hot water trickling

[keifster]

I am a plumbaphobe so forgive me for any potential stupid questions.

Woke up this morning to find that the hot water in the kitchen is reduced to a trickle (all other hot taps in the house are fine). The tap in the kitchen is a mono mixer.

I've had a look on here and it sounds like the problem could be caused by an airlock.

Can anyone explain in layman's terms what I need to do to clear the blockage.

The pipework beneath the sink have bleed valves. Is it a case of joining the hot and cold pipes up with some hose and then releasing the nuts on the hot and cold valves to force cold water in to the hot pipes to force the air out??

Have only been in the (new build) house for a month and to say that I am skint is an understatement!

Cheers.

 

[keifster]

Anyone?

I've read somewhere that I could try using the washing machine connectors and feed the cold water in to the hot supply from there. The washing machine water supply is a bit more accessible than the bleed valves under the sink but I would like a few pointers about what other steps I need to take.

Cheers

 

[Blasphemous]

keifster,

What makes you think its an air lock? It could be the tap valve but being a new build house they 'normally' come with a 10 year guarantee. Check out this link.

http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Homewarranties/Residentialhousing/

Plumbing isn't necessarly covered under the guarantee, you'd need to check your policy. If you have the guarantee I'd be getting the builder out and while you're at it, if there are any other things you think are a problem i.e. doors not closing properly, grouting on tiles not complete or falling out, paint flaking or incomplete etc then put together a 'Snagging List' and tell him you want it all sorting under the guarantee. Making sure you are covered first of all

If there's no guarantee it seems a little strange for a 'New Build' not to have one to be honest but in order to be able to help, we need more info i.e. What type of Boiler do you have? Is it a Combi (instant Hot Water) or Open Vented System? Do you have a Hot Water Storage Cylinder in an Airing Cupboard somewhere? (normally but not always, next to the bathroom). Did you do anything to the tap/system before the problem started? As I said, you need to provide more info mate.

 

[keifster]

Hi Blasphemous

We've been in the house for about a month now and we're still in the middle of getting our snag list "sorted".

It's an open vented system (feed tank?) in the loft and cylinder in the airing cupboard. We didn't do anything to the taps, boiler, cyliner, etc beforehand.

Dunno why I think it's an airlock, but I did try sticking my hand over the end of the kitchen mixer spout and opening up the hot water and slowly opening the cold water to force the cold water up the hot pipes. This has helped a little but it's still not much more than a trickle. Wasn't able to do this for long as my hand started aching and I was beginning to look like I'd come in from the rain