low cold water pressure in bathroom please help....!!!

[whitecollarworker]

i'm on holiday this week so i thought i'd change the outside tap that looked tatty and was leaking. i turned off the boiler, turned off the mains and changed the offending article. brilliant it worked. when i turned the mains back on and then the boiler all appeared to be fine.
when my wife went to run a bath she shouted down that there is just a trickle coming out of the cold taps. how have i done this??

i need some advice as she is driving me mad, the only cold water taps that are now working correctly are the mains fed in the kitchen and outside. someone please tell me that is a coincidence as shes now blaming me and trying to ban me from any diy if this is what the outcome is going to be.

we have a gravity fed system with a cylinder closeby the bathroom, if anyone out there can help advise me i'd be very happy.

maybe i will stick to number crunching in future!!

 

[Al-Glasgow]

Your wife was right,

It might just be a simple airlock in your pipework.

You could connect a connect a hose from your hot tap to cold tap and turn on for a few seconds.

Al

 

[whitecollarworker]

thank you for replying so swiftly al-glasgow,i hope you dont mind me asking but is what you advised safe...?
having never done it before i feel very dubious about trying!!. is an air lock the only answer to this question, i mean can it be anything else?
thanks again..!!

 

[Softus]

Are the cold taps in the bathroom fed from the mains?

If so, then it's not likely that you have an airlock.

If not, then an airlock is possible, but would be unusual. Moreover, unless you (or someone) emptied the cold storage cistern, I don't see how air would have got into pipework anyway.

If the CSS did empty, then it's just as likely to be debris blocking the pipework as air.

Can you supply some more information? For example:

1. Which cold taps in the house are mains fed?
2. Which taps are not working?
3. For how long was the water main turned off?

 

[whitecollarworker]

softus, the only mains fed taps are the tap in the kitchen and outside tap which i replaced. there are only two other taps, the bath and the sink. i suppose i had the water off for 2 hours at most. i cant beleive replacing a outside tap has caused this much fuss!!!! please help if you can.

 

[Gasman1015]

Have you actually checked that the cold water tank contains water.
Ballcock could be stuck.

 

[Softus]

It's a process of elimination - fear not, we'll get there

So, you have two cold taps (bath and basin) fed from the cistern in the loft.
You also have three hot taps, also fed from the cistern via the cylinder.

(Correct me wherever I'm wrong, BTW).

The kitchen cold tap is fine, and the outside tap, and, I hazard, so is the washing machine?

All three hot taps are fine, but the bathroom cold taps are not - do they dribble, or do nothing whatsoever?

While we're having a think about this, I advise sticking your head over the cistern with a torch (NOT a mains powered lamp), and seeing if the water is clean and debris free. See if you can see the outlets from the cistern - there should be one for the cylinder and one for the cold taps. If you had a shower then there ought to be a third outlet, but you haven't mentioned a shower (yet!).

If the cistern looks clear, and perhaps even if it doesn't, then I'd definately try using the hot-cold connection trick. This is easy if you have a bath filler rather than two taps:

1. Put a sponge inside a carrier bag, place it under the bath filler, and press it firmly upwards with your palm.
2. Turn on the cold tap.
3. Turn on the hot tap.
4. Wait until the gurgling stops (if there is any).
5. Turn off the hot tap.
6. Leaving the cold tap open, abruptly remove the sponge.

If you get some flow, then repeat until you get better flow - this method will almost always sort out an air lock.

If you get no flow, then this implies a blockage.

If you don't have a bath filler, then you'll need some hose and two tap spout connectors (like you'd get from a garden centre) to connect the hot to the cold, in which add the following steps to the above:

5a. Turn off the cold tap.
5b. Remove the hose.
5c. Turn on the cold tap.

That's enough from me - please report back what you find, and we'll move on from there.

 

[Gasguru]

If your saying the cold taps in the bathroom are off the cold water cistern then have you checked there is water in the cistern.

If there is perhaps your wife managed to drain down the cistern during the 2 hours and the pipework is now airlocked.

If its airlocked the quickest way to clear it is by dragging a hose up to the tank and blasting mains pressure water down the cold outlet.

 

[whitecollarworker]

i have checked the cistern and the ballcock, both fine. the kids did try to have a bath whilst i was replacing the tap outside though.
softus all that you mention is correct and i have got a bath filler with a shower attachment. in the bathroom when i turn on the bath tap and sink tap they both dribble 1 litre in 25 seconds, i checked it with a measuring jug, but when both on together the bath will continue dribbling but the sink tap stops to a drip. i assume the tank is debri free as it is permanantly sealed lid and only has a small access lid. which fits very tightly.just tried with the sponge and carrier bag, the flow looked as though it was going to get better, then it started dribbling the same. id better run a bath an hour in advance in the morning to allow time for it to cool down!!!!! thank you all for you comments.

 

[Softus]

...in which case Gasguru's hose method has to be the way to go...

 

[ChrisR]

Connect washing machine taps together in kitchen with one of the hoses, to blast cold up the hot pipe. Try a 10-20 second burst. Open bath hw tap then basin tap and cold should fill the pipes. Close bathroom hw taps and washing machine taps.

Now the HW bathroom tap should work, and you can try cross-conecting with the bag and sponge to get the cold going - or go with gasguru.

 

[Softus]

Chris, all the hot taps are working.

I think perhaps you have my coat

 

[whitecollarworker]

thank you everyone that answered. i will try the sponge trick again and if that doesnt clear it i will take a hose to the loft connected to to mains!! i will not touch the hot at the moment as i cant see that as being logical as there is nothing wrong with it. thank you all for the advice, hopefully it will stop the wife from moaning for a second day!! this forum is great as she will think that i had a brainwave!!

 

[ChrisR]

Did I bring a coat? What colour's yours? Have you seen my keys?