Water flow problems.

[Ascot]

I’m hoping some experts can help.

I’m having some trouble with the plumbing in my bathroom. I have been renovating the house and the new B&Q bathroom suite only went in about 8 months ago. It’s a gravity fed system.

So here goes:

1. The toilet (back to wall, concealed cistern) – when it was plumbed in it took 2 minutes to refill. Now it takes something like 15-20 minutes to refill.

2. The basin (Mode Basin Mixer) – the cold water is still fine but that’s because its mains fed. The hot water flow was reasonable when it was plumbed in but has suddenly got substantially worse. This means there is not enough hot to mix with the strong flow of mains cold.

3. The bath (Mode Bath Shower Mixer) – the flow was pretty disappointing when it went in and has only got worse. It’s a big bath and impossible to fill now and its fast becoming impossible to use the shower.

4. Shower – plumbed for an electric shower but it hasn’t been connected up yet.

I’ve been reading other posts this morning and have only just learnt that there are taps suitable for high and low pressure. I know that the basin mixer has a min working pressure of 0.2 bar, so this should be ok? (Upstairs bathroom with the tank in the loft above). The bath shower mixer has a min working pressure of 0.5 bar. Is this too high to work properly?

Even if they are the wrong taps, does anyone know why they would begin working adequately but then just get worse?

Also, having the wrong taps wouldn’t explain why the toilet now takes so long to refill!

If anyone could help I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks

 

[Agile]

It sounds as if the inlet to the float valve in the toilet has got blocked.

Thats why new pipework should be properly flushed out.

Mixed taps need to have a balanced hot/cold to work properly.

It sounds as if your hot supply has also become blocked too.

Tony

 

[Ascot]

Hi Agile and thanks.

Should i just remove the tap and flush out the pies then? Presumably thats the point at which it would get blocked? (Same for the toilet.)

 

[Ascot]

Also, if i was to put a valve on to the mains fed cold in order to balance it with the hot, would it have any impact on the hot flow? or would i just be making both hot and cold very slow? (if that makes sense?!)

 

[Aquaheat]

Better off adding a pressure equalising valve to the pipework that serves all the mixer valves to the bathroom.

 

[Ascot]

It would only really be the mains cold water feed to the basin that i would want to control. ALL the other feeds just seem rubish son i wouldn't want to restrict them any further!

Do you reckon if i repaced the the Bath/shower mixer with one that worked at around 0.2 bar would there be any worth while improvement? The current tap has a minimum working pressure of 0.5 bar but the head is only about 2 metres.

 

[Aquaheat]

but is the MCW feeding the mixer to the shower too? If so then the MCW is going to be affecting the DHW performance.

You would benefit from fitting a low pressure mixer to there aswell but that will still only partially fix the fault as you still have unequal operating pressures.

 

[Ascot]

Sounds like theres no clear and simple fix here!

 

[Ascot]

Thanks for the replies jonjb and Agile.

Update:

I went home last night and started by just opening up the shower head. After a few shakes a load of black gritty stuff fell out, so the pressure is immediately improved. I turned my attention to the toilet cistern and dismantled the inlet mechanism. Again, a load of black gritty stuff came out and now it works as well as it did when it was installed.

This is when the penny dropped! As part of the house renovations i recently had my leaky roof replaced (tiles felt and all)............ and the tank was only partially covered! so all the crap that the roofers dropped into the roofspace and into the tank was getting washed through the system and trapped, therefore steming the flow to everything!

Tonight will be spent checking the bath taps and basin taps. Hopefully theres been no damage to the ceramic discs!

Is there anything else you think i should do? I will probably try to clean out the cold water tank.


Cheers.

 

[Agile]

You should put a proper cover on your tanks!

I have seen dead animals in loft tanks!

Tony

 

[Ascot]

I'll be doing that too.

I take it any of that grit that got into the hot water tank would just settle at the bottom and do no harm?