22mm pipe and the most direct route possible

The pipework is all 22mm, but the connection to the mixers do seen to be 10- 15mm flexis, I'm going to have a proper look today and see how I get on. Thanks for all your help so far guys

some mixers are even 8mm also do you have isolation valves as the bore on these also reduce the pressure