3 loos - various cistern fill rates

[homertimpson]

Had no hot water last night.
Main water tank in loft was empty - never happened before.

Swapped the cold feed from w/machine onto hot feed and purged the air - hot water back on in minutes.

Got up this morning - hot water ok, but now 3 loos that filled in pretty quick time have now crawled to various speeds.

Downstairs loo - slow, but a couple of minutes to fill.
Main upstairs bathroom - slower still - but fills in under 5 minutes
Upstairs en-suite - slowest - trickles constant - about 10 minutes.

Isolated en-suite cistern from below and dismantled Ball Valve/float/washer etc to check for blockage.
Before putting it back on I gingerly gave a quarter turn to the water isolater valve expecting a rush of water - nothing but a trickle, even when fully opened up.

Yesterday I only purged the air from the hot water pipework - the gravity cold tank feed still has air somewhere else?

What should I do next?

Cheers

Homer

 

[Youllneverguess]

Borrow an aqua vac and suck on the cold tap of the bath.

 

[homertimpson]

Borrow an aqua vac and suck on the cold tap of the bath.

Thanks.

I'll ask the cleaners at work tomorrow - I'm sure I'll be able to borrow one overnight if I speak nicely

Cheers

Homer

 

[homertimpson]

Excuse my dense question

The current flow from the bath tap is pretty decent - how much water will need to be 'pulled' through before it gets to the airlock?

Homer

 

[Youllneverguess]

All depends. If the airlock is not affecting the bath this technique might not work. If your loos have service valves, the could try doing the Hoover thing from Thor instead.

 

[homertimpson]

No success yet in borrowing an aquavac, so thought I might as well drain the system down and try refilling again from scratch in the meantime.

Closed off supply to main tank in loft and opened all cold taps to drain system - upstair taps ran dry after tank emptied - but noticed downstairs loo was still running away merrily.

Further investigation showed that the downstairs loo and sink are both mains fed - I never even knew that unil now - thought it was only the kitchen sink

I'm about to switch the loft supply back on - since there is no downstairs feed, should I open the upstair taps more in any particular order?

Cheers

Homer

 

[Youllneverguess]

Nah, just open them and let them run a while.

 

[xr4x4]

If the main cold water tank emptied, it's prob dragged crud into the pipes.

Why did it empty?

 

[homertimpson]

Why did it empty?

When I took the lid off the tank the ballcock was 'suspended' in the air - it hadn't dropped down as the water level decreased so never actually did its job. Will replace it this weekend.

All taps were opened 1/4 turn initially and water flowed slowly as expected - with the exception of the ensuite - it was still a trickle.
At 1/2 open the bathroom sink and bath were similar in flow - again the ensuite was still a trickle.
At full on, the flow was as had been before - but the ensuite remained a trickle.
The tap didn't feel right - as if it was sticking/needing the washer replaced.
Oddly enough, as soon as I flushed the ensuite loo - the tap completely stopped.
If I held up the ballcock - the tap would resume its trickle - release it and the flow stopped.

I had a spare tap in the garage so brought it in and stripped it down to swap its innards.
This would have meant draining the system again - but hey - I know how to do that now!!

I pulled off the sink taps plastic head to access the release screw. It was very stiff and, as I applied pressure to it, the plastic housing itself was turning along with the tap thread.
This in turn then started turning the tap spindle and the water flow came through at its normal flow rate.

I can only assume my wife had turned the tap off/on way too hard last night when the initial trickle rate had appeared and had overscrewed it somehow?
As soon as the pressure returned to the sink, the loo cistern also returned to normal.

I now have pressure back to normal and a fully filled tank in the loft.

Homer

 

[Youllneverguess]

Women!

 

[homertimpson]

I just have to assume it was her - probably when I disappeared in the garage/up in the loft to deal with the no hot water scenario

That's my excuse and I'm sticking too it.

Thanks for all the suggestions/help - I'm a step further forward in my diy knowledge!!

Homer