Blocked hot water supply pipe tp bath

[squeakyclean99]

Please help.

I have a blocked hot water supply pipe to the bath. It all started when running a bath, the hot water was reduced to a trickle from the hot tap. (Cold tap for bath and Hot /Cold on sink is running perfectly)
We have had a homeserve engineer out who has removed the hot tap body and turned the water on but no water is coming out of the pipe\tap.
He has found some small pieces of copper tank (outer) insulation foam in the tap when the body was removed. (Looks like when the tank was fitted the pieces of foam cut away to fit the immersion has dropped into the tank and have consequently been sucked into the hot water pipe)

Is there any way of flushing the pipe out without removing the pipe work?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[HERTS P&D]

Wet vac to suck out the debris.
Mains pressure to push it back wards and remove immersion to remove debris.
Cut out pipe work to 'find' debris.

Good Luck.

Andy

 

[Burnerman]

If the sink hot tap is fine then the blockage will be strictly local.....usually on a bend somewhere.
Trace the bath hot feed to where it joins the pipe supplying the sink, and see if its possible to cut and rejoin the pipe at a convenient place. If your luck is really in there might be a compression tee connector there which you can open.
Follow Andy's advice first, and be lucky!
John

 

[squeakyclean99]

Hi Andy and John,

Thanks very much for your advice. The homeserve chap was very helpful and tried to wet vac the pipe with the tap body removed but the blockage would not budge.

You mentioned ' mains pressure' which I presume means pushing mains pressure down the hot pipe following removal of the tap body.

Is there a method for doing this? I am just a little worried that if I force the blockage back if may imbed itself elsewhere?

It may mean finding the join to the main feed as you mentioned and attempt to cut the pipe out and renew?

Thanks.

Martin

 

[Burnerman]

I must say I wouldn't be too happy about blasting mains water down the pipe - after all, the debris must go somewhere.....
Look for a compression tee piece on the pipework leading to the basin hot tap - if there is one, the joint can be easily broken and remade without any fuss.
Often the blockage isn't too far from the faulty tap!
John

 

[squeakyclean99]

Thanks John,

I feel this is the safest bet. Really appreciate your advice.

Martin

 

[HERTS P&D]

If the basin is ok then the blockage can't be far away.

See where the basin pipe work joins the 22mm and the blockage will be from there to the bath tap.

Andy

 

[squeakyclean99]

Thanks Andy,

I have plans to strip bath panel off and trace pipe work - Appreciate your advice.

Kind Regards.

Martin

 

[squeakyclean99]

Hi all,

Stripped off the bath panel yesterday to inspect pipe. Unfortunately it looks like floor boards will need removing to trace pipe run as it is impossible to see where it goes to due to lack of space in this area and floor board covering.

However I have run a thin drain clearance spring through the tap (tap body removed) and nothing seems to be blocking the pipe, at least for the 1st metre of pipe from the tap downwards, so I suspect the blockage is further down the pipe. With this I carefully forced a small amount of water back down the pipe using a sink plunger which appeared to free the blockage momentarily and the water flow from the tap improved, only to revert back to the 'dribble' after another go at this.

Could anyone advise me on backflushing this pipe with water pressure to see if it will clear? (or any other mothod of freeing this blockage) I'm concious of causing any damage.
Advice appreciated.
Martin

 

[Agile]

You need to use a hosepipe with a firm connection to the mains supply and connect it firmly to the 22mm supply close to the problem tap.

Rather than risk forcing dirt into the cylinder I would then detach the pipe from the cylinder area and connect it to the outside and tie a stocking over it so that I could see what had come out!

Tony

 

[Burnerman]

Martin, I'm afraid that back flushing the pipe will only shift the debris, which will likely appear elsewhere.
This debris has managed to pass through the hot water storage cylinder.
Here's a corny idea to consider though.....its the hot bath tap thats faulty, so if you could force fresh water into the sink hot tap, then theoretically it should find its way to the bath tap (body removed, of course).
What do you think? If not, I'm afraid its time for pipe excavation
John

 

[HERTS P&D]

Try a wet vac on the pipe work under the bath and suck it out.

Andy

 

[Agile]

The blockage is apparently between the bath tap and where the sink tap is teed off.

If you block the supply at the cylinder then applying mains to the basin tap would apply more pressure to the blockage. But it might still not be enough pressure to move it.

Or you could apply mains at the bath but thats unlikely to make the blockage come out on the 15 mm tap pipe.

Tony

 

[squeakyclean99]

Thanks for the response Tony,

If i apply mains pressure at the blocked bath tap pipe is there a chance it may push the blockage back into the cylinder. My thinking is that if this might work I could remove the immersion heater and retrieve the part causing the blockage?

Thanks

Martin

 

[Agile]

I expect that it would do.

But I would also expect it would be very difficult to get the dirt out!