Plumbing

Low cold water flow/pressure and inactive power shower pump

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 2.51 PM

I fitted a new bathroom last October and installed a power shower pump at the same time. Everything was working fine until last week when the cold water flow from the tap on the hand basin suddenly started dropping until it's been little more than a trickle in the last few days. When I first turn the tap on the flow is more or less what it used to be but drops to a trickle within a few seconds. Then this morning, the shower stopped working (pump doesn't start up) so I only get a few drips from the shower head. They're both fed from the header tank in the loft (always have been) but I checked the tank and it was full. My first thought was that there must be a blockage in the pipe (I live in a hard water area and thought maybe a chunk of limescale had got into the pipe from the tank) but the sink and the shower pump are fed by different pipes from the tank so it's unlikely they'd both suddenly get blocked around the same time, isn't it? I haven't noticed a leak anywhere, but the fact that the flow is ok at the moment you switch the tap on and then drops away makes me think it must be a restriction in the pipe somewhere. I was going to start by disconnecting the feed to the shower pump to see if I'm getting a good flow down to it, but if anyone has any ideas of what it could be or what I should check it would be much appreciated! P.S. I checked the power supply to pump and that was ok. I suppose I could be unlucky and the shower and the sink could be unrelated and that there's an electrical fault with the pump. P.P.S When I got back from work today and tried the shower it worked fine. I then switched on the tap and it did its usual thing of flowing normally before dropping to a trickle. Ran it for about 10secs and turned it off. When I then tried the shower, it had stopped working again. I'm now wondering if it could be an air lock?